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First Steps To A Fantastic Presentation

You can find a lot of information about preparation and creation of presentations (here I mean physical actions, working with Powerpoint and other) and they link to some books that seem interesting to me in the context of the topic under discussion.

Why do you need to prepare the presentation? Of course, in practice, this can be very difficult (you probably already have long fingers scratched and you opened PowerPoint shapes on the first slide, haven’t you?). So do not be too zealous in the casuistry of answers to strange questions. The simple “I want to share my experience so that listeners do not make my mistakes and start to treat our company better thinking about it as a progressive it-company” already sounds quite convincing.

Power Point Presentation

A report at a scientific conference presupposes a rather strict format of presentation and the corresponding structure of the report starting with the statement of the problem and ending with conclusions and further plans. Speaking to investors with a presentation on a given template as a bureaucratic procedure can also assume very specific blocks in the story, usually without kittens and other antics.

On the other hand, if you share experience in an informal circle of close friends or speak to colleagues at an industrial it-conference where you can afford liberties, or you need to work with an audience, then your maneuvering space expands significantly. It can be just a conversation with sketches on napkins and waving hands without slides.

Therefore, it is important to answer yourself to two questions: why you need to share information and what you want to achieve with this. Generally, you can think about them within the framework of a dichotomy: what you lose leaving the hidden things to yourself, and what you gain by sharing the information.

presentation skills

Why and What for? Set the goal

Now that you know the answers to both questions, you are ready to formulate the purpose of your speech. In my opinion, this goal should necessarily contain a result designed for the future of your listeners.

The goal that you formulate for your presentation should concern how the lifelines of the listeners or your own will behave in the future. For example, you can provoke their intersections whether it’s sales, joint projects, other events or just new useful contacts that you’ll follow on Twitter.

You will never cross the lifeline directly in your life with someone from the audience, but your speech can influence their behavior patterns, a way of thinking and attitude to certain objects and circumstances. For example, the image of the company or events in the society. Or, another useful outcome, your own lifeline can change as a result of feedback during or after the report.

The definition of the change in the future of your life or external lifelines is the goal of your performance. A useful model for formulating the goal is to search for the answer in the form of 5W + H: who, what, when, where, why and how. Who are you going to influence? What do you want to change in their lifelines? When and where should these changes occur? Why will your “who” change their lines and how exactly will they do it?

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