Presentation Skills: Making Successful Pitches Ing. Jiří Šnajdar 2015

Fear of Public Speaking

Great Presenters

This Lecture Covers Pre-preparation planning Presentation structure Visual aids Presentation effectiveness Overcoming fear

Pre-Preparation Planning What are your objectives? How do you achieve them? What are you presenting? Any constraints? Who are our audience? What are their expectations?

Is Your Goal To familiarise/inform the audience? Explain a concept? Present results, facts, figures? Convince the audience? Accept our conclusions Agree on recommendations Contribute funds Buy Invest / Lend Job offer

Pass an Assessment ! Wow! Fantastic !!

Assessed on Communication and impact Originality of presentation Structure of argument Value proposition clear General impression European dimension – where launch Cultural understanding

Cultural Understanding? Need to explain the concept May need to familiarise/inform the audience Reflect on cultural and commercial implications

Start to Visualise the Presentation

Constraints Location Time allotment Time slot Team skills / credentials Equipment needs / availability Audience

Know Your Audience Number Professional status / education / gender / ethnicity Reasons for attending / expectations Anticipate likes / dislikes

Audiences want.... To feel you know your subject To see you look the part and have prepared To be informed

Audiences do not want....  To be confused  To be bored  To be blinded by new words, by jargon  Low hanging fruit,  Let’s shoot the puppy  Could we park that one Read your audience!  Think outside the box  Too much detail  To be talked down to  To waste their time

INVITE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE ! Invite the right audience INVITE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE INVITE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE ! INVITE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE

INVI Presentation Structure H T Brainstorming Visualise the content Be selective Must Have Should Have Nice to Have Sort into categories Beginning / middle / end AUDIENCE ! INVITE THE RIGHT AUDIENCE !

Structure INVITE THE RIGHT AUDI Then, tell them The Main Body Tell them what you Then tell them what are going to tell them you have told them Opener Closer

Openers ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’ Attention Benefits Credentials Direction

Attention Grabbers News item Question Quotation Ice Breaker Fact Joke Drama Story or anecdote

Closers Recap main points Repeat benefits Call to action Lasting Impression

Sequence of Main Points Chronological Problem to Solution Project Progress Causes to Effect Escalating (Smallest to Largest) Must sell the benefits KISS

Information can be Expressed Visually With words With numbers With graphs With artwork With photographs or sound clips

Visual Aids

Why use presentational aids? 1.To display your technological proficiency 2.To show that you speak the language 3.To facilitate communication of your message

Audience Retention After 3 hrs After 3 days Tell Only70%10% Show Only72%20% Show and Tell85%65%

Text Visuals Six by six rule for text Use one idea per visual Don’t have too many slides CAPITALSUse CAPITALS and small letters Minimum font size 26 Check spelling, grammar, numbers, consistency

Use Colour for Contrast / Persuasion Severity black Growth green Danger red Peaceful blue Enthusiasm Yellow Innocence White Energy Orange

Beware Power Point

Presentational Aids are Addictive Do not hide behind technology Technology can fail Bring back-up copies On different storage media Remember handouts and takeaways The most important presentational aid is YOU!

Presentation Effectiveness What we say 7% How we say it 38% Body Language 55%

Vocal Image Pitch Pace Volume Pauses

Visual Image Posture Gestures Dress Eye Contact -Never look at the screen -Cue cards vs script

Overcoming Fear ‘mangling the language, destroying its meaning by avoiding the use of verbs, twisting nouns into verbs and endlessly repeating phrases until they become zombified’ ‘misunderestimate’

Causes of Fear Forgetting what to say Not being perfect or knowledgeable People will judge us Negative reaction from audience Losing the audience Equipment failure

Never Say you are nervous Say you are unprepared Admit you have forgotten anything Tell negative stories Rush to finish Apologise

Summary Plan Pre preparation, know constraints Practice Rehearse (again and again) and refine Bring backup copies Present With confidence Have fun – visualise success Post mortem Get feedback Follow up

Any questions?