Presentation Training Seminar

Our presentations training course is the most highly participatory and personalized workshop of its kind. Participants have two instructors to help them learn and practice fundamental and advanced presentation skills. There are 10 videotaped personal presentations and each of the 10 presentations is followed by personalized one-on-one feedback from a senior instructor to guarantee progress and eliminate any distracting behaviors.

For more information and pricing on our presentation training classes, please contact us.

Seminar Objectives:

• Present technical information clearly, concisely, and persuasively.

• Enhance voice projection, articulation, pace and fluency, body language, eye contact, and gestures.

• Determine audience attitudes and needs.

• Overcome nervousness, anxiety, and any distracting mannerisms.

• Use both common and high-tech media effectively.

• Implement persuasive communication techniques.

• Project control and confidence.

• Plan and develop complete, formalized product presentations around the market forces that affect business.

• Structure presentations to gain maximum effect.

• Use audience involvement techniques to identify and handle questions.

• Set up an on going action plan to improve future presentations.

Presentations Training:
Effective Presentation Training Equals Productive Meetings

I've sat through many presentations where hot needles in my eyeballs would have been more pleasant. One meeting in particular comes to mind. It was a competitive review prepared by a client's marketing department. They put a lot of time and effort into understanding the marketing activities of their immediate and indirect competitors. You knew this because every fact they uncovered was dutifully recorded on the slides. Unfortunately, after 1.5 hours I didn't know what their point was. I suspect I wasn't alone.

Effective Presentation Structure

I learned a technique that's useful for organizing presentations. Figure out what the Thread of Steel is, what the single unifying idea that holds the presentation together is, before you start.

Seems simple but I challenge you to look at past presentations and, after going through the slides, write down the Thread of Steel. Or, the next time you attend a presentation, try and write down the Thread of Steel. It's harder than you think. That's because it wasn't determined prior to writing the deck. It's also because 98% of presentations are crap.

Spend time up front crafting a Thread of Steel for your presentation. What do you want uttered as people leave the meeting? Write it out as a sentence. Do it before you start writing slides. Pin it to the wall. Stick it to your monitor. Refer to it often. It may or may not be explicitly stated in the slides but it should be woven throughout the presentation and clearly communicated.

Use this technique and you will find your presentations flow better, have more impact and take less time to write.

Effective Presentation Slides

Tell me, I'll forget. Show me, I'll remember. Involve me, I'll understand - Chinese Proverb

Consider the point you are making. Does the point support the Thread of Steel or is it superfluous? Does it resonate with the Thread of Steel or is it dissonant? If it helps build the story, keep it. If it doesn't, pitch it.

Does the slide you've written support the point you are trying to make? Does it provide emphasis to what you plan to say? Does it function as a visual aid to the authority, that's you, making the presentation? If it does, you have a good slide. If it doesn't, pitch it.

Make one point per slide and only one. Use the slide for emphasis, to underline the key finding from all your work. It helps your audience understand what you are saying, what you believe is important. This adds value and places the authority with you, not with the slide. Use the appendix to store/record your work.

Use the notes feature to flesh out the story. In essence, what you say should be documented in the notes area, where it will add value when the deck is circulated, not on the slide, where it will distract from your main point when you are presenting.

Distribute a PDF or printouts of the presentation and notes pages after the meeting not before. You want the audience to be paying attention to you not shuffling papers and reading ahead.

Use visuals to make your point. A wall of words or numbers is hard to get excited about, hard to remember and can become a distraction. The audience, if any are still awake, will be reading instead of listening to the expert who did all the work. A wall of words doesn't create value so it doesn't help the audience and it doesn't help you.

Tell stories. Like visuals, people remember stories much better than they remember facts. Draw on personal experience. Audiences can relate to this and will connect your point to their experiences, which makes your presentation more memorable. Stories elicit emotion. Emotion brings involvement. Involvement brings commitment.

Determine your Thread of Steel prior to writing a single slide and, when you are writing, be sure each slide supports the Thread of Steel and functions as a visual aid for the authority making the presentation. Your presentations will be more effective and your meetings will be more productive. And please have fun when you present. Even if you make a mistake people will remember that it was a productive meeting, maybe even enjoyable, not the error, which you may have been the only one to notice.

Source: James Hipkin link