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Getting to ‘WOW’: Nine steps to improve your public speaking and presenting and get your research into use
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Presented by Ewen Le Borgne at the Third ACGG Program Management Team Meeting, Abuja, Nigeria, 28-30 November 2016
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Getting to ‘WOW’: Nine steps to improve your public speaking and presenting and get your research into use
- Getting to ‘WOW’ Nine steps to improve your public speaking and presenting and get your research into use Ewen Le Borgne Third ACGG Program Management Team Meeting, Abuja, Nigeria, 28-30 November 2016
- Overview (this can be a bad idea) (and these are the only bullet points you will see in this presentation…) 1. Consider! 2. Think! 3. Feel! 4. Explore! 5. Integrate! 6. Rehearse! 7. Impress! 8. Reflect! 9. And act!
- 1. Consider! …the risks of poor presenting…
- Confusion
- Misunderstanding
- Disinterest
- Ruinyears of research
- Ruinyears of research With minutes of presenting
- And missing the boat… …of putting research to use
- 2. Think! About the point you’re making
- Who’s your audience?
- What (end)point are you trying to make?
- Which facts should you absolutely show?
- What’s unique about your research?
- What is your story line?
- Here are 8 ways to build stories
- What should your audience do with it?
- 3. Feel! Tap into emotions for maximum impact
- Show your passion =energy
- Put your emotions into it
- Where is it in your work?
- …Or instil compassion
- 4. Explore! Alternatives to Powerpoint and alternative ways of using Powerpoint…
- 4. Explore! Alternatives to Powerpoint and alternative ways of using Powerpoint…
- (on Powerpoint)
- (on Powerpoint)
- Do a Prezi (mind motion sickness!)
- Project a napkin presentation
- Hold an interview
- Or host a talkshow
- The point is to surprise your audience!!!
- 5. Integrate! Design your amazing (Powerpoint) presentation And prepare your public speaking act!
- Go dig relevant pictures (many!!!)
- Each slide: 7 words max
- BAN bullet points
- Data / Diagrams: Include only what you present
- And make it simple enough
- Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla blaBla bla bla
- Bla bla bla Bla bla bla Bla bla blaBla bla bla Introduce diagrams node by node edge by edge
- Bla bla bla Bla bla bla And use animation to move on Bla bla blaBla bla bla Introduce diagrams node by node edge by edge
- No more complicated (ILLEGIBLE) graph
- Maths: 4-7 symbols in any one slide maximum
- Maths: 4-7 symbols in any one slide maximum
- Aim at 10-15 minutes… no more
- 6. Rehearse! Prepare for your next public speaking moment
- Rehearse! Rehearse!! Rehearse!!!
- Rehearse! Rehearse!! Rehearse!!!
- Rehearse! Rehearse!! Rehearse!!!
- Do dry runs With peers
- Public speaking tips (1) Know the audience
- Public speaking tips (1) Know the audience (2) Feel the room
- Public speaking tips (1) Know the audience (2) Feel the room (3) Make eye contact with people who smile at you ;)
- 7. Impress! In the moment of truth
- Talk with energy!Interact with your audience
- Bring your audience on a journey
- Anticipate Questions
- Keep details in separate, dedicated handouts
- 8. Reflect back! (after your next presentation has happened)
- How did your audience react?
- What went well? What went so-so?
- What went well? What went so-so? Why?
- Did you talk too much on slide xyz?
- Did you talk too much on slide xyz? Cut/adapt slides?Or too little?
- Cut/adapt slides?
- Where is your edge? Your next frontier?
- And how can you help others? Who can help you?
- 9. And now act! Time for action! And final reflections…
- Learning to do it this way takes time
- But it’s worth the effort
- No more!!!
- Instead…
- Instead… Seeing your research put to (good) use!
- Do fewer… …but better presentations
- Do fewer… …but better presentations
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Remember… 1. Consider (death by Powerpoint) 2. Think (about your audience and end point) 3. Feel (to strengthen your point) 4. Explore (alternatives) 5. Integrate (design like a chef) 6. Rehearse (and again and again and again) 7. Impress (with energy and conviction) 8. Reflect (where is your next frontier) 9. And act…
- Time to Dive in!
- References and further reading To dig further tips out…
- References… • First off, read this presentation’s handouts • A post about 10 alternatives to Powerpoint • How to make a napkin presentation (the book) • Good presentation design tips • You suck at Powerpoint! • 25 inspiring presentations (for marketers) • Storytelling tips • 8 typical story structures
- References on academic presentations… • 10 tips for academic talks • How to win at academic presentations • 20 tips for top academic presentations • What is a good academic presentation (video) • Giving an academic talk • 10 tips for presenting a conference paper • Tips for successful academic paper presentations
- Now it’s Your turn ;)
- Image credits 1. Wow! - Wow really (credit unclear) 1. Wow (Tommaso Lizzul / FlickR) 2. No image 3. Death by Powerpoint (Marketoonist) 4. Disinterest (WWWorks / FlickR) 5. Death by Powerpoint (HikingArtist) 6. Missing the boat (OGA design / FlickR) 7. Think (Sklathill / FlickR) 8. Anonymous (Jacob Davis / FlickR) 9. Endpoint (Pedro Ferrer / FlickR) 10. Stories (Catherine Cronin / FlickR) 11. 8 storylines (Sparkol) 12. The facts (Dartmouth) 13. Unique selling point (Netdna / FlickR) 14. Dance (Family MWR / FlickR) 15. Feel (TodoJuanjo / FlickR) 16. Presenting with energy (Nooccar / Flickr) 17. Emotions (credit unclear) 18. Teach controversy (ex_leper-deviantart) 19. Compassion (Paul Lew / FlickR) 20. Lego interview (LondonMatt / FlickR) 21. No image (logos) 22. Pecha Kucha 23. Ignite 24. Napkin presentation (B.Muramatsu / FlickR) 25. Hold an interview (Anders Zakrisson / FlickR) 26. Talkshow (FusionDotNet) 27. Integrate (credit unclear) 28. Collage (GeekNerd99 / FlickR) 29. No bullet (credit unclear) 30. Crazy diagram (Peter Kelly Studios / FlickR) 31. No image 32. IT modernization map (credit unclear) 33. KISS (BjornMeansBear / FlickR) 34. Mathematics (Robert Scarth / FlickR) 35. Attention span (SpeakingAboutPresenting) 36. Rehearse (Michael Sullivan / FlickR) 37. Rehearse (Penn State Live / FlickR) 1. Neil rehearsing (VeryVeryQuiet / FlickR) 2. Mirror (ProfessionallySpeaking) 38. Dry run (SDWorxHackathon) 39. Conquer your fears (TribeSports.com) 40. Impress (Lance H. Bates / FlickR) 41. Energy (ToddYesonstage) 1. Interact (AllPublicSpeakers) 42. Journey (IchingOnline) 43. Questions (IMF photos / FlickR) 44. Handouts (Jose Camoes Silva / FlickR) 45. Reflect back (Wide open code / FlickR) 46. Audience reaction (TedxStuttgart / FlickR) 47. Smileys (Bastian / FlickR) 48. Talkative (WanderinWeeta / FlickR) 1. Silent (ArtiomGorgan / FlickR) 2. Edit (Matt Hampel / FlickR) 49. Journey with compass (douglas-pulsipher) 50. Get help (credit unclear) 1. Give help (Hinh) 51. Just do it (CenterForChange) 52. Time (credit unclear) 1. Victory (Sgatto / FlickR) 53. Death by Powerpoint (credit unclear) 54. Happy farmer (IITA) 55. Less is more (Tim Rizzo) 56. Dive in (credit unclear) 57. References (Warwick Carter / FlickR) 58. No image 59. No image 60. Thank you (Libraries rock / FlickR)
- This presentation is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. better lives through livestock ilri.org ILRI thanks all donors and organizations which globally support its work through their contributions to the CGIAR system
Editor's Notes
- First of all, this presentation is longer than it would be if I were presenting at a conference. This is training material, whence its length. Second, I want to emphasize here is that ‘content is king’. It’s the meat in your sandwich. But just like a delicious piece of meat stuck in a wet sandwich remains totally unattractive, a presentation that has good content but is poorly designed and/or presented is also not going to be a hit. But remember that on the other hand a greatly designed presentation delivered superbly about insipid content is going nowhere either. Content drives presentations. Now that that is settled, let’s look at ‘Getting to wow (with public speaking)’… These are 9 actions that can help you get to another standard with public speaking, and incidentally make sure your audience can absorb the contents of your presentation and as a result use the science you are bringing in your presentation.
- An overview can help, but not if it takes a minute or more to go through. Get on with your contents. This slide is a bad idea because it uses bullets and as you will read, bullet points are killing your content and the capacity of your audience to absorb it. What is a good idea on this slide, however, and perhaps not for Powerpoint presentations as much as for other notes, is the fact that I swapped colors. People recognize and remember text much more when you alternate (2 or 3) colours in the text. Another good idea here is to use the numbering – as it will help your audience remember where they are in your entire presentation, so it helps them manage their expectations about the time it will likely take for you to finish your presentation. Peoples’ time is (increasingly) precious. You may even use a different visual for each section of your presentation, and place it discreetly on each slide of that section?
- Your first action is to just imagine what could be the devastating consequences of not doing your public speaking moment a memorable one. There are many risks of presenting poorly. One of the most famous risks is ‘Death by Powerpoint’. This happens at events where constant streams of (bad) Powerpoint presentations are following each other, leaving very little time for your audience to interact with you and to stay alive. The point of your presentation is to stimulate the learning, curiosity, attention, intentions of your audience. You are there to electrify them, make them think and feel and want to act upon it. If your presentation is designed and delivered poorly it is likely to bore them and only encourages them to forget it as quickly as they can. And indeed it takes both good design and good delivery to reach positive outcomes. This presentation will hopefully help you get better at both.
- Misunderstanding is the first possible consequence of a bad presentation. You may not present information in a way that helps people really understand what you’re saying. They may pick up some points in unintended ways. They may draw the wrong conclusions. They may not get the point that you were trying to make. It’s no mortal flaw, but it doesn’t set you up for success. Second, you might risk confusing your audience with your content. If you haven’t prepared it well they may not only misunderstand you but it might actually leave them worse off (in terms of their understanding of the topics you’re addressing) than before your presentation. This might really upset them. Most people don’t like to remain with more questions than answers. So try and avoid this really bad outcome. Worse still, another risk of a badly designed or delivered presentation is that you don’t interest your audience. Nothing calls for their attention, nothing surprises them, nothing makes them dream or takes them away from their day-to-day reality. So why should they bother, really? That’s the worst case scenario – as with love, in public speaking indifference is worse than hate. Checking out is the worst outcome you can get.
- The real problem with a bad (science) presentation is that it can really destroy years of your research. You might have meticulously accumulated data over the past few years, done tedious months of data crunching and analysis and if your presentation ends up causing misunderstanding, confusion or apathy, then you’ve ruined all your past years’ efforts.
- So it might be a good idea to plan carefully for your presentation to do justice to all your hard work – and to see it off to other peoples’ hands. Don’t miss the boat! Because essentially that’s what’s happening if you don’t pay attention to planning your presentation more carefully.
- So your second action is to think about the point you’re trying to make. What is the logic you want your audience to get.
- The first thing to think about is your audience: You don’t present to a bunch of scientists the way you present to policy-makers, farmers, NGO activists or the broader public. Think about: The language you should use (and the degree of comfort with jargon etc.) with that audience? The tone that works with that audience? The kind of images and visuals that work with them? Dense graphs fare ok with academic audiences. The level of details that your audience will be interested in? Anal details about your research methods are only interesting for acquainted academic audiences – NO. ONE. ELSE. The patience of your audience? Academics probably can withstand 40’ of presentation, policy-makers’ attention will branch off A LOT earlier. Etc.
- What end point are you trying to make? Many presenters spend the bulk of their speaking time getting through their presentation taking their time to beat around the bush, only to find themselves in a rush in the final minute(s) when actually, it’s time to get to your key take-homes for the audience. So don’t wait until this happens, prepare what kind of final take-home message you want to leave them with. It could even be some questions. And pave the way for that moment throughout your presentation. The clearer your end point is (in mind), the easier it will be for you to make a convincing point and the more likely people will be able to understand your presentation and do something with it.
- Facts – especially for scientific presentations – are important. But perhaps not ALL the facts. So think carefully about the facts that stand out from your research/work. Which ones are so important and different that you need to introduce them? Which ones can you present ONLY if you have time for it, and which ones should you keep for the presentation handouts or support materials (e.g. your working paper, flyer etc.)?
- There must be a ‘unique selling point’ to your (research) work that should be introduced. That’s the highest value in your entire presentation and it should be highlighted well enough. Be very clear about this – or ask peers to point out to you what is really radically different in your work.
- Your presentation should not be about just facts, juxtaposed one after another. You need to have a story that really explains complex stuff in simple ways. The human brain is hard wired to understand and process stories. So think about the story you really want to use. And here’s more information about the seven basic story plots: http://www.sparkol.com/engage/the-7-universal-story-plots-that-still-entrance-audiences/
- These are 8 possible storytelling ways to make your story interesting plots. Monomyth (newfound wisdom) The mountain (drama with various ups and downs) Nested loops (different stories/perspectives intertwined) Sparklines (contrast between the ideal and the reality) In media res (when you start your story not at the beginning but in the middle of action) Converging ideas (bringing different strands of thinking together) False start (start with a predictable story line and break it spectacularly) Petal structure (telling stories one by one always coming back to the centre) Read more about all of these techniques here: http://www.sparkol.com/engage/8-classic-storytelling-techniques-for-engaging-presentations/
- In advocacy work, it’s very typical to think about: ‘what is your ask’? What do you ask your target audience to do with your work? Arguably, with any piece of information or presentation you should also consider what you want your listeners to do differently as a result from listening to you? What different behavior should they have? Should they think differently? Should they talk differently? Should they do something specific? Be clear about this and that will and should drive your presentation – and be part of your key take home messages at the end of your presentation. If you don’t want them to do anything with your presentation, then don’t bother presenting it ;)
- Having impressive facts is useful. Taking people on an emotional journey is awesome and it’s what makes the difference between a good presentation and a memorable inspirational moment.
- One of the keys to make your presentation interesting through feelings is to add your own enthusiasm, and energy while presenting, because it will transpire over to your audience. On the other hand there’s nothing more boring than a presenter that seems bored with their own presentation. Choose to transmit your energy. Work to make sure that what you present involves something that excites you, enthuses you and can also ignite others.
- In line with the previous slide, the more you use facial expressions to convey different feelings, the more (comic) relief you provide to your audience and the more interesting you make yourself for them. So if something surprises you, saddens you, excites you, makes you shrug your shoulders, annoys you, touches you, show it to your audience!
- To make your work – particularly your research – more interesting and especially for audiences that may not be intimate with the topic of your presentation, try and find controversial points that are worth introducing. Maybe there is genuinely no controversy. But if there is, it would be a pity not to introduce it. Show the different sides of the argument and where you stand then.
- One alternative, if you don’t have any controversy, is to make people feel with you about your topic. Instil compassion among them for your pet topic. It may not be the best option always but in some cases it can really make your presentation more memorable. One of the best presentations I ever saw in agricultural science was about conservation agriculture and however dry it may seem it was riveting because the presenter was passionate about it and made us all feel for his topic and for his crusade to recognize the importance of conservation agriculture.
- The first thing to consider is that you don’t HAVE TO prepare a Powerpoint presentation. There are various alternatives for it. And even if you go for a Powerpoint presentation, you don’t have to do a typical one, you can follow more innovative formats.
- One of the first alternative Powerpoint formats is PechaKucha. It’s still done on Powerpoint but it follows the strict rule of having all presenters prepare 20 slides and spend no longer than 20’ on each slide. PechaKucha presenters usually time themselves and rehearse so they can do the job. Pecha Kucha slides are typically containing 1 picture and very few words. In some ways, this very presentation is a kind of Pecha Kucha slide, except that it’s not limited to 20 slides. There is an entire Pecha Kucha community and some events that are run entirely using this format. So why not give it a try?
- Another alternative Powerpoint format is ‘Ignite’. It’s again 20 slides long, and the presenters are not supposed to spend over 15 seconds on each slide. Ignite presentations never exceed 5’. Again here there is an entire global community of users and ‘Ignite events’. And by now the lines between Ignite and Pecha Kucha are perhaps not as clear as they once were.
- If you have a bit of time ahead of you to learn about another presenting tool, you can do a Prezi. Prezi has all the elements of a presentation on the same ‘canvas’ or frame and the presentation basically physically moves from side of the canvas to the next to discover the ideas. And you can zoom in and out which creates some element of surprise. However, it takes a bit of time to figure out how it works and a little more so to do prezis that don’t induce motion sickness as you zoom in and out. But the result can be stunning. See some examples of good Prezis, in fact the 6 (elected) best Prezis of 2015.
- An entire series of books has been written on the topic of presenting on the back of napkins. And that is to say that little graphs in informal settings can be as enlightening for selling ideas and solving problems as any other presentation format. There must be a variety of other formats out there that might be as quirky as napkin presentations. In any case this will be a guaranteed surprise to your audience and just that might be worth it.
- Not a high tech solution, but actually having an interview of the presenter – whether live, audio- or video-recorded) – can be a very powerful alternative to Powerpoint presentations and say just as much. The human conversation that happens in an interview usually attracts the attention of the audience in ways that Powerpoint presentations no longer do. So prepare your questions and get someone to interview you?
- An alternative to an interview – and to a panel discussion – is to host a talk show. Basically a talk show is like a panel except it’s much more informal: bring music at the start and end, have people sitting in a more relaxed environment (e.g. a sofa), get some (non-alcoholic) drinks out, have an MC that has a very informal manner and ask some no-nonsense questions. The audience will be thrilled to see that this is not the politically correct (and let’s face it: mostly deeply boring) panel discussion they’re used to.
- Now that you have several ideas and tips for designing your show, time to put it all into motion and action. And I’m focusing on Powerpoint presentations here as I know you will are more likely to prepare some of these again in the future.
- Whatever the format of your presentation, you will likely need (many) pictures so go dig them out. There are several options for finding good pictures. First off, your organization may have its own repository of pictures to draw from, but otherwise you can also find a lot of really good quality pictures on www.flickr.com. If you click on ‘advanced search’ and look for a type of licenses that is ‘all creative commons’.
- Commit to keeping your slides clear and writing no more than 7 words per slide. Keep it simple stupid. The net result will be that people actually listen to you rather than read everything there is to read on your slide and then don’t pay attention to you any longer. And you were always the presenter, not your presentation ;)
- Another commandment of integrating good design is to ban bullet points. Admitting them means you are keeping the door open to a lot more than 7 words. So simply ban bullet points. That eliminates the temptation to add any animation or the risk that people are reading your slide and not listening to you.
- For data and diagrams, which are quite natural in an academic presentation, don’t bother including all kinds of graphs etc. unless you will actually get the audience through each and everyone of them. In other words, just show what you will present. – you may, if you really feel like showing some of your hardcore science, display one slide with a complicated graph or else just to show that there’s science behind (but don’t spend time going through it then), and rather include whatever’s in it in the handouts. The point is to present important data and diagrams not in ways that are convenient for you to prepare your presentation, but in ways that are convenient for your audience to understand and absorb them. So pay the effort of making this simple enough.
- How to make that simple? Introduce the diagrams one by one, node by node. And animations can help you unpack a rather difficult diagram in ways that help your audience get the point… Again more work for you, but less work for your audience to remember what you talked about.
- If you follow the above advice, you won’t ever be presenting super heavy, super complicated graphs that no one can decipher from far or even up close. Useless. Noise. Ban it!
- If you’re introducing mathematical (or other) formulas, keep it to 4-7 symbols or you risk losing your public, unless they are all specialists in the same field as you…
- Some psychological studies state that the attention of your audience typically reduces dramatically after 10-15 minutes. If your audience is made up of academics, who are used to longer presentation and operate in the realm of deep concentration, you could push it to 15 minutes or a bit more, but you won’t go much further than that. In any case, it’s better to be prepared for several lapses of attention from your audience, and if you aim at presenting for 10-12 minutes you’re probably ok. Especially if you are presenting after a whole series of other presenters.
- That’s the key to good public speaking, as much as practice is the way to perfection.
- Commit to rehearsing, not just once, or twice but several times. Rehearse your content, your tone, your presence, get ready for your show. Rehearse in front of a mirror. Own your presentation’s content.
- One way to get good feedback on how to improve your presentation is to have a ‘dry run’ with colleagues to see what they think of it, content and delivery-wise, so they give you critical feedback on what you do well and what you can improve in both the content and design of your presentation and in how you are delivering it.
- Some of the critical problems with public speaking lie in the fears of the presenters: fear of presenting in front of a large audience, of performing, of talking to unknown people etc. It is one of the most universal fears of people. But there are simple tricks to deal with this fear, in addition to rehearsing and practicing your public speaking to get better at it: 1) know the audience (find out who’s there, who you know etc.) – the more you see familiar faces in the audience, the more likely you’ll feel at ease with it. 2) Feel the room by getting to the venue where you will be performing, so you start ‘owning’ it and feel familiar with it. That also helps with public speaking. Or rather, on the other hand, if you don’t know the venue and are nervous to start with, this could add to your stress. Finally 3) Use the audience to your advantage. Make eye contact with as many people as you can, and in any case with the people you know or the people that smile at you. They will give you the comfort and energy you need to feel good about public speaking. Finally, remember: people don’t want you to fail. They have good intentions. They are in to hear stuff that could be relevant and interesting to them. So don’t worry if you make mistakes, it’s only human.
- Now the time for the show! How you should think of ‘delivering’ your presentation, ie. the act of public speaking…
- The first advice I want to give you is to speak with energy. The more energized you are the more your audience will be. Adversely, the less energetic you are when speaking in public, the more your audience is likely to fall into sleep. So muster all the energy and enthusiasm you have and share your passion to ignite the crowd. Another useful tip – especially if you have a longer presentation, but even if you don’t – is to interact with your audience: joke with them, ask them questions, pause and get them to buzz with each other, react to what you see in your audience, talk to one person in the audience (not repeatedly the same though), make them do things. Anytime you physically engage with them you are making it easier for them to feel your presentation and want to follow through with it.
- Any public speaking act is a kind of journey. That’s why having a solid story line is particularly useful to get them on that journey. Make them dream, imagine, get curious, wonder about things, reflect, feel, get excited, get them to act. The journey is as much worth as the destination, and for sure you won’t reach that destination if you don’t have a journey leading there.
- ‘Long preparation, short war’ goes the saying. Spend some time thinking about what questions might emerge about the content you’re presenting. Anticipate these questions to be more to the point. You will never be able to prepare for any and all questions but the more prepared the better for you, your self-confidence, and for your audience as you provide them with (likely) more satisfactory answers.
- One useful lesson from seasoned presenters is to prepare handouts that go along with your presentation. Not the presenter notes that you put in Powerpoint (they’re usually not understandable by anyone but the presenter) but notes genuinely meant to give more information, more background, more links, more useful reading for your audience. Humbly, I hope these handout notes you are reading are a good illustration of what I mean here.
- After the show is over, look back at what happened and draw the lessons that matter – to improve, always improve. Public speaking, and life, is about failing fast and often in order to ever get better and more in balance…
- Think for yourself how your audience reacted. Did they smile, laugh, engage, react, frown, disagree, stay mute, check out, sleep, leave? These are many shades of possible reactions. Perhaps you had an opportunity to poll them about your presentation or yourself? Perhaps you got some reactions from some special informants? Even throughout the presentation you can probably see how the public reacted to each section or each slide. It gives you precious data on what to capitalize on and what to improve.
- Think about what you think went very well? On what basis do you think so? What does that tell you about the next time you’ll be giving this presentation? Or another presentation? And what didn’t go so well? What was the cause? What have you picked up? Can you find out more? Is there anything else you can do differently next time around?
- Think about all your slides, one by one: did you get the balance right? Were some slides so simple that you could have done without them? Were there some that had too dense a content and would need to be broken down further? See where you need to edit your content for the next time.
- Where is your edge? Your next frontier? Based on this information you got, where do you want to specifically improve your public speaking work? Is it the presentation composition, the design, the storytelling, the delivery, your on-stage manners, anything else?
- Perhaps someone can really help you with the edges that you are trying to sharpen? Perhaps a colleague? A mentor? A discussion group or community of practice? Your partner or family? Look for help if you want to improve yourself. Now that you’ve learned how to go up some of this public speaking mountain, you could lend a hand to the people you see are ready to be helped in this? Pay it back ;)
- Enough reading, time for action.
- You may think, reading the above, that this will take a lot of time. And sure you won’t master public speaking and crafty presentations in a finger snap. But it’s really worth the effort. Remember: your presentations are not meant to be a box-ticking exercise where you expedite your sharing information because you don’t like it. It’s meant to move people and make them DO things – or at the very least to inform them and excite them, feed their brain and their mind. So learn the ways to get them to do this.
- Hopefully, following this advice you won’t induce death by Powerpoint and, who knows, you might even wake up the hordes of meeting zombies that are sleeping from such awful presentations…
- There’s a good chance that the end result, instead, is to see your research being put to good use and application by farmers and other actors of the agricultural sector.
- One key take-home of this presentation is perhaps to do fewer presentations but do better ones. It takes perhaps twice or three times as long to do, but the results could be ten- or twenty-fold better.
- So JUST DO IT now!
- As mentioned on slide 28, you can find a lot of publicly accessible pictures such as the ones I’ve been using in this presentation.
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