Thursday 7 March 2013
Effective Presentations
Personal Experience
Getting the audience's attention and keeping that attention is probably one of the most difficult things during a presentation. By asking the audience questions and showing them demonstrations gets the audience involved in your presentation. I did a presentation before where I asked my audience questions every couple of minutes to get them involved. I let them know that if they listened and mentioned 3 points I talked about and why they thought they were important points at the end of my presentation, they will receive a prize. The prize was a box of candies which they got to choose from. I realized that giving the audience something will help because you will know that you are not wasting your time, because you have the audiences attention, when I didn't give away any prizes or ask questions I realized I lost a lot of students attention which made me want to finish my presentation as fast as possible and I lost interest in my presentation myself. After working on this blog I realized I need to improve my presentation skills by having more eye contact with my audience. This can be done by going over my presentation over and over before hand. I will have more knowledge on my topic which will decrease the amount of times I look at my paper and increase the amount of times I look at my audience.
Feel free to tell me about your good or bad experiences in the post comment option below I will be happy to read them and try to help you improve with your next presentation.
Feel free to tell me about your good or bad experiences in the post comment option below I will be happy to read them and try to help you improve with your next presentation.
Wednesday 6 March 2013
Face It
Face it, through all your years in school you hated going up in front of the class to do a presentation. You would avoid eye contact, keep your hands in your pocket, stand in one spot and mumble. If that was you I would encourage you to go over these nine key techniques to gain and keep the audiences attention. After reading my blogs and watching the videos I guarantee you will have more confidence in your presentation skills and you will not bore your audience. I hope this helps.
Poll on the right
There is a poll you can take on the right side of my blog answering as an audience member. One simple vote and we can take a look at what you believe speakers lack during their presentations.
Feedback
I hope these nine techniques helped you with your future presentations. It would be great if you could leave me feedback on what other topics I could cover about presentation skills. Let me know how your presentations went and if you caught your audiences attention from start to finish. I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone. If you have any questions feel free to contact me on this blog.
Youtube link # 2: Killer Presentation Skills
After watching this video you will see presentations in a completely different way. You will grasp your audiences attention in a professional manner and keep it till you are done your presentation.
Youtube link # 1 : 5 Presentation Tips
Here is a Youtube video of Antonio Centeno giving you 5 presentation Tips to help you gain and also keep the audience's attention.
Final Three Techniques
The final three techniques you as a presenter should use to gain and keep the audiences attention are:
7. Self Interest: By going over your presentation multiple times before presenting you must make sure that what you will be talking about will make sense and be useful information to the audience, so that they could benefit from it after. By doing this, the audience will notice that the presentation is not a waste of time and that you, the speaker care and are interested in the presentation and the reactions from others.
8. Visuals: Make your presentation more interesting. Give your audience something to look at, other than yourself throughout your presentation. Some people grasp information differently. Some prefer you having visuals to help get your points across. For example, pictures. graphs, or even just writing down important points on a board and then going back to it at the end of the presentation. All these will keep the audience's attention throughout your presentation.
9. Demonstrations: Demonstrating a scenario by asking someone from the audience to help, will get their attention and also the rest of the audiences, because they will want to know what's going and see what they are doing. This can also help the audience imagine what you are discussing throughout your presentation.
7. Self Interest: By going over your presentation multiple times before presenting you must make sure that what you will be talking about will make sense and be useful information to the audience, so that they could benefit from it after. By doing this, the audience will notice that the presentation is not a waste of time and that you, the speaker care and are interested in the presentation and the reactions from others.
8. Visuals: Make your presentation more interesting. Give your audience something to look at, other than yourself throughout your presentation. Some people grasp information differently. Some prefer you having visuals to help get your points across. For example, pictures. graphs, or even just writing down important points on a board and then going back to it at the end of the presentation. All these will keep the audience's attention throughout your presentation.
9. Demonstrations: Demonstrating a scenario by asking someone from the audience to help, will get their attention and also the rest of the audiences, because they will want to know what's going and see what they are doing. This can also help the audience imagine what you are discussing throughout your presentation.
Next Three Techniques
Here are the next three techniques you should use to gain and then keep the audiences attention:
4. Promise: By giving your audience a promise, they will stay focused throughout your presentation to see if you will deliver what you said you would at the beginning. Start your presentation with a promise so you have their direct attention from the very beginning. This will keep the audience thinking about what you are saying.
5. Ask Questions: Asking rhetorical questions throughout your presentation can and will help keep listeners involved. By asking questions this will help clear out any parts of your presentation that the audience may not understand or need extra clarification about. For example if you were to ask for a show of hands this will get the attention of the whole audience and get them thinking of what you talked about and what their response should be.
6. Samples and Gimmicks: If you are doing a presentation where you are promoting a product and/or service, a good tip would be to give away some of the items. This will make the audience happy and it will also give the audience a physical understanding of your presentation and what you are promoting. If you let the audience know that at the end of the presentation there will be prizes to be won to the listeners, people are more likely to listen and focus on what you are talking about to get the prize in the end. The listener will have a sense of accomplishment and you will have a successful presentation.
4. Promise: By giving your audience a promise, they will stay focused throughout your presentation to see if you will deliver what you said you would at the beginning. Start your presentation with a promise so you have their direct attention from the very beginning. This will keep the audience thinking about what you are saying.
5. Ask Questions: Asking rhetorical questions throughout your presentation can and will help keep listeners involved. By asking questions this will help clear out any parts of your presentation that the audience may not understand or need extra clarification about. For example if you were to ask for a show of hands this will get the attention of the whole audience and get them thinking of what you talked about and what their response should be.
6. Samples and Gimmicks: If you are doing a presentation where you are promoting a product and/or service, a good tip would be to give away some of the items. This will make the audience happy and it will also give the audience a physical understanding of your presentation and what you are promoting. If you let the audience know that at the end of the presentation there will be prizes to be won to the listeners, people are more likely to listen and focus on what you are talking about to get the prize in the end. The listener will have a sense of accomplishment and you will have a successful presentation.
Main three techniques
I believe the three main techniques everyone should use during their presentation are: Eye contact, Movement and Drama.
1. Eye Contact: One of the most important things to remember while doing a presentation is eye contact. You should try and make eye contact with as many listeners as possible. This will make the listener feel involved in your presentation. Stay focused on the listeners eyes and as well as their expressions.
2. Movement: As a listener you do not want to sit in a room listening to someone who is standing in one position throughout the whole presentation, that is when you loose your audience's attention. As the speaker it is your job to move around your audience. This will make your audience focus on you and feel as if they are part of your presentation. While walking around don't forget the first technique, eye contact, keep that eye contact while walking around the room.
3. Drama: As you speak make sure to use drama. Use a variety of emotions to keep the audience interested and engaged. For example if you were to tell a dramatic story that the audience could relate to, this would keep the audience interested in the rest of your presentation. Another way of using drama would be in the tone and/or pitch in your voice. By changing your tone the audience will know that you know what you are talking about and that you take interest in your topic. The number one tone to stay away from during a presentation is sounding monotone because that will loose your audience's attention.
1. Eye Contact: One of the most important things to remember while doing a presentation is eye contact. You should try and make eye contact with as many listeners as possible. This will make the listener feel involved in your presentation. Stay focused on the listeners eyes and as well as their expressions.
2. Movement: As a listener you do not want to sit in a room listening to someone who is standing in one position throughout the whole presentation, that is when you loose your audience's attention. As the speaker it is your job to move around your audience. This will make your audience focus on you and feel as if they are part of your presentation. While walking around don't forget the first technique, eye contact, keep that eye contact while walking around the room.
3. Drama: As you speak make sure to use drama. Use a variety of emotions to keep the audience interested and engaged. For example if you were to tell a dramatic story that the audience could relate to, this would keep the audience interested in the rest of your presentation. Another way of using drama would be in the tone and/or pitch in your voice. By changing your tone the audience will know that you know what you are talking about and that you take interest in your topic. The number one tone to stay away from during a presentation is sounding monotone because that will loose your audience's attention.
Nine techniques
Here is a list of the nine techniques you should use during your presentation to keep and gain the audience's attention which will be further described in newer posts.
1. Eye contact
1. Eye contact
2. Movement
3. Drama
4. Promise
5. Ask Questions
6. Samples and Gimmicks
7. Self Interest
8. Visuals
9. Demonstrations
4. Promise
5. Ask Questions
6. Samples and Gimmicks
7. Self Interest
8. Visuals
9. Demonstrations
Welcome to my blog!
Hey everyone,
Throughout this blog I will discuss 9 different techniques to help you gain and keep your audience's attention during presentations, discussions, meetings and anywhere you may have an audience. When presenting I believe that keeping and gaining the audience's attention is one of the most important aspects to a successful presentation because once you have the audience's attention they will be interested in your topic and take part in your presentation for the specified amount of time. These 9 techniques will make it easier for you as the presenter because you can now deliver your main message without being stressed trying to figure out if anyone is listening or not.
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