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.

Presentation Skills Training:
The 5 Step Guide to Better Presentations

So what makes a good presentation? Personality? Fantastic design?  A good delivery? All of these are part of it and more. In this article we'll take a brief look at a 5 step approach to assembling and delivering a presentation.

What is a presentation?

A presentation is a way of communicating information. A presentation is really a path for the audience through a chosen topic with signposts added so that they can follow you to the end point. You can't really do this if you are not entirely sure where you are going. It has a starting point and you hope or expect the audience to be there at the end of it and to have leant something from it.

Step 1 What's the plan?

As self-evident as this is, presenters can often overlook this especially if they've used a presentation a number of times. The plan may just involve reviewing what you are going to say and which slides you want to use. What should you leave out or rewrite?  You could consider creating a design plan or storyboard of how the presentation will work. Most important of all decide what key points you want to get across.

Step 2 Who is my audience?

Whatever you want to say you need to consider the audience. Audiences range for the very general to the extremely knowledgeable. As such they will view presentation information differently. Who they are is as important as what you want to tell them and how you tell them.

Step 3 What's on The Page?

We've all met that death by PowerPoint moment where each subsequent slide is filled with evermore text and yet more key points. Less is certainly more.

Add some colors.

Use graphics if you think they more clearly explain than text.

Use short sentences.

Ideally there should really be no more than three points to each slide.

The net effect is that an audience with less to concentrate on may also get more from the information. There is also a lower risk of information overload and sleep in a warm dark room. Always try to get someone to preview your presentation.

Step 4 Bells and Whistles

Microsoft PowerPoint has a wide range of tools that can make your presentation better. Do not be tempted to use every one of them. Using transitions between slides is a very nice effect as is the animation of bullet point and bullet point texts by controlling how they appear.

Using multiple transition types as well as too much animation can be very distracting.

Use multimedia material like video and sound if they add to the presentation and help get your message across. Don't use them for the sake of it.

Remember each slide is an aid to your presentation and not the presentation.  You are the presenter and your presentation is designed to help you get your message across.

Step 5 Practice, Practice, Practice

Nothing spoils a presentation more than a presenter who seems ill-prepared and who doesn't seem to know what's in the presentation. A printout can be useful to have to hand but more importantly thorough review and practice is what will help it far more.

We don't become good presenters overnight but combining the right level of detail, thinking of our audience and trying to get it right on the day is a good start.

Source: Ken O'Brien link