Preparing the Equipment
Not long ago a motivational speaker was appearing at a local hotel. The room was packed with an upbeat, enthusiastic crowd. After repeated tries the emcee finally caught the attention of the group and introduced the speaker. Moments after he began to speak he was met with a chorus of, “We can’t hear you!” It took about 5 minutes to get someone from the hotel to adjust the volume and for the speaker to get on with his presentation. He recovered well and made a joke of the situation, but it was still embarrassing and it could have been prevented with these simple suggestions:
Test the equipment – We may feel that the hotel A/V department or our own staff is competent to prepare the equipment and make sure it works. However, when the presentation starts it’s our reputation that is on the line. If your talk was important enough to spend hours preparing, then it should be important enough to spend a few minutes testing the equipment. Turn on the overhead projector and check for a spare bulb. Make sure that your laptop is compatible with the LCD projector and that your slides are readable in that room. Do a sound check with the microphone and walk around to make sure that there is no feedback. Take the time to try out your equipment and you will avoid many embarrassing situations.
Know who can help – Often a hotel or corporate audiovisual system is very complex and confusing. Miles of wires and numerous unmarked sockets can make it virtually impossible for someone who is unfamiliar with the system to make adjustments or to plug in their own equipment. Sometimes the control panels are even under lock and key! Therefore it is crucial for you to have a contact person at the facility that can help you to both set up the equipment and come to your rescue if problems should occur.
Have a backup plan – Despite all of the best laid plans and preparation there will be occasions when problems will still crop up. What will you do if there is a total or partial equipment failure? Be ready to work with just a flip chart or a white board. Put all of your presentation software slides on transparencies so that you can use them on an overhead projector. Or as a last resort be able to deliver your message without any visuals at all.
Dealing With Presentation Anxiety
According to The Book of Lists, the number one fear of people is speaking before a group. The number seven fear is death. So if you were to say you would rather die than speak in front of a group, at least statistically, you would be in the majority!
Even professional speakers often deal with anxiety before they give their presentations. Here are some of the ways they deal with it.
Be prepared. The old scouting motto is as appropriate for presenters as it is for campers. Prepare for your presentation so that you know more about your topic than you will ever use. This can help minimize your level of anxiety.
Practice. The first time you give your presentation should never be in front of an audience. Take the time to practice it by yourself, out loud, at least twice before you get up in front of a group. If you can, present it to some of your peers. You may even want to record and listen to yourself in order to improve your presentation.
Visualize success. Once you have properly prepared and practiced, be secure in knowing there is nothing more you can do to improve the talk itself. Now is the time to deal with your state of mind. Project yourself forward in time to the end of your presentation and think about how it is being accepted. Envision the audience liking what you said, understanding the points you made and wanting to implement your recommend-ations. Pre-play success.
Focus on your friends. As soon as you begin your talk, identify audience members you know are on your side. They may be friends or co-workers or even individuals you met and spoke with just before your presentation. In any case, single out audience members who are smiling and nodding. Focusing on these people will build your confidence and help alleviate the anxiety that comes with speaking in front of groups.
Tips for Better Web-Based Presentations
During a presentation class we recently taught, one of the participant’s asked, “ How is presenting over the web different from presenting live?” It was an interesting question and following are some suggestions for those of you who presents via webcast or web conference.
Inputs. In many web-based presentations the audience has only two forms of input. First are the slides you are using, second is your voice. It is important that these two inputs are interesting and engaging in order for the audience to stay focused on your presentation. Let’s discuss them in order:
Visuals. As with live presenting, the visuals need to be interesting and creative. Your notes are neither! Think in terms of graphs, charts and pictures. These visual aspects show more information than words can convey.
Voice. It is easy enough to become monotone during a live presentation, during a webcast it is almost inevitable, unless you make a continuous effort to put energy and emphasis into your voice. Imagine that instead of a visual presentation, you are giving one that is only auditory. All of that energy that the audience used to see physically, they must now hear in your voice. In addition, better enunciation will make sure you are understood by all.
Interaction. Another way to keep your audience connected to your presentation is to give them the opportunity to interact with you.
Polls. During the presentation you may have want to conduct a poll that asks the audience how they feel or what they might want to see done better.
Questions. Any presentation should make time for questions from the audience so that important points might be clarified. During a webcast you don’t want interruptions, so let the audience know that you will give them a chance to ask questions later in the talk, then make sure you do it.
Distractions. Because your audience is not used to the limitations of the webcast, you need to make sure that you don’t unnecessarily cause distractions such as these:
Noise. Microphone sensitivity is extremely high for web presentations. Make sure that you remove distracting jewelry and keep from jostling the lectern or table. In addition, turn pages carefully to avoid the unwanted noise.
Delays. We are used to our communications being immediate, however this is not always true for web-based media. Allow for these time gaps by putting more pauses in your presentation and trying not to interrupt or talk over another person.
Finally, you must practice with the equipment prior to the presentation to avoid embarrassing blunders or technical difficulties.