Anyone good at presentations

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Vron

Original Poster:

2,528 posts

210 months

Thursday 4th February 2010
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Hi Folks
I have to do a 10 min presentation max 10 slides on one of three topics:

Blood sweat and tears
I have a dream
To be or not to be

I know about 'the rule of three' and was therefore leaning towards the first, the presentation can be on any subject its more about how its delivered and the thought process thats gone into it.

I want to do something really witty / quirky so the PH collective help will be greatly received - it has to be clean though!

Ta


Stevenj214

4,941 posts

229 months

Thursday 4th February 2010
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nipperS2K

84 posts

183 months

Thursday 4th February 2010
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I did one yesterday, 9 slide, 3 photos went down a storm but I still didnt get the job. Have to do another one next week without powerpoint....now that's a challenge!

Vron

Original Poster:

2,528 posts

210 months

Thursday 4th February 2010
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Stevenj214 said:
Thanks for the link - I am fine with powerpoint its more making a memorable presentation on a generic title. All the presentations I have done before have been around a specific subject.

HiRich

3,337 posts

263 months

Friday 5th February 2010
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Blood, Sweat & Tears all but written for you. Simple, unexpected, multimedia options.

jonlk

215 posts

171 months

Saturday 6th February 2010
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I've seen these three a few times! Yorkshire based company.

The problem with trying to help with them is that they're quite personal so it's difficult to advise really.

I always liked BST because you can define what they mean to you, relate them to your life then to your achievements.

Feel free to drop me a message and I'll try to help though.


Vron

Original Poster:

2,528 posts

210 months

Sunday 7th February 2010
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Thanks I have pretty much done the presentation I have gone for 'I have a dream'. Just need to do a few tweaks and start rehearsing smile

jonlk

215 posts

171 months

Sunday 7th February 2010
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Good Luck with it.

al1991

4,552 posts

181 months

Sunday 7th February 2010
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Good luck, I have a presentation to do in the coming weeks and...no powerpoint! This will be a first for me, not looking forward to it.

jonlk

215 posts

171 months

Sunday 7th February 2010
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Old School Al! Are you going to learn it by heart then present like thaty (with actor like flair) of are you using presentation aids, flip chart, cards etc?

Ewan S

1,295 posts

228 months

Sunday 7th February 2010
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OK done loads recently, so here's a few pointers:

1) Keep any powerpoint slides to pictures, graphs, and any text must be in bullet points. This is so the viewers attention is on you rather than reading paragraphs of text on the screen. Use the same bullet points to talk about your subject and keep on the subject.
2) Interact with the audience - small crowds only though! If they're likely to know more about a subject, and you're doing the presentation for a job interview or similar - actually ask the people in the audience questions which show you've been thinking about what their company does and were just unsure about a particular point. If pressed on this point out their website just shows what they want their customers to know about them, rather than for instance detailing all their trade secrets.
3) Know your subject to the point that you can confidently tell friends all about the subject without using prompt cards - those bullet points earlier? they're your prompts! At the same time make it interesting. All the presentations I do, I just get up there and talk about the subject using the bullet points to keep me on track. Its not hard.

If I think of anything else I'll let you know!

V8mate

45,899 posts

190 months

Sunday 7th February 2010
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Bear in mind that a PP presentation should 'stand up' on its own; i.e. if someone read through it without you being there, they'd still get the jist of your message.

Mobile Chicane

20,844 posts

213 months

Monday 8th February 2010
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Pictures, lots of pictures. The more senior the audience, the more of these you will need.

FFS don't read your slides - the audience should be looking at you and what you are saying rather than being distracted by visual 'aids'.

Google Steve Jobs if you want examples of a master presenter at work.

siscar

6,887 posts

218 months

Tuesday 9th February 2010
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V8mate said:
Bear in mind that a PP presentation should 'stand up' on its own; i.e. if someone read through it without you being there, they'd still get the jist of your message.
I'd say quite the opposite. Only use powerpoint if it is going to add to what you say, it's good to illustrate a point or to emphasise it but so often it is used to put your notes up on a screen in which case why bother turning up?

The best presentations I've been to either don't use powerpoint at all or use it very sparingly. You need to plan a presentation and, if you can, make a story of it. Make it interesting, if you just put up slide after slide and read through them people will get bored waiting for you to move to the next slide.

Vron

Original Poster:

2,528 posts

210 months

Tuesday 9th February 2010
quotequote all
Mobile Chicane said:
Pictures, lots of pictures. The more senior the audience, the more of these you will need.

FFS don't read your slides - the audience should be looking at you and what you are saying rather than being distracted by visual 'aids'.

Google Steve Jobs if you want examples of a master presenter at work.
Thanks for this I have made a couple of changes for the better to mine after watching the clip.

williamp

19,265 posts

274 months

Tuesday 9th February 2010
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also the old maxim:

tell them what you are going to tell them
tell them
tell them what you have just told them

And learn it off by heart. You should only look at the screen to change slides (its far too showing-off to time your presentation so slides change at the right moment).

Dont: use fancy graphics, spinning words or exciting noises. Its naff. but you can use bright colours. But watch yellow as it can be difficult to read at a distance

No harm in making it fun, but never let the humour get in the way of the topics. You have information, they want to know it.

al1991

4,552 posts

181 months

Tuesday 9th February 2010
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jonlk said:
Old School Al! Are you going to learn it by heart then present like thaty (with actor like flair) of are you using presentation aids, flip chart, cards etc?
We have handouts and that's it! I think we've just to get the basic idea of what we want to say and then ad lib it. Seems more like a one-sided conversation to me but hey ho!

A.Wang

541 posts

198 months

Wednesday 10th February 2010
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Blood, sweat and tears...

That'd be a perfect presentation on Max Mosley!

Or, if you want to be boring - talk about Churchill, WW2, the Battle of Britain etc.

anonymous-user

55 months

Wednesday 10th February 2010
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How NOT to use powerpoint

I actually found it quite useful.

Vron

Original Poster:

2,528 posts

210 months

Tuesday 9th March 2010
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Well after completing the third round last week I found out today the job went to an internal applicant. There were 2 of us at final stage from 28 initially.

Very frustrating as I think it was always going to go that way regardless of how well I performed so feel a bit 'used' frown

So - on with the search.