How to Prepare and Deliver

Effective Technical Presentation

Learning Presentation Skills
 Outline
• Preamble
• Presentation planning
• Structure of presentation
• Creating slides
• Using visuals
• Practicing your presentation
• Delivering your presentation
• Conquering your fear
• Assessment
• Conclusion
Presentation Challenges
What is your biggest challenge?

Think and share

 What is your biggest challenge?
Fear of failure?
lacking confidence?
Fear to talk in front of the mass?
Experience?
Lack of knowledge about the topic?
Inadequate language?
what?
 Goal of Effective Communication
• What do you want to achieve?
• How do you achieve it?
• How do you promote retention?
 Goal of an Effective Communication
• What do you want to achieve?
• Educate and inform
• Inspire/interest and persuade
• Entertain
• Must grab and hold attention
 Goal of Effective Communication
• How do you achieve it?
• Changing the listeners’
Emotions
Actions
Attitudes
Leaving your listeners with words and touched by
meaning
 Goal of Effective Communication
•How do you change listeners?
• Three basic parts of persuasion by Aristotle
• Ethos
• Logos
• pathos
 Goal of Effective Technical Communication
•Three basic parts of persuasion by Aristotle
• Ethos – credibility or the speaker
• Possess a certain level of authority
• Knowledgeable about the topic
• Logos
• message conveyed in a clear, informative and logical
manner
 Goal of Effective Technical Communication
•Three basic parts of persuasion by Aristotle
• Pathos (emotions)
• Emotional connection with the listeners to capture and
hold attention
Goal of Effective Communication
How do you promote retention?

Reinforce with visualization

Reinforce with Visualization

• We absorb information
1% through taste
1.5 through touch
3.5% through smell
11% through hearing
83% through sight
• Audience retain more if they hear and see
Reinforce with Visualization

0 10 20 30 40 50 60
 Planning

Three main questions you should ask yourself

1. What is the purpose of your presentation?
2. Who are the audience and where?
3. What do I want the audience to do after listening to your
presentation?
• To buy my product, accept my findings, join the club, give me a
job, remember.
 Planning – Purpose
• concentrate on what's really important
• What is the exact problem?
• What is it you need to achieve by the end of your presentation?
• Set these down as objectives.
• At the end of this presentation, my audience will be able to….
• Organise (structure) your overall presentation
• Dramatise:
• Don't just tell it, show it. Find a vivid, memorable way to get your
point across. Use visual aids such as graphs, handouts, charts,
and/or media.
 Planning – Purpose
• Dramatise your main issue and viewpoint
• Don't just tell it, show it.
• Find a vivid, memorable way to get your point across.
• Use visual aids such as graphs, handouts, charts, and/or
media.
• Humanise your presentation
• thinking of ways that will engage your audience.
 Planning – Audience
• Audience influence format and content of presentation.
• Ask yourself:
• Who are they?
• What are their reasons for attending?
• How many are likely to be present?
• What sort of people – age, education, status?
• What do they already know about the subject?
• What are their likely attitudes/biases? answers to these
• Answers to these questions will affect both the style and the
content of your talk.
 Planning - Location
• Has implications content plan and organise yourself.
• Access to the venue might help to pay an early visit.
• The aspects you might want to check include:
• type and size of room
• seating arrangements – fixed or movable
• position of speaker (you)
• equipment available, e.g. whiteboard, projector, OHP, flip
chart, tape recorder
• acoustics (sound) facilities for special needs
 Structure of Presentation
•Opening: set the scene, outline your objectives
tell them what you are going to tell them
•Body: detail your objectives
Tell them
•Summary: highlight ideas
Tell them what you have told them
 Structure of Presentation
• Consider working in a 3-1-2 order when preparing
your presentation
• 3 – Conclusion: work backwards to ensure statements are
supported throughout the presentation.
• 1 – Introduction: prime audience for what’s to come and
mention the key areas to be developed
• 2 – Main Body: expand key points to justify concluding
statements
 Structure – Conclusion
• Equally important as the introduction
• Weak conclusion affects what the audience think overall
presentation
• Conclude with the main ideas you want people to remember
• Use only one "conclusions" slide, and make it the very last
one
• Do not introduce any new ideas
• Common pitfalls are running out of time, speeding up,
mumbling and fading off, or ending abruptly
 Structure - Opening
• Need a strong beginning
• Few seconds to convince audience
• You will not waste their time
• You are well organized
• You know who they are
• You know your subject
 Structure – Opening
• Grab their attention
• get them interested on what you are going to tell them
• Importance and relevance of the topic
• Introduce problem to be addressed
• State purpose, scope and main message
• Give outline of presentation
 Structure – Opening
• Opening - Grab their Attention!

Today’s workshop will help you significantly improve

your presentations!
 Structure – Main Body
• The middle part of your presentation that details your topic
• The topic should be well reached with a different sources
• logical flow from beginning to end
• Relate different pieces of information and show the context
of different facts
• Reinforce the core message, not the details
 Structure – Main Body
• Avoid jumping from one point to another – build bridges
• Avoid information overload
• Don’t add information not directly related to the main theme
• Use of visual images appropriately to the point you make
• Visual aids should enhance your spoken message
• Don’t use complicated visuals, they confuse
• Use show and tell technique
 Developing Slides
• Header – headline for main point
• Body
• One point, keep it simple
• Don’t overcrowd with bullets and details
• Make slides with words and images to reinforce and
illustrate spoken words
• Limit words – use KISS RULE
• Speech should complement the slides
 Developing Slides
• Choose legible type and font size – at least 28 points Arial
• Use colour of font that contrasts sharply with the
background
• Use animation with restraint – just to depict evolution of
complex system or related ideas one by one.
• Use one design style for the entire presentation
• Allot time for each slide
 Designing Visuals
• What are visuals?
• Graphs
• Charts
• Maps
• Photos
• Drawings
• Models
• Video
• Objects
 Designing Visuals
• What are visuals?
• Graphs
• Charts
• Maps
• Photos
• Drawings
• Models
• Video
• Objects
• Images
Why use visuals?
Guideline to Preparing Visual Aids
• Prepare visuals in advance.
• Make visuals simple.
• Prepare large enough visuals- big enough to be seen.
• Use fonts that are easy to read e.g. Arial, Antique Olive,
courier and Times new roman
• Use colour effectively.
 Rehearse your Presentation
• Increase your confidence
• Ensure you are familiar with your material
• Allows you to polish your presentation skills

It important to not only practice delivering your presentation,

but to practice using your visual aids.
 Rehearse your Presentation
• Rehearse to yourself at first – speak in front of a mirror
• Then to your friend or colleague
• Time your rehearse – complete in the allotted time
• Practice under mild stress
• Record your rehearsal and watch for improvemet

The rule of thumb is PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE!

 Delivering your Presentation
• Before your presentation:

• Visit the room where you will be presenting and try to

rehearse with the equipment.

• Examine the layout of the room

 Delivering your Presentation
• Watch body language
• Maintain eye contact
• Monitor tone, inflection, pace
• Speak in clear sentences
• Be clear, colorful, concrete, concise and correct
• Maintain comfortable stance – don’t block the audience’s
view
• Maintain appearance – wear appropriately
 Delivering your Presentation
• Do not simply read your slides without any of your own
words
• Use cue cards as memory aids
• Do not fumble with the equipment or furniture
• Always have a duplicate of your presentation
• Be enthusiastic but do not get too excited about what you
are saying
 Conquering your Fear
• Always remember you are not alone, even the most
practiced presenter will suffer from nervousness.
• Arrive and set up early
• Be well prepared – well structured presentation, rehearse
• Memorize opening
• Try some relaxation exercises – deep breath, smile, pause,
slow down
• Take same water
 Academic presentation assessment
• Understanding of the topic and the audience
• Appropriate breadth and depth
• An argument in the content
• A clear structure: a distinct beginning, middle and end
• Suitable visual aids
• Evidence of having practiced the talk
• Proper timing/length
 Summary
• Plan and prepare your presentation
• Structure and prepare slides
• Enhance your slides with visuals
• Rehearse rehearse rehearse
• Deliver your presentation