Top tips for awesome presentation skills
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(Mad) Presentation skillz Some advice that may or may not be helpful, depending on what you need to know, what type of presentation you need to give, your audience and other unknown unknowns @jon_bedford, September 2014
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Here are my top tips for giving great presentations based on going to and speaking at dozens and dozens of conferences and being inspired (or copying) other people's techniques.
Transcript of Top tips for awesome presentation skills
(Mad) Presentation skillz
Some advice that may or may not be helpful, depending on what you need to know, what type of presentation you need to give, your audience and other unknown unknowns
@jon_bedford, September 2014
What we’ll cover today
What you find difficult
Caveats
Structure & storytelling
An exercise
Posture, diction, tone
Another exercise
Making pretty slides/making slides pretty
That was an “agenda” slide
But I didn’t call it an “agenda” because agendas are boring.
Top tip #1
Choose your words carefully
What do you find most difficult when giving a presentation?
• Nerves, composure – and then remembering what to say• Turning things into a story that people can easily follow and that makes
logical sense • [insert a funny sentence here so people chuckle when they read]• I basically read the bits that are up on the screen (which everyone can do
for themselves anyway), rather than tell the story• ‘off the cuff’ presenting – i.e. when presentation doesn’t necessarily
require an actual prepared presentation.• Getting a good slide image that captures the intent, funny and new..• I worry that people lose focus and engagement. So I’d love to know some
sure fire ways of keeping people interested and engaged, if that’s even a thing!
Top tip #2
Never reveal more than one line of text
What do you find most difficult when giving a presentation?
Nerves, composure, and remembering what to say
Turning things into a story
I basically read the bits that are up on the screen
‘off the cuff’ presenting
Getting a good slide image
How to keep people interested and engaged
Caveats
Different people learn/listen in different ways
What works for me, might not work for you
Practice makes perfect
How I used to do it wrong
Let’s start with a story
www.flickr.com/photos/umjanedoan/496707576/
The basic story arc
(re-creating images in your design style looks better)
Exposition
Ris
ing
action
Climax
Falling action
Denouement
Storytelling (as I was taught by @charlotteharris)
Tell them what you’re going to
tell themTell them Tell them what
you told them
Monomyth - the hero’s journey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth
Cinderella’s hero’s journey
I iz in ur presos
Telling ur storiez
How to help structure your story
Who’s the audience? What will they respond to?
What do you want them to think afterwards?
List your key messages. Or write an agenda.
Top tip #3
Remember the rule of three
(here I did a little NLP exercise to get people to visualise giving a presentation)
What do you find most difficult when giving a presentation?
Nerves, composure – and then remembering what to sayTurning things into a story that people can easily follow and that makes
logical sense I basically read the bits that are up on the screen (which everyone can do for
themselves anyway), rather than tell the story‘off the cuff’ presenting – i.e. when presentation doesn’t necessarily require
an actual prepared presentation.Getting a good slide image that captures the intent, funny and new..I worry that people lose focus and engagement. So I’d love to know some
sure fire ways of keeping people interested and engaged, if that’s even a thing!
Top tip #4
Interact with your audience
What we’ll cover today
What you find difficult
Caveats
Structure & storytelling
An exercise
Posture, diction, tone
Another exercise
Making pretty slides/making slides pretty
Bad posture
www.flickr.com/photos/kaibara/4338318506
Good posture
www.flickr.com/photos/tarnalberry
Speak from your diaphragm
http://thevoicenotes.com/
Diction
Tone - project
It’s exercise time!
Repeat after me...
http://procw.hubpages.com/hub/voice-warmups
1. Ah-blah, alligator; blah-blah, anticipator2. Beckoned Becky, boasted Bobby, believed babbling Brooke.3. Can't David Eat Fish, Gail?4. Honduras has horrible hamburgers.5. In Jeffrey Kemp's last meeting, no one presentation remained solid.6. Trust the tongue twisters to tickle that tongue.7. Ugly vampires wear extraordinarily yellow zippers.8. Alligators - Baboons - Cats - Dogs - Elephants - Fish9. Gorillas - Horses - Iguanas - Jaguars - Kangaroos10. Llamas - Monkeys - Newts - Octopus - Porcupines11. Quail - Rabbits - Snakes - Turtles - Unicorns - Yaks - Zebra
Top tip #5
Speak slower than normal
What we’ll cover today
What you find difficult
Caveats
Structure & storytelling
An exercise
Posture, diction, tone
Another exercise
Making pretty slides/making slides pretty
@harvjm: “Keep it simple”
DO - use great images that help tell your story
www.flickr.com/photos/rdes/14786856970
Don’t – overlay colours that people can’t read
www.flickr.com/photos/rdes/14786856970
Do – use photo attribution
www.flickr.com/photos/christiantlambert/8728681573
Do – use flickr
Don’t – use google images
Do – try freeimages.com
Do – try thestocks.im
(via @leharvs)
Don’t - use clipart
Do - use animations sparingly
Remember this?
Tell them what you’re going to
tell themTell them Tell them what
you told them
What we covered today
What you find difficult
Caveats
Structure & storytelling
An exercise
Posture, diction, tone
Another exercise
Making pretty slides/making slides pretty
5 Top tips
1. Choose your words carefully
2. Never reveal more than one line of text
3. Remember the rule of three (unlike this list)
4. Interact with your audience
5. Speak slower than normal
Homework
Deliver a 3-5 minute presentation next time
Suggested topic – something you’re interested in
Tell us a story you know well
(the point of this was to get people to put into practice what they’d learnt in a friendly environment, talking about something they knew so they’d already feel more confident about the topic
Appendix
Design resources
• http://webdesign.tutsplus.com/articles/30-awesome-free-fonts-for-kick-ass-web-designs--webdesign-1141
• http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/advice-select-best-fonts-for-powerpoint-presentation-slides/3355/
• http://www.slideshare.net/itseugene/7-tips-to-beautiful-powerpoint-by-itseugenec
• http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/07/a-trio-of-aweso.html
Storytelling tips
• http://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks?language=en
• http://blog.slideshare.net/2010/11/29/david-armanos-approach-to-preparing-and-delivering-presentations/
• http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=8655775
