Professional Presentation

Professional presentation

Ð'© 2004 by David Crookall, UNSA

1. Introduction 1

Presentation 1

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice) 1

Introduction 2

Why is the introduction so important? 2

Structure of an introduction 3

Delivery & feedback 5

Timing 5

Feedback & recording 5

Variations 6

2. Full presentation 6

Act now 6

Presentation 6

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice) 6

Structure 7

Structure of a presentation 7

Delivery & feedback 9

Timing 9

Feedback & recording 9

Group responsibilities 9

1. Introduction

Presentation

Several rounds of presentations will take place in this workshop. In round one, you will focus exclusively on the introduction to a presentation. (The other rounds allow you to give a full presentation.) The facilitator will give you the subject area for your presentation.

For the moment, you can forget about the second and subsequent rounds; just focus on this first round. You do not need to think about the second round until later.

The facilitator may have asked you to work within the framework of a simulated organisation. Do not worry too much about being part of an organisation. The main thing that you should remember is that you will prepare and deliver the introduction to a conference presentation. Each person in your group must prepare an introduction. It does not matter at all if all members of your group prepare similar introductions вЂ" indeed this is recommended. You should help each other in your work вЂ" and you will also get help from the facilitator.

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice)

Careful preparation is vital. You have a limited amount of time to prepare, so you have to work in an efficient way. The following plan of work may help you to prepare and practice.

1. Find your precise topic. Within the subject area outlined by the facilitator, find a precise topic. It should not be too broad or too narrow. You should be interested in your topic. Choose a topic that you like, for example: The Beatles in two cultures.

2. Find the main ideas. Find two main ideas in your topic about which you would like to speak. For example: (1) The early Beatles (in the UK). (2) The late Beatles (in the USA). Remember that for this exercise you only need the headings of main ideas because you are doing the introduction only. In other words, you will only mention the main ideas as part of your introduction; you will not give any detail.

3. Work on your introduction. Notes on the content and structure of the introduction are given below.

4. Practice your introduction. Practice with the facilitators and with your group colleagues. Listen carefully to their feedback and try to implement the suggestion that you like when you do it the next time.

5. Finish by the time limit. It is important to finish will within the time limit given to you. First, you will be ready. Second, you will avoid feeling flustered if you are cut short in your preparation.

Introduction

What is an introduction? It is actually simpler than it might appear. A presentation usually consist of four parts, as follows:

1. Introduction. This is a kind of warm-up to the main part of the presentation. In the introduction, you do not talk about any details of your topic. In the introduction, you simply introduce. That is, you introduce yourself, you introduce the topic, you invite the audience to introduce itself to you. You introduce your interest in the topic. You establish your relationship with the audience. You open the channels of communication. Below you will find suggestions on how to structure your introduction. So, remember, in this round, you are preparing and delivering only this part of the presentation, not the remaining parts. This is why you do not need to have any details about your topic, just two main headings.

2. Body. This is the main part of the presentation. It is here that you go into detail about your topic.

3. Conclusion. This is the end of the your presentation. Here you basically summarise what you said and thank the audience.

4. Questions & Answers (Q&A). This allows the audience to ask you questions.

To recap, you will only prepare the introduction, not the body or the conclusion.

Why is the introduction so important?

Many reasons make the introduction a key element in a presentation. It is vital to remember the reasons for doing the introduction. These reasons determine what you will do in the introduction. Some of the reasons are:

• You. It allows you to get into the swing of things before starting on the main content. That is, it allows you to relax at a time when you are probably the most nervous.

• It allows your vocal chords to warm up.

• Topic. It allows you to give the title of your talk and to outline the structure of the body of your presentation. That is, it allows you to give a map of your journey to the audience.

• It allows you to tell the audience why you are interested in the topic (before getting into the substance).

• Audience.. It allows your audience settle down, to warm up and to begin to focus on the topic.

• It allows you to capture the interest of the audience.

• It helps the audience to adjust to your way of speaking. This is particularly important in an international