Presenting Without the Fear

So your presenting this afternoon and your wishing you had taken the presentation skills course, your wishing you had paid attention to presentations in college, your wishing you had read books on presentations or at least asked someone for advice. You want to present a piece that is memorable, understood and meaningful.

In order for you to do this you need to remember that the key to presentations is to be prepared. Do not stress, maybe you didn't take that presentation skills training course your boss wanted to send you on. It is not to late all is not lost just remember the 8 simple steps to preparation in your presentation skills;

1. Develop an objective. Be realistic and specific, no need for rambling. Ask yourself by the end of this presentation what you want the target audience to know.
2. What are your audience needs? Ask your point of contact for your audiences numbers in order to develop a relationship and find out what they want to gain from the presentation
3. What are your main ideas? What are the main ideas you require the audience to know and what information will accomplish your objectives. You need to accomplish specific ideas, however no more than five as there is nothing worse then being bombarded with information.
4. How will you support your ideas? Bring your own personality into it to give them something to remember, throw in anecdotes or personal stories. Use statistics, memos, magazines, quotations and expert advice.
5. Create an opener. On presentation skills training courses you are always told the beginning is the most important step. An average listener will form a positive or negative opinion of you in the first minute so be creative, capture their attention, use questions to get them thinking straight away, state why you are up there as its obviously not for the good of your own health. Express yourself confidently.
6. Develop transactions. Organise your presentation to flow naturally from one point to the next so that it is easy going and not rigid, this can be difficult but can be developed through presentation skills training courses to make your audience feel at ease but focussed.
7. Structure your main body. This is a mix of 3 and 4. You want the audience to follow you and understand you so be clear and keep it in order.
8. Close. Provide a summary of your ideas; review the purpose of the presentation as the audience need to be reminded. The key to presenting your close is to restate your key points

By participating in a presentation skills training course you will be aware of how to be fully prepared for your presentation. You will be able to stand up confidently knowing that you will blow the audience away with your poise, assertiveness, composure and knowledge of your ideas.