Steps to Prepare for a Presentation

"Being a successful presenter means learning how to edit, structure, and illustrate your concepts in order
to inform, influence – and entertain – your audience. You have to be part editor, part director, and part
showman."
- Luisa Simone

The purposes of a presentation include conveying a message, distilling information, motivating a group,
communicating a vision, and pointing the audience to additional learning resources. Here are some steps
to help you be a great presenter.

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1. Know Yourself
Think about your presentation style and then test it against some things we know about successful
presenters. What are your strengths and how are you best using them? Where do you have room for
improvement and how are you improving? Think about these presenter characteristics:
Good vs. poor presenter characteristics.
The Good Presenter The Poor Presenter

Prepared Starts preparing the night before

Authoritative Apologetic

Has researched the audience’s needs "Which town am I in?"

Respects the audience’s time and "cost" for "They’re privileged to hear me speak"
attending

Gives 3-5 "take home" points Encyclopedic

Involves and engages "Lights down. First slide, please."

Tells stories Lists facts

"I love interacting with this audience!" "I could be playing golf!"

Neat clothing, appropriate colors Fly is open, chive stuck between teeth

Neat, edited handout that parallels the spoken Typos, misspellings, and piles of smudged article
message photocopies destined never to be read

Computer projected slides reinforce the spoken Overuse of computer slide builds and transitions
message induce nausea, and make people feel ill

Rehearses opening, closing, slide transitions, and "Who has time to rehearse?"
pace

Communicates and motivates Lectures

From: http://www.saem.org/publicat/chap8a.htm

2. Know the Audience & the Presentation Opportunity

 Who will be in the audience? How many?

 Why is the audience attending? Is attendance required? Is it a mandatory educational lecture?

Personal motivation?

 Identify why the presentation is of value/important to the audience. Think about how you would
answer the question from an audience member when they ask “what’s in this for me?”

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 What is the knowledge level—novice, practitioner, expert? Will you be presenting new concepts to
this audience, or building upon their prior knowledge? Make sure you cover the basics clearly, and
early in the talk, to avoid loosing the audience.

 How much time is available for your presentation (including Q&A)?

 the longer the talk, the more freedom you will have to explore the topic

 a short talk needs to be very clear and to address the topic directly

 is question time included?

 Are you the only speaker? Part of a panel? Part of a larger conference?

 Will this be an informal chat, a seminar discussion, or a more formal presentation?

3. Designing the Presentation for the Audience

Content
Start with the final goal in mind – what 3-5 ideas or points do you want the audience to take away? This is
both the “bottom line” and the conclusion of your presentation. With this in mind you can more easily
develop the introduction and body to support the final goals.

 What are you going to teach? List 3-5 main ideas. Describe the overall presentation in one sentence.
This helps FOCUS your presentation.

 Consider using an outline, mind map or visual sketch to organize your ideas. This helps you be clear
on how all the ideas you are presenting fit together and relate to each other.

 How will you support your information?

 How much material? For a 50-minute talk, you should expect to cover only about 90 concepts. One
way to facilitate the process is to develop visual aids that illustrate your points clearly.

Structure – Beginning, Middle, End

Show ‘em, tell ‘em, tell ‘em again…

 Introduction – define goals and get the audience’s attention. Develop rapport with them, outline the
structure of presentation, and any expectations you have of them. “Show 'em and tell 'em.” Define
when they can ask questions – throughout or at the end. Avoid jargon and tired phrases (‘thank you
for having me here.’)

 Body of presentation – Tell 'em again - should include both information, and sources of the
information. Offer a chance for the audience to apply/practice what they are learning.

 Conclusion – Take advantage of the fact that audience attention tends to rise near the conclusion of
a presentation. Summarize your main points and the importance/relevance to audience. Highlight any
follow up action you want them to take or you are offering (additional information, etc.).

 Q&A - Offer structured time for Q&A.

 Listen for the full question before you answer. Ask for clarifications as needed.

 Repeat each question so the entire audience knows what you've been asked.

 Reflect before you open your mouth, which allows you both time to compose your response
and acknowledge the contribution of the questioner.

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  Answer directly and avoid prolonged, complicated exchanges. If necessary, offer to continue
with an individual(s) after the conclusion of the presentation

 If you don’t know the answer, don’t apologize. Instead…

o Ask for any answers that may be available from the audience members themselves.

o Offer to find out and get back to the questioner.

o Point the audience to other resources.

 Evaluation – For both your quality improvement and any organizational evaluation requirements,
offer a short evaluation form.

4. Presentation Technique
It has been said that we remember approximately 25 percent of what we hear, 40 percent of what we see
and hear, and 75 percent of what we hear, see, and do. When learning becomes participatory or
interactive, learners remember more for a longer time in a shorter time and have more fun.

What techniques will you use to engage the audience?

 Tell stories
 Use case studies
 Show pictures and images
 Engage the audience with discussions and exercises
 Give a pre-presentation test where the audience must commit to an answer, then discuss the
answers as a group.

 Instead of listing facts, tell stories. The human mind is particularly receptive to information imparted
through story telling. (Before the invention of communication technologies, human knowledge and
wisdom was transmitted stories, myths, and epic poetry.) Interject relevant examples and anecdotes.
Stimulate the audience’s imagination through imagery.

 The presentation should promote long-term memory retention. Repetition of the 3-5 major points is
the key to retention. Some humorist once said that since the audience is paying attention only 25% of
the time, the presenter must repeat everything 4 times during a 1-hour presentation.

 Orlando Battista said, "The shortest distance between two jokes makes a perfect speech." Humor
delivered with finesse is a wonderful way to engage the audience and hold their attention. But edit out
anything that might be offensive. An offended, angry audience has stopped paying attention.

 One way to maintain interest is to organize and present the material in a an unusual or unexpected
manner. Using a non-standard ordering of material will help to keep the audience interested. Similarly,
organizing your material in a new way (rather than re-working an old talk) will help to keep your own
interest in the topic, and will result in a talk which is more fresh and exciting.

 Transitions: The link between successive elements of the talk should be planned carefully, smooth,
and logical. You should make the relation between successive elements clear to the audience.

5. Supporting Materials and Technology

 Use technology, visual aids and handouts to enhance rather than detract from the message
 Know what equipment will be available (flip chart, computer, Zip drive, CD-ROM, projector, laser
pointer, etc.)

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Slides
What slides or other visual aids do you need?
 Any visual aids should be simple, clear and pertinent. Images can be helpful to support your
content.

 Slides are not for us as a personal teleprompter!

 Ask yourself if each slide helps achieve your presentation objective. Does this slide add to
my audience’s knowledge of the subject?

 1 major idea per slide. Does this slide focus attention on one main idea? Is this idea clear?

 Have I presented the information in this slide in the most effective manner? Try to limit
yourself to 15-25 words per slide. Have I removed all unnecessary elements without
destroying the one main thought in this slide?

 Formatting:

o Are the titles legible and short enough to be read in the time they will be shown?

o The type should be readable from the back of room (typically at least 28 points in
size). Stick to simple fonts such as Arial, Times New Roman, etc.

o The most readable type is an initial capital letter followed by lower case. AVOID ALL
CAPS

o Avoid red and green type as some people cannot distinguish these colors (color
blindness)

o One of the most readable color combinations is yellow title, yellow bullets, and white
text on a blue background.

o Flush left and ragged right alignment (not justified) is best for readability.

 Is there good continuity between this slide and the next one?

Handouts

 Handouts help promote long-term retention and provide a reference source for the audience.

 What handouts would be appropriate? Local brochures and provider information, Project Harmony
materials or particular supporting handouts on the topic are appropriate. Make sure all your handouts
have your contact or other appropriate contact information for follow up.

6. Practicing the Presentation

If you do not regularly present, you may wish to practice your full presentation a number of times. If you
can, practice for a colleague or friend and get some feedback. Try doing your presentation in the mirror!

If you are an experienced presenter, consider these practice tips.

 The most important parts to practice are the opening and closing of your presentation when you have
the highest level of audience attention.

 Focus on the first 60-90 seconds of your presentation to get your audience’s attention.

 Practice transitions between different parts of your presentation.

 Know how to work your equipment! Practice speaking without facing your screen/slides.

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 Imagine the worse case scenario and practice how you would respond (equipment failure, hot hot
room, smaller than anticipated audience, hostile audience member)

 If you’re practicing with slides, never rehearse by facing the screen—this is not how you will be
delivering the presentation. Instead, pretend you’re facing the audience and practice turning your head to
cue off the slides.

 Don’t rely on a “in my mind” practice. Say it out loud. "Everything becomes a little different as soon
as it is spoken out loud." - Hermann Hesse

7. Making the Presentation

 Smile

 Don’t fidget

 Be positive, enthusiastic and never apologetic. A strong start engages the audience and the rest is
then easy. Remember, entertainment is one way to facilitate learning.

 Don’t read your presentation. People will loose interest.

 Make eye contact. Move your eyes over the audience, making individual eye contact across the
audience.

 Watch the audience for cues on comprehension and interest. Adjust accordingly.

 Ask frequent "thought-provoking" questions, even if they’re rhetorical.

 Move around the room if you can. Don’t hide behind a podium. But don’t move so much you give
people whiplash or make them motion sick!

 Keep the lights on/up unless absolutely necessary to view slides. Turn lights up when darkness is not
required. Keep people awake.

 Be vigilant during snooze time – early mornings and after meals. If possible, ask for refreshments
such as coffee and soft drinks to be served.

 Don’t go over your allocated time. And that does not mean talk faster – it means plan your
presentation to easily fit in the allocated time.

 With microphones, remember every other sound you make will be picked up, including setting things
on the podium and, um, er, other sounds!

And for the faint of heart, we leave you with a quote from Mark Twain. "It usually takes me more than
three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech."

Sources
Cordell, W.H. Preparing a Presentation and Developing Speaking Skills
Society for Academic Emergency Medicine. Accessed April 2004.
http://www.saem.org/publicat/chap8.htm

Radel, J. (1999) Effective Presentations. Accessed April 2004.

http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/Preparing_talks/103.html

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