ELUNA 2008
Presentation Skills
Some basic skills will enable you to present your topic so that
your audience will gain the most from it.
Presentation Tips
Your presentation won't be effective unless people can hear you and see you.
Follow these simple practices to give the best presentation:
- Practice your presentation at home -- this will give you a good idea about
timing, pacing and will make you more confident when you are speaking in front
of a live audience
- Speak loudly -- the attendees are there to hear you
- Be confident -- you are giving valuable information to at least some of
those attending
- Use a microphone at all times when speaking
- Face the audience at all times when speaking -- the microphone won't pick
up your voice well if your head is turned
- Draft your moderator or co-presenter to help with advancing slides or
typing, if needed
- Don't read your slides -- add explanations to the material there
- Use a laser pointer (bring your own if you want to use one) to point to
specific areas of the screen as you talk about them
- Use your time effectively -- don't end way early or let yourself run out
of time before you finish your presentation
- Leave time for Questions and Answers or discussion at the end
Q&A
Attendees almost always have questions or comments during presentations. Make
sure you leave enough time to give them a chance to ask them. Decide ahead of
time whether you want to accept questions throughout the presentation (which can
totally disrupt your timing, but may be best for some presentations), at certain
points during the presentation (such as after each individual speaker), or only
at the end of the entire presentation. If each speaker takes questions
separately, be sure to negotiate ahead of time how much time each speaker will
have, so all speakers will be able to make their full presentations.
- Either the presenter or the moderator can handle the Q&A session;
discuss this before the session begins
- Ask anyone with a question to come to the microphones provided; people may
line up to use these
- Repeat the question before answering if there is a reasonable chance that
some people in the audience did not hear it
- Diplomatically ensure that one person does not "hog" the
microphone
- Watch the time, and say something like "we have time for one more
question"
Presentation Tips created by Alan Manifold; revised by Keith Engwall.
Revised December 10, 2007 by Wil Frost.
