5 Free Presentation Workshop Tips

Most people have a morbid fear of speaking to a large audience: so-called public speaking. I know that I do not find it easy. Some people seem to be able to entertain an audience for hours and it is an enviable presentation workshop skill. However, many of us will only ever be required to address a gathering a few times in our entire lives. Perhaps at our parents' 50th wedding anniversary; a birthday party, our wedding or someone else's, and at a funeral. Except for the latter, each occasion calls for a certain amount of humour, and a case could actually be made for humour at a funeral too. Many people, though, will also be required to speak occasionally in a professional capacity, at a meeting, seminar, celebration, or presentation workshop.

Before I give you my top five presentation workshop tips on public speaking, I would like to give you a quotation:

When I appear in public people expect me to neigh, grind my teeth, paw the ground and swish my tail - none of which is easy. - PRINCESS ANNE

A Laugh A Minute: informal speaking depends on humour, not least because you know that your next sure-fire winner is never more than ninety seconds away. These jokes are little milestones in your presentation workshop. The most reliable jokes and stories are the ones that are tried and tested, so if you want to go in for public speaking, get yourself a book to enter good jokes or topics into.

Stop Digging: if you are not being paid to give a presentation workshop for a set length of time, remember this maxim, 'if you don't strike oil in the first five minutes, stop boring'.

His Master's Voice: if you have to make a presentation workshop, write it out first. Read it and re-read it and then edit it, if necessary. When you have done that, read it into a recorder and play it back. By reading your presentation workshop and listening to it in this way, you will learn the correct timing: when to pause (for laughter) and how to emphasise the words that require it. It has the added benefits of having a record, should you need to refer back to it, answer questions or be invited back.

Off The Cuff: there is nothing more boring that listening to and watching somebody read a pre-written presentation workshop. People will be counting the number of pages you have left to read. Always write the introduction and then learn it by heart. Then, have a list of paragraph or topic headers to prompt you. Definitely write the closing paragraph, read it if you must, but make it a good one, so that you have something good to sit down on after your presentation workshop.

Unaccustomed As I am ...: nobody is born a marvelous public speaker. People have to learn how to speak well. Therefore, if you know that you will have to do a lot of it, practice in front of your friends and family. Speak in front of small audiences, first on your favourite subjects or hobbies: gardening, pigeons, stamps, cars, etc. This way, you can concentrate on the delivery and not worry about the contents. When you are confident with the delivery, you can start speaking in public on different presentation workshop subjects that you have previously researched.

Source: Owen Jones

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