Giving presentations is hard. Many of us are extremely uncomfortable speaking in front of an audience. It takes practice and skill. Here are some helpful tips. Excerpts from: https://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation
Frame your story
We all know that humans are wired to listen to stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle—people see the world differently afterward.
There are three main ways to deliver a talk. You can read it directly off a script or a teleprompter. You can develop a set of bullet points that map out what you’re going to say in each section rather than scripting the whole thing word for word. Or you can memorize your talk, which entails rehearsing it to the point where you internalize every word—verbatim.
Develop Stage Presence
The biggest mistake we see in early rehearsals is that people move their bodies too much. They sway from side to side, or shift their weight from one leg to the other. People do this naturally when they’re nervous, but it’s distracting and makes the speaker seem weak. Simply getting a person to keep his or her lower body motionless can dramatically improve stage presence.
Keep it simple; don’t use a slide deck as a substitute for notes (by, say, listing the bullet points you’ll discuss—those are best put on note cards); and don’t repeat out loud words that are on the slide. Not only is reciting slides a variation of the teleprompter problem—“Oh, no, she’s reading to us, too!”—but information is interesting only once, and hearing and seeing the same words feels repetitive.
Watch the following video and write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences) critique about Richard's presentation. How did he follow the strategies identified above?
Richard seems like a good public speaker for a young boy. He explained background information about his home and why this invention is so important to him and his family. He helped people, who don't live the way he does, understand how he lives and their problems. Richard had good multimedia. He had various pictures to show the audience what he was trying to explain to them. Richard doesn't move his body that much.Every so often he'll swing his arms or use simple arm movements while explaining. He does not use anything to read off of for his presentation and either has it committed to memory or prepared an outline off what he would say. I like how he lists his original ideas before explaining his final invention and is able to make the audience laugh. He also explains what led up to his invention and what discovery caused him to create it. He even explains what he used and how he built the mechanism.
ReplyDeleteRichard Turere gave a great presentation and used many of the aspects of a giving one that are included above. First, Richard engaged his audience and grabbed their attention by giving some background information about himself, the problem he was facing in his country. He prepared his presentation, very carefully, considering that fact that he didn't have a paper to read off of. This shows that he either memorized it, or is good at compiling thoughts on the spot. He also used visual content such as pictures, that went along with his presentation. However, I noticed that Richard was constantly moving, which probably suggests that he was nervous. But, he was able to hide that with a couple of jokes. Overall, Turere gave a "killer" presentation!
ReplyDeleteI think that he is a good public speaker because of a few reasons. RIchard gave background information on him and the problem which helped understand the meaning of the invention. He seemed well prepared of everything. He knew all of the information very well. He made a few jokes so that the audience wouldn't get bored adn keep listening to him.
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