Do you find the idea of speaking in front of people to rank right up there with poking your eyes out? Relax, you aren’t alone! Delivering a presentation can be a frightening experience but if you’re prepared it can be utterly painless! This session will help you size up your audience and identify their needs. You will learn how to fine tune your delivery. We’ll also address ways to make presentations painless for your audience, by reviewing common design issues, and working through ways to remedy them.
Sweaty palms, quivering voice and brain cramps delivering a painless presentation jean heilig
1. Sweaty Palms, Quivering Voice and
Brain Cramps: Delivering a Painless
Presentation
How Many Errors Can You Find?
2. There are always three speeches for every one you actually gave.
The one you practiced, the one you gave,
and the one you wish you gave.
- Dale Carnegie
3. Top 10 Fears
Speaking Before a Group
Heights
Bugs
Financial Problems
Deep Water
Sickness
Death
Flying
Loneliness
Dogs
“I guess we’d rather be in a casket than delivering the eulogy.”
-Jay Leno
6. Audience Analysis
“A well prepared speech given to the wrong
audience can have the same effect as a poorly
prepared speech given to the correct audience.”
http://www.ljlseminars.com/audience.htm
7. Who Is Your Audience?
• Sassafras – Local Chamber of Commerce
• BiblioColorado – CAL Conference Presentation
• Aspire- ILEAD Poster Session
• Silver Surfers- Library Board
19. Common Mistakes
You Don’t Know Your Topic!
______________________________________________
Basics of Astrophysics
Hydrostatic Equilibrium
Jean M. Heilig
Librarian
What are the errors you caught? Write on board. Why are these things bad?
Imagine what it would be like to start your presentation, and wonder why no one in the audience is the least bit interested. Or they fidget or simply just walk out. Or you feel like you are in the wrong room giving your presentation. The most likely cause of any of these situations is that audience analysis was not a priority for you in preparing your presentation. Your audience is likely composed of people from one of these three groups and you will need to deal with each set differently:1) Members who don’t know about your product/concept and really want to learnThis is an ideal group. Just be careful not to be so enthusiastic that you are on the verge of overkill. Audiences are turned off when you continue on and on, long after you have made your point.2) Members who feel they know much more than you do, but want to be there just in case you can offer a nugget of useful information.Invite these audience members to share some of their extensive knowledge. Not only will you make them feel important, but you may learn a thing or two that you did not know yourself.3) Members who totally disagree with you and want to let you know thatIf you can tailor your talk in a way that may make these members see a different light on the subject or even question their own thoughts, then you are on the way to a win. Clear and concise facts, not theories, will be the ticket here.
20 minute chunksMultiple Sensory Channels CompeteWhat you say is part of the message. Para linguisticsCall to actionAudience will imitate your emotions
Grabbing and Holding People’s AttentionThe attention spans of bosses and others are short. Getting them focused, even for a few minutes, is an immense challenge. When given a chance to present ideas, how many of us fail to get our message across effectively because we can’t make key points quickly and in a manner that sticks in the mind of the person we are trying to deliver them to?People don’t multitask- they task switchPsychology research has shown that people can attend to only one task at a time. You can only think about one thing at a time. You can only conduct one mental activity at a time. We are good at switching back and forth quickly, so we think we are multitasking.Task switching is “expensive” it takes more time to get tasks completed if you switch between them than if you do them one at a time.You make more errors when you switch from one task to another.If the tasks are complex, then these time and error penalties increase.Each task switch might waste only 1/10th of a second but if you do a lot of switching in a day it can add up to a loss of 40% of your productivity.Dealing with MultitaskersKeep handouts to a minimum as people will read ahead and stop listening to you.Do not distribute slides with a great deal of text on them. People can still use them to keep notes.Provide a separate document that is a summary of your points Provide a web page that contains more informationUpload a slideshare of your presentationLetting people know that you are providing reference materials after the talk will help them relax, forgo extensive note-taking, and therefore pay more attention to you.
If the topic is of interest to your audience and you are a good presenter you can focus on the presentation for 7 to 10 minutes at most.If you’re not interested in the topic and the presenter is particularly boring, then you’ll lose interest much faster- possibly you’ll tune out within 7 seconds instead of minutes.If people have a short break, then they can start over with another 7 to 10 minute period, but 7-10 minutes is the longest block of time they will pay attention to any one presentation. Ignite presentations: each presenter has 5 minutes to present 20 slides or 15 seconds eachPechaKucha: 20 slides that display for 20 seconds eachThe reason these are so successful is that each presentation is under the 7 minute mark. When you get a new presenter and new topic every 5 minutes, it is easier to pay attention. Build in transitions and mini-breaks every 10 minutes:Have a mini break- you can also use 5 minute stretch breaks if over 60 minutes.Do something interactive – group or individual exercises Ask the audience a questionMove to a different position. Stay in one area for a few minutes then move to another areaMove on to a different topic. Stop and Say “now, I want to talk about something that is very different”Tell a story. Stories grab attention instantly. Sprinkle interesting stories throughout your presentation. Make sure
During normal, everyday activities, your mind is wandering up to 30% of the time, and in some cases (for instance, when driving on an uncrowded highway), it might be as high as 70%You can’t stop all mind-wandering, but you can decrease the frequency with which it occurs. The better a presenter you are, the more engaging your presentation is. The more interesting your talk and the more ways you’ve built in to grab and hold attention, the less that minds will wander.Include mini breaks to bring back the wandering minds.
We have three brains:The new brain- is the conscious, reasoning, logical brain that we think we know best;The mid brain- is the part that processes emotions; andThe old brain – the part that is most interested in your survival.The job of your old brain is to constantly scan the environment and answer the questions Can I eat it? Can I have sex with it? Will it kill me? Animal brains developed early on to care intensely about these three topics.What this means is you can’t resist noticing food, sex, or danger, no matter how hard you try not to. It’s the old brain working. You don’t have to do anything once you notice it but you will notice all of these things whether you want to or not. Because of this unconscious directing of attention, your audience is going to be easily distracted during your presentation. You have to minimize these distractions:Try to prevent having a door people come in and go out of in the peripheral vision of the audience. Every time someone comes in or goes out, the unconscious will look to see who it is. Avoid mentioning or showing pictures of food if you are speaking near a mealtime. Although your mention of food will initially get attention, the audience is likely to keep thinking about food from that point until the end of your presentation.If it is appropriate to use pictures of attractive people or dangerous situations, go ahead and use a few of those images. They will certainly grab the audiences attention.
Avoid presenting in a room that is less than two-thirds fullAsk your hosts ahead of time how many people they are expecting, and then ask them to find a room that will be mostly filledIf you are in a classroom or a conference room that has more seats than you will need, take away chairs or materials to help concentrate where people sit.
It’s right after lunch, and now it’s time for your presentation. The blinds are drawn, and someone turns off the room lights just as you start your presentation. You are essentially standing in the dark. You will have to be an even better speaker than usual to make sure that people don’t fall asleep with lights off and a full stomach. If the light level is too low where the participants are sitting, they will have a hard time taking notesIf the light level is too low where you are standing, then it will be hard for people to see you.A presentation is a performance, and your audience needs to be able to see the performer (you)If possible, arrive early and check out what your lighting options are. Hopefully you are not over-relying on slides – you and what you have to say are as important as, or more important than the slides.Don’t sacrifice the lights in the room in order to make the slides a little brighter. It’s more important that people be able to see you.When the lights in the room are too low, people can’t see their own notes and materialsArrive early and experiment with the lights.
In some cases, you may not be able to influence or control the arrangement of furniture- for example, if you are speaking in an auditorium where the seats are fixed. But in a classroom they can be moved.Make sure that everyone in the room can see you without physical discomfort; if they cannot, rearrange the furniture to fix it.Half roundsPolesMake sure your participants can see youAsk your host about the room and its seating arrangementIf you have a preferred seating layout, send it ahead of timeArrive early and be prepared to modify the layoutIf you are planning group activities, consider having several tables with four to eight people at a table rather than a classroom- or auditorium style roomIf you have group activities, make sure there is enough room for you to move around and visit the groups during their activities.
If people are too hot or too cold it will be harder to concentrateSince you are moving around as the presenter, it is likely that you will feel warmer than your audienceThe temperature for you at the front of the room might not be the same as for participants who are sitting in the backEncourage people to take control of their own temperature by bringing layers to dress inIf the temperature in the room is too hot or too cold, talk to the host or to the people in charge of the facility to get it fixed.
Sometimes we focus so much on ourselves, our presentation, how we feel and where we will be standing or sitting during the presentation that we forget to think about the audience. If the audience is uncomfortable in any way, then it will be hard for them to pay attention wo what you are presenting.If possible, check out the room and the seating before your presentation. Are the chairs comfortable enough. Is there enough room between seats or is everyone going to be squished together. Are there enough chairs for unexpected attendance. Is there cold or hot air blowing on a certain part of the room?People expect wireless internet and plenty of power outlets.
People are sizing you up instantly. You need to give the impression of being a strong leader right away.Make sure your walk to the front of the room shows confidenceStand up tall with good posture, take your time, don’t rush, don’t fidget with anything while you walk.Before you begin to talk “set” your body. Stop, face the audience, stand firmly with even weight on both feet, look at the audience, smile a bit, take a deep breath, and then begin.Remove barriers: don’t use a lectern, and move tables out of the way if possible. People need to see your body to trust you.Keep your head straight: Tilting your head while presenting is a form of submission. Keep your head straight to convey confidence and authority.Stand with balanced weight: Leaning against something undermines your confidence and authority. Standing with balanced weight conveys confidence and authority