Presentation Style Report

Submitted by

Deepan Kumar Das

MSc. Management (Finance) Candidate
Student ID: 6229934

Brock University
April 8, 2018
Introduction

Understating the presentation style is key to enhancing the success of

a presenter’s pitches. This understanding helps identify one’s
strengths, face weaknesses, and work out on how to present the work
in its best light. The styles that a presenter would use should vary
depending on the audience and type of presentations. For example,
the style one would like to use for a keynote presentation is supposed
to be different from the style s/he would use in training or in-house
presentations.

In this paper I am going to discuss and answer questions relating to

the presentation styles of a number of university professors having
different academic backgrounds and coming from different
universities across the globe, while I was attending the Luncheon
Speaker Series at Brock University.

Role of Visual Aids in Presentations

There is no doubt in saying that visual aids assist in achieving the

objectives by providing emphasis on what is being said. When I was
watching the professors presenting I could realize that those who
used visual aids had an impact, and could draw and hold interest of
the audience in the presentations. The pictures or charts they used
reinforced their messages, clarified points, and multiplied the level of
understanding of the topic presented. I could also see that when the
presenters were using visual aids, they had gestures and movement
which I believe added up to the overall impression of the
presentation. Dr. Shawna Chen, Dr. Michael Armstrong, Dr. Bulent
Menguc, Dr. Manus Rungtusanatham, Dr. Viswanath Venkatesh and
Dr. Hai Lu managed to offer unique appeals to their presentations by
using visual aids combining with other aspects of the presentations.

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Sparking Interest and Engaging the Audience

The professors who have been great at presenting have been amazing
story-tellers. They told the facts, but sold the stories. Irrespective of
whether the topic to be presented was equally captivating to the
audience or not, the way the speakers elucidated their research by
means of a story hooked the audience since the beginning. Also, they
welcomed audience participation by posing questions. Some of the
speakers kept the audience guessing, and gradually took closer to
complete comprehension. Dr. Bulent Menguc, Dr. Manus
Rungtusanatham and Dr. Hai Lu had brilliant ways to trigger
interest and engage the audience.

Use of Non-verbal Communication and Voice

The influential presenters made the best use of non-verbal

communication and voice to make their presentations have an
impact. They put a smile on the face to indicate their openness,
warmth and friendliness, and spoke softly. That smile and tone could
let the audience be at their ease. While describing important findings
or concepts they slowed down their speech to maximize
comprehension. I could notice that while telling contrasting findings
or opinions, they changed their pitch. The speakers established eye
contact without discomforting anyone. Most of them kept walking
slowly around the space available in front of them. This ensured that
audience sitting in different corners received equal share of the
presenter’s attention. They also kept their arms and hands open, and
body relaxed to portray that they were relaxed and focused. While
talking directly to someone, they leaned slightly to convey their
interest.

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The Presentation I Relate to

I can mostly relate to the presentation style of Dr. Manus

Rungtusanatham as he was crisp in detailing his research, and
mastered in engaging the audience. He had excellent command over
his language. He was well-dressed which complemented his delivery
on the whole.