An excellent and practical compilation on bibliography “The Top 35 Books on Presentations” created by Bruce Gabrielle and Gonzalo Álvarez. The way they sort each of the books depending on the three basic elements of any presentation is noteworthy: content, design and delivery.
Is the presentation necessary?The first thing we need to ask ourselves is if our presentation is really necessary. Is it possible to share the message or information via e-mail or videocall? It will only be worth preparing our face to face presentation if it can somehow contribute additional value to the audience.
If we decide to prepare a presentation, the second step would be to ask ourselves who our audience is. What do they expect from us? How can we help them? What can we put on the table to make there own jobs easier? This is why every audience needs their own tailored presentation. Yes, it is more work for us, but it is the only way we will be able to awaken their interest and draw their attention to us.
The message sums up your presentations content. Imagine you only had 1 minute, 1 glorious minute to complete your presentation. Would you use up your minute on introductions, aknowledgments, data and other things like that? Or would you try to present only the most relevant, important and crucial points to your audience? The message must be pointed out both at the beginning and at the end of your presentation.
Telling a story is the best way to deliver a message in a memorable way. We will do so following the three main steps of storytelling: By creating a beginning, a middle and an ending. In our case, the beginning will be our current situation, the middle will be the problem or the part that needs to change, and the end will be our proposed solution; which we will complete with a detailed description.
Slides should follow a certain design and pattern. The use of a template is recommended. This will make your presentation more consistent and easier to follow by the audience. It is important for the slides to have very little text (so they can be read quickly and from every corner of the room) and for the pictures or photos to be of the best quality possible so they are helpful to us during our exposition.
The handout is the document that we will give our audience (not copies of the slides!) that includes more detailed information about the subject of the presentation (tables, data, calculations, references,…). This information will help the audience follow the presentation while it lets the speaker focus on his or her main message.
Now comes the moment we have all been waiting for! Conveying and transmitting our ideas is only possible if we show our true selves to the audience. We need to express things that we ourselves truly believe in… It is the only way we will be able to reach the people that are listening to us.
Each day, communicating in a proficient manner is becoming more and more important, both in our private and professional lives. The ability to convey our thoughts and ideas to the people that surround us is essential; and to achieve proper communication skills there are certain aptitudes and techniques that we need to know, practice and develop.
We all assist and participate in different conferences, seminars and lectures where the volume and density of all the information presented to us may make it difficult for us to retain and understand it all… Why is this? Most presentations are made up of many slideshows (way too many slideshows!) where all sorts of information such as texts, tables, numbers and graphs turn into the main part of each exposition. The speaker, who should be the main protagonist in conveying the story or information that he or she presents, gets pushed down into a less important position and just turns into a sort of slideshow narrator of what is already written and explained.
The only two essential protagonists in any presentation are the speaker and the audience. All the different types of software that we can find on the market should only be used as support for the speaker. It should be used as a tool that helps the speaker strengthen certain parts of his or her own narrative or it should help the audience focus their attention and interest correctly. How should it be used?
Breviora (from Latin, “the shortest“) prepare 2 documents: one set of slideshows and one summary document (or handout).
The slides should be made up of high quality images backed up with short texts that follow a line of thought that help the speaker convey his or her message in a structured, simple and clear manner during the presentation.
The handout should be a more detailed summary of the information and should be given to the audience.