Learning outcome: To be able to prepare an effective, targeted and stimulating presentation.
Before You Start
The amount of preparation you do for your talk has a huge bearing on how successful your talk will be, and on how much of the information you present the audience will absorb and take away with them.
- Think about your aimsand your audience [Make sure you have visited the why?andwho?sections.]
- Identify your important messages [What are the main points you want people to take away with them?]
- Find examples, analogies and stories to illustrate your main points [Try to create suspense and whet peoples’ appetites.]
- Think about how you might involveyour audience [This can mean involving people individually as volunteers or involving the whole audience. For example, get everyone to stand up, ask them a question, then ask them to sit down if the answer is yes/no. ]
Structure
Structure your talk so it flows naturally and leads your audience through the information in the clearest way possible.
BEGINNING
- Introduce yourself
- Set the context
- State objectives
- Give an overview [Use signposts, for example, “first we’ll be talking about x”, “more about y later on.” These can be used throughout the talk to let the audience know where they are and also to keep interest for later. You may want to write this after you’ve planned the progression of the middle part of your talk.]
- Grab attention! [Use a startling or a surprising fact, or an interesting technique to grab them at the outset.]
MIDDLE
- Create a logical progressionthrough your key points [Make sure your talk flows from point to point and work on transitions between them. A strong narrative running through your talk will help to capture your audience.]
- Illustrateyour key points [Your stories, analogies and anecdotes will be more effective than a string of facts in isolation. Of course, you should make sure they are relevant to your content and to your audience.]
- Keep their attention [Attention levels drop over time so use breaks to add interest and keep attention levels up. A break could be a change of media, e.g. a video; an experiment; introducing someone new; telling a story. Different approaches appeal to different learning styles, so try to use a variety to cater to as many people as possible.
END
- Summarise key issues [Go back to your important messages and remind the audience of the thoughts you want them to take away.]
- Look for impact – finish strongly.
Tips
- Find the rightway to say something. Don’t be vague. Words can be powerful.
- Use your imagination and creativity – be different – BUT…
- Make sure everything is there for a reason – don’t use visuals or gimmicks if they don’t fit your message.
- Use repetition of the key message.
- Practice any experiments and demonstrations to make sure they work as you expect.
- Rehearse the talk to check timings and the transitions between the sections.
Thanks to contributions from Malcolm Love.