This document provides guidance on effectively staging a presentation. It discusses ideal conditions for a presentation space, including adequate space, lighting, and seating for the audience. It also covers the presentation stage area and recommends a minimum size to allow for movement. The document reviews different seating arrangements for audiences and notes important considerations for lighting, acoustics, and avoiding distractions. It emphasizes the importance of voice and performance skills for presenters.

1. Introduction to
Presentation Skills for Professionals
STAGING THE
PRESENTATION

2. Introduction
 If only presenters always had a well-designed
and efficient platform to present from!
 Sometimes, you have to present in crowded
classrooms, noisy halls with echoes, in the open
air without a microphone.
 The presenter isn’t comfortable and surely the
audience is neither, but sometimes there is no
choice.

3. In an ideal world……………..
 A presentation area needs the following things:
 Space
 Light
 Somewhere for your notes
 Somewhere for the screen and projector if you are using them
 Cabling control
 A place for the microphone if necessary
 Good acoustics
 A non-distracting background
 Enough distance from the audience to allow you to project
your voice without spitting all over the front row
 Elbow and knee room for each member of the audience
 Comfortable seats with good sight lines for the audience
 An efficient way of entering and leaving the presentation area
without having to climb over anything or edge past
obstructions.
 Let’s look at each in turn starting with the audience area.

4. SPACE
 The audience needs enough space for each
person to sit comfortably and stretch their legs
out, with somewhere to put bags and coats.
 If you want the audience to take notes or spread
handouts in front of them then they will need
tables, spaced far enough apart so that no one
has to edge round the chairs to sit down. There
are several ways that tables can be arranged.

5. AUDIENCE SEATING LAYOUT
 Classroom-style means that the audience sits at
tables which all face to the front.
 Café-style means round tables dotted throughout the
room.
 Conference-style means one large table with the
presenter at the head.
 U-shaped style means a set of tables arranged in a
three-sided square with the presenter in the open
side.
 Formal conference halls may have tiered or no tiered

6. CLASSROOM STYLE

7. CAFÉ STYLE

8. CONFERENCE STYLE

9. U-SHAPED

10. THE PRESENTATION STAGE

11. PRESENTATION STAGE
 At an absolute minimum you need enough space
to take at least five strides from the front to the
back and six or seven from side to side.
 Less than this means that you will feel
constrained and your body language will be less
convincing.
 Wherever cables snake across the tables or floor,
stick them down with gaffer tape or use a custom-
made cable cover.

12. LECTERNS
 With the almost universal use of projectors and slides,
the lectern has become almost mandatory – it gives
you a space for your notes, inbuilt microphone and
slide changer and room for a glass of water.
 The secret to using a lectern well is not to hang onto it
like a drowning man but to allow your hand gestures
to be upwards and outwards.
 Whenever possible, come out from behind the lectern
and approach the audience, this removes any barriers
between you and them and also allows you to
highlight important points.

13. LIGHTING
 When slides were shown in the old days the
auditorium needed to be darkened.
 This is no longer true. Modern screens are
luminescent and projectors give such a crisp and
bright image that they can be used in daylight.
 This is a good thing – as a presenter you need to be
able to see the audience to gauge their reactions to
what you are saying, and of course they need to be
able to see you as well as your slides.
 Beware of any lighting in the room that casts the light
up into your face, as it will make you look sinister.
 Equally, bright spotlights can dazzle you and make
you squint, and glint distractingly on jewellery and

14. AVOID DISTRACTIONS
Keep a ‘meeting in progress’ sign
in your presenter’s kitbag that you
can stick to the door to deter
accidental visitors.

15. ACOUSTICS
 Curtains and carpets deaden sounds whereas
shiny surfaces and bare floors cause resonance
and echoes.
 The use of a microphone is very helpful in a fully
carpeted and curtained room but sound levels will
need to be carefully checked if the room echoes.

16. OPTIONAL EXTRAS
 Flip charts for a change in pace, flip
chart pads and pens, prepared static
visuals with somewhere to display them,
clock, pointer, laser pointer, extra chair
for the speaker, etc.

17. VOICE & PERFORMANCE SKILLS

18.  Presenters can just about get away with a less
than professional personal image (though not for
long) but will completely put the audience off if
they have difficulty hearing what he/she is saying.
 Sadly, when you start a presentation you are
likely to be nervous and nerves play havoc with
your voice.
 So you need to prepare your voice before you
give a presentation.

19.  The secret of a good voice lies in the way you
breathe. The lungs are the power behind the voice
and you are going to need all the power of yours to
make your voice interesting and audible.
 Think about tiny babies – their lungs are very small
indeed compared with those of an adult, yet when
they want to be heard they can make the most
enormous noise, without any apparent effort.
 How do they do this? They use their diaphragms
naturally – drawing breath right down to the bottom of
their lungs and letting it out without holding back.
 This is not to say that we are going to take enormous
lungfuls of air throughout our presentation

20. The VOICE itself
 Once you have mastered breath control you can
move on to voice control.

21. VOLUME, PITCH, RESONANCE,
ARTICULATION, PACE,
MODULATION, AND PHRASING

22. Volume
 It is important that you start any presentation
loudly – for one thing it catches the audience’s
attention and makes you sound confident and for
another it makes it easier to keep the volume of
your presentation at a suitable level (we tend to
get softer as we go along if we don’t pay attention
to projecting our voices).

23. Pitch
 Everyone has their own particular pitch and timbre of
voice – the one at which we are most comfortable
speaking.
 This depends on several things –
 The structure of your body
 The tone
 Pitch of voices that you heard through your childhood
 Role models later in life
 Cultural influences
 State of your health
 For example, if you were taught to speak quietly as a
child, you may find it difficult to bring volume to your
voice as an adult.

24. PITCH
 Whatever has influenced us often needs to be re-
examined when we find ourselves in a situation
where we need to address an audience with
authority and confidence.
 Studies carried out in the UK in the early 1900s
seem to show that deeper-pitched voices show
authority.
 This does not mean that you have to go about
growling into your boots, more that you need to
experiment with the natural pitch in your voice
and see if you can make it more resonant and
authoritative.

25. Phrasing, Pause and Pace
 He was dark black uncombed hair fell over his
forehead and down to his collar keys hung from
his belt his face was heavily tanned and lined
fromyears of hard drinking he looked dangerous
 He was dark; black, uncombed hair fell over his
forehead and down to his collar. Keys hung from
his belt. His face was heavily tanned and lined
from years of hard drinking. He looked
dangerous.

26. Thank You