Seven Essential Presentation Tips

Before You Speak: Answer A Few Questions First

Someone has asked you to say a few words to a group of people. Excellent - you have an opportunity to make a difference to your organization. It's also an opportunity to shine in front of co-workers and perhaps the boss. But before you agree to speak, ask yourself some questions. In coming up with the answers, you'll lay the foundation for an effective presentation.

Know Your Subject
The first thing to ask is, "Am I qualified to speak on this topic?" Unless the answer is a resounding yes, don't waste your time or that of anybody else. Your lack of knowledge will show, together with a lack of confidence. And you won't have any of the enthusiasm you need to propel your message deep into the minds of your listeners.

You're qualified to speak on a subject when you know more about the topic than most people, and certainly more than your audience. For example:

. As an R&D manager, you've researched microchip technology for the past six years. You've earned the right to talk about advances in chip-making.

. You've run six marathons. You've earned the right to talk about how best to prepare for one.

Your experiences provide more than knowledge. They've made you enthusiastic about your work. That enthusiasm not only instills in you an urge to share your experiences, it also creates an air of excitement that surrounds your talk. The audience sits up and listens. If that excitement is absent, you put people to sleep.

Answer Fundamental Questions
If you are the right person to give the talk, start preparing for it by asking:

. When is the presentation? Are you available? Is it at a time of day in which you (and the audience) will be alert?

. Where will it take place? Can you get there? Is it a small room or a large hall?

. What kind of event is it? Is it a brief overview for a group of your intimates, a keynote address, or something in between? Is it a call to action? Will you speak after a meal or after people have had a few drinks?

. Who will attend? Must they attend or is attendance voluntary? What do these people already know about the subject? Are they experts? Neophytes?

. Why do the organizers want you? Because you are an acknowledged expert? Because you are the only one available? Because they need to fill up time or because your talk is absolutely critical to a particular effort?

. How many people will attend? Ten? A thousand? Whatever the number, know it early so you can prepare yourself.

You can probably think of other questions. The point is to gather as much information as you possibly can about the event and your role in it. What you discover is, in total, the context for your talk. Knowing the context will help you make many decisions about what information to include, how to present it, how long to talk, and so on. It'll help you sell your message to whomever you're speaking to. Answers to these questions in hand, it's a lot easier to clear your mind for the next important task: figuring out exactly what you want to convey to the audience.

How To Write A Good Presentation

The way we deliver our message to other people is made up of three components, the three V's: Visual, Vocal, Verbal. Each carries a percentage of the listeners' perception of the total message. The visual component usually carries the most weight with audience members -- a person's body language, posture, eye contact and facial expressions are the main areas in this equation.

Have you ever watched a speaker sway or rock at the podium or in front of a room? It's very distracting and can detract from even the most interesting presentation.

How you appear to the audience will have an impact on their reaction to what you are going to tell them. Your posture and the way you conduct yourself is an important part of your presentation. Your objective is to be comfortable and controlled while you are presenting. You want the audience to see that you are relaxed and in control (no matter how you really feel!).

Stand up and spread your feet about 6 to 8 inches apart, parallel to each other with your toes pointed straight ahead to achieve a comfortable speaking position. Then, flex your knees and put your weight on the balls of your feet. Standing in this position will stop any swaying or rocking motion and will diminish any distracting heel movements.

Stand up straight and face the audience head-on. Keep your posture open with arms relaxed and hanging down at your sides. If your arms are crossed in front it may make you seem defensive. Hold your head up high with your chin up. Having your chin raised gives you the aura of being in control; chin down connotes acquiescence. Visual signals that make you appear not to be in control will detract from your presentation.

Gestures, a form of body language, are also a part of your overall visual picture. They are visual reinforcements of the words and ideas you are trying to communicate to your audience. Gestures include hand, arm, and head movements and can enhance your presentation or detract from it. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who "talks with their hands?" It some cultures, it is an accepted and commonplace addition to spoken communication. In our culture, some hand gestures such as finger pointing and fist raising can be interpreted as hostile or threatening.

Another negative related to gesturing concerns the position of a speaker's hands and arms. When giving presentations, men frequently stand in the "at ease" position commonly used in the military. They cross their hands behind their backs, and they keep them there. Or they cross their hands low in front of them like a fig leaf on a statue. Both men and women frequently cross their arms over their chests thinking they appear relaxed and confident. To many in the audience, this stance makes the speaker look merely defensive. By facing audience members with your arms crossed you are closing yourself to them, and they will sense this. Since your objective is to communicate with openness and sincerity, you want to make open gestures to reinforce what you are saying.

Another gesture to avoid is putting your hands in your pockets. Some nervous presenters use this as a way of keeping their shaking hands out of sight, and often wind up jingling the change in their pocket or their keys, without realizing it. Some people can't get their hands back out again and wind up spilling out the contents of their pockets as they try to release their hands. To avoid embarrassment, it's wise to empty your pockets of change and keys before presenting.

Gestures also help you to emphasize important points during your presentation. They reinforce what you are saying with a visual message. The most effective gestures are spontaneous ones. They come from what you are thinking and feeling and they help the audience to relate to you and what you are telling them. It is much more effective to watch a speaker who uses movement than to listen to someone standing behind a lectern with hands clasped in front of him.

Your gestures should be varied; don't use the same motion over and over again. Repetition can be distracting to audience members and you may find they are watching your gestures instead of listening to the presentation. Some gestures interfere with the audience's ability to pay attention, such as the threatening ones mentioned earlier (finger pointing and fist waving). Instead, use your palms and open them out to your audience. Move your arm and hand as a single unit gesturing up and out toward the audience. Use either one or two arms. Try a sweeping motion and relate the extent of your gestures to the size of your audience. Bigger audiences need bigger gestures. Don't forget that nodding the head, and smiling are effective ways to emphasize what you are saying. As a presenter who uses gestures effectively, you will be projecting confidence and competence and the response you get from your audience will let you know when you have succeeded.

Whether they read from prepared notes or do impromptu speeches, effective speakers make eye contact with audience members.

Don't be afraid to make eye contact with audience members, their reactions to you will help your performance as a presenter. If you sense boredom, you may have to pick up the pace; if you sense enthusiasm, it can help to pump you up. When you make eye contact, you are relating to your audience, which will help get your message across.

In order to make proper eye contact, think of the audience as sitting in a "Z" formation. Start with a familiar or friendly face. Look at that person for three to five seconds, or to complete a thought, and then move on in a "Z" around the room. Break your "Z" by starting from the middle or the back of the room to vary your eye contact. If you make eye contact with someone who quickly turns away, try not to look directly into that person's eyes again. In some cultures, direct eye contact is inappropriate, and some people just feel uncomfortable being looked at. You may also nod occasionally, and you will probably get a nod back, at least if the person agrees with what you just said. If you get a head shake, you'll know who disagrees with you.

Speakers also know they need to be aware of facial expressions during presentations. Once you become aware of the expressions you make, it will be easier for you to eliminate them. Put a mirror next to your desk at work for one week. Watch your face when you are talking on the telephone. Be aware of any artificial, unfriendly, or deadpan expressions you may be making. Do you squint, frown, make strange faces? Practice smiling and looking pleasant. That's how you want to look during your presentations.

It isn't easy to speak and smile at the same time, but it is important to smile during your presentation if congruent with your message. Some men find it more difficult to smile while presenting than women do, but practice helps here. Videotape your presentation or practice in front of a friend. Watch your expression and see if you have smiled enough and in appropriate places. If not, you can write reminder notes to yourself in the margin of your speech or just practice smiling beforehand.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Before giving your next presentation, keep these words in mind and remember the visual signals you want to give the audience. When you master the visual mix of appropriate body language, proper movements, eye contact and more, you're well on your way to successful speaking.

How To Be An Interesting Speaker... Every Time

In today's "information age," good presentation skills are essential if you want to succeed. Building rapport with your audience and keeping their interest are the keys. Here are some tips to help you be an interesting speaker, every time:

Forget about you
There is a tendency when preparing a speech to focus on what you want to tell the audience, rather than what they want to hear. Do your research. Find out who is in the group, what level of experience they have and what they are interested in learning. A good technique is to arrive early and talk to members of the group. Check if what you plan to say is of interest. Find out what their concerns are.

Use few, if any notes
What are you thinking when you see a speaker approaching the lectern adjusting pages of notes? "Oh no, this is going to be boring!" And it usually is! Use simple overheads, slides or computer-generated images as your prompt. You know your material - you don't need to read it. Instead, build rapport by making eye contact with your audience and speaking to them, rather than at them.

Practice
It is reported that Winston Churchill, one of the world's greatest speech makers, spent on average seven hours writing and preparing every 40-minute speech. The only way to be great is to "Practice, practice, practice."

Be flexible
If a cable is missing, or the slide projector is jammed, or the overhead projector has blown a lamp, don't panic. A true professional just carries on, using humor to build rapport with the audience. They will probably sympathize, as technical problems are everyone else's worst nightmare too.

Use a variety of visual aides
Even a first-rate presentation can become boring if the same format is used over and over again. Add variety. Is there a prop you can use? How about a video clip? What about handing something around the audience or giving a demonstration? Portable displays can also help you acheive a more exciting presentation by allowing your visual aides a premament space in the line of sight of your listeners.

Use stories and examples
Everyone loves stories. I'm sure you have examples or real life stories that can illustrate your point far more effectively than just facts and figures. Develop a number of stories and use them for impact. A key to using stories is to be sure that they have a point! They should illustrate, explain or reinforce what you are saying.

And finally, have fun! We all take ourselves far too seriously. If you are having fun, so will your audience - and they will remember you.

How To Give A Good Speech

Every speech or presentation has two main aspects:

WHAT you say (content)
HOW you say it (delivery)

You obviously have a lot of control over the content, because you can plan out exactly what you want to say. But you can also do a lot to make sure your delivery is effective too. The advice that follows will help you deliver a powerful speech:

Remember that a listener usually only has one chance to understand what you are saying. So you must do everything you can to make it easy for him or her to follow your ideas.

The best way to do this is to "signpost" your speech. At the beginning, say how your speech will be divided up. During the speech, make it clear when one part has finished and the next part has started. (For example, "Now that I have explained some of the causes of air pollution, I want to tell you what we can do to reduce the problem.") At the end of your speech, make it clear that you are finished (e.g. by simply saying "Thank you!").

The most important parts of a speech are the beginning and the end. Think about a strong first sentence that will capture the attention of the listener. Be calm and confident; give the impression that you are well prepared and have something interesting to say. End with a strong sentence: make people laugh or give them something provocative to think about.

Practice your speech before the big day. In particular it is useful to think about how and where you will stand/sit, and where you will put your materials before and after you have used them. Practice using your speech cards.

Speak loudly and clearly. Remember that your voice (your intonation) must do the job that punctuation does in your writing. Try not to speak too fast. Never just read full sentence notes - it is boring and makes your speech very difficult to follow.

Make sure you can be seen as well as heard. Don't hide behind your sheets or the overhead projector. It is important that every listener feels you are talking to him or her personally. Therefore look round the room and try to make eye contact with everyone in the audience at least once during your speech.

Be careful not to distract your listeners by swinging on a chair, tapping your feet etc.

It is useful to include visual material with your speech. For example, if you are talking about places, show a map. If you are using numbers, write them for all to see. (It's very difficult for listeners to keep large or many numbers in their head.) Portable easels and markerboards provide a convenient visual impact to your spoken words.

If you are going to have audience participation be very clear exactly what you want from them. If you ask a question, be ready for strange answers, and expect to have to answer it yourself.

Good presentation skills can do more for your career than an arm-load of degrees from prestigious universities. When you put these methods to work, you'll be on your way to becoming a master communicator.

Ease The Fear of Public Speaking

Surveys have shown that over 95% of the population has some type of public speaking anxiety or discomfort when speaking in front of people. Below are some of the common fears with tips on how to lessen these fears.

1. Fear of going blank

• Use briefer notes. The goal is white space, not a page full of sentences. Your notes should look like a grocery list, quadruple spaced.
• Practice speaking from key concepts and coming from experience.
• Take notes with you even if you don't plan to use them.
• Don't memorize - realize.

2. Fear of not making sense

• Begin with the end in mind. What is the purpose of this talk? Condense your purpose until it can be written in your normal handwriting onto the back of a business card.
• Rehearse the vague parts with someone prior to presenting.
• Survey the audience ahead of time on their needs and concerns.
• Use more visual props, samples and demonstrations - 70% of what we remember is received visually.

3. Fear of looking nervous

• 90% of most physical symptoms of nervousness never show.
• Physical warm-ups help relax muscles and release excessive adrenaline.
• Breathe!
• Remember - our fears are always more numerous than our dangers.

4. Fear of being boring

• Tune-in to the favorite radio station of your audience, W.I.I.F.M. (What's In It For Me).
• A slide with a company logo and six lines of text is not a visual aid.
• Avoid long monologues. Establish a dialog with the audience.
• Check on your game face. Even a neutral look in interpreted as negative.

Keeping these tips in mind as you prepare to give your presentation will help keep you focused on getting your message across, rather than on how you look.

Power Up With Nervous Energy

You'll probably never get over your nervousness before a speech or a presentation. Even the most accomplished speakers feel the butterflies before getting up in front of the audience. And that's good. As the old saying goes, if you're as cool as a cucumber when you speak, you're probably about as interesting as one. You can learn to use your nervousness and the adrenaline it produces to fuel your enthusiasm for the subject, to amplify your voice or body language, and to keep you sharp and alert. Here's how.

Be Prepared
First, be ready for your presentation. That means making sure you have the right message for the audience, that you've outlined the talk in a logical way, that you've added colorful elements to make the presentation memorable, and that you've rehearsed it well enough that you could do it in your sleep. (No, there's no way to take shortcuts when preparing for a presentation. Shortcuts lead to failure.)

Ask: What Are You Afraid Of?
If you're afraid of giving a presentation, ask yourself exactly what you fear. Forgetting your words? Fumbling the opening or conclusion? Tripping over a microphone cord? Giving weak answers to hostile questions? Maybe your fear is serving you well, your opening is weak, or you haven't thought up good answers to some of the questions you know you'll get. Do whatever is necessary to turn the weakness into strength. Normally this means more practice, but it may mean an additional trip to the library or the internet to do more research.

Just Before the Presentation
You're seated in the presentation room, listening as the moderator or toastmaster is introducing you to the audience. Your heart starts to race and your palms get sweaty. This is normal. But it's critical to control your emotions.

To do that:

. Breathe deeply. Focus on breathing deeply from the diaphragm. Do ten long, slow breaths just before you go up. The increased oxygen will help calm you.

. Give yourself a pep talk. "OK, old buddy. It's time. You can do it. You'll floor 'em."

. Recite the first few opening lines in your mind. They'll pop out of your mouth with vigor when you begin to speak.

. Remind yourself to start slowly. Your energy may cause you to race through the opening. Rein in your energy so you can use it for the whole presentation. You don't want to relax completely-if that were possible. You want to use the energy building in your bones for a strong start to the talk.

As You're Speaking
When you begin to speak, look for some friendly faces in the audience and direct your comments to them. If you fix on someone who looks bored or hostile, you may lose confidence, and you need all of that you can get. Finding friendly faces to speak to reminds you that your talk is really just a conversation with people who care about what you have to say. Don't forget: In most situations, people in the audience are on your side. They want you to succeed, they want you to tell them things they don't know, they want you to give them reasons to act in a certain way or to believe something. Most of them are not viewing you critically or judging you.

The Best Way to Control Nerves
Speak often in front of people. The more you do, the better you'll get at turning simple fear into a form of invigorating energy that makes you feel electric and powerful.

Plan Your Room's Arrangement

Everyone knows that the best presentations are the ones that are well thought out, prepared and rehearsed. Another important element in your presentation's success is your presentation room arrangement. The best-laid out presentation can turn into a nightmare if the room is not properly arranged. To ensure a dynamic presentation, room arrangement should be part of the preparation process.

First, take a look at the presentation room before the big day. If the room is offsite at a hotel ask the hotel to fax you a floor plan of the room. Visualize where you would like your equipment, the audience seating, flip charts, whiteboards, etc. to be located. Arrange to meet with the hotel room coordinator and indicate your room design wishes to him/her.

Arrive early on the day of your presentation. Begin by adjusting your projector and arrange the image to fit on the screen. Next, your projector may require the lights to be dimmed during the presentation. In that case, find the location of the lighting control before the presentation begins which will save you from an awkward moment during the presentation.

Now, check out the audio system. If at all possible, request to use a lapel microphone. This type of microphone simply attaches onto your shirt, leaving your hands free for the presentation. Test the system to make sure it is working properly. Also, if your laptop presentation has audio effects, you may want to consider running the audio through your projector's audio system for better audio system sound.

Next, take a walk around the room. Sit in different seats around the room to make sure each area is obstruction free and that the lighting and audio are correct for the presentation. Also, you may want to create a center isle between the chairs so that you can be free to move near your audience during your presentation.

Lastly, if your presentation is being held in a hotel find out if there are other nearby presentations. Ask the hotel coordinator if there will be groups of people on breaks in and around your presentation room. If so, you may want to coordinate break times in order to minimize disruptions from large masses of people gathered outside your room.

When planning your next presentation, don't forget planning the room arrangement. It is just as important as preparing for your presentation.

Setting Up The Room For Your Presentation

The seasoned presenter knows how to assess and organize the physical aspects of any presentation environment for the best effect, regardless of size. Sometimes particular things about a room's design are beyond your control, but whenever possible keep in mind the following:

. First, once you begin your presentation, remember that you will be at the lead in case of an emergency. As a precaution acquaint yourself with emergency exits and extinguishers so you have a command for the safety of the room.

. Plan on keeping the room lights bright enough for easy movement, but compatible with your projection needs. Today's data/video projectors may not require completely darkened spaces.

. Set up yourself and your equipment and materials as close to the front row as possible, allowing for reasonable personal space. Pay attention to your own lighting requirements, especially if you'll be reading from text.

. Take care of all maintenance issues before you begin. Trail all cables and extension cords as close to the walls as possible and test everything twice, including the lights.

. Position yourself away from heavily trafficked routes so latecomers won't cross in front of you.

. Set up projection equipment at the appropriate throw distance from the screen, always testing and correcting for the desired results. Without a screen, set up to the long side of the room - with a screen, set up to the short side of the room.

. Always set up more seats than you require and at the same time have more hand-outs than the number you are expecting.

. Be aware of any unseen factors around the room's temperature control. Make sure the room is comfortable and will stay comfortable and be aware of any loud fans or equipment (including your own) that could compete with your audibility. Optimum temperature will contribute to a more receptive audience.

. Wherever possible, face the audience away from windows. Don't allow them to be distracted with on-goings outside. Draw the blinds as need be to avoid bright lights and cast shadows.

. Set up drinking water for yourself.

Optimal Seating Arrangements:
. Use semi-circular seating if possible.
. For horizontal rooms use 'U'-shaped seating so that you can get in between people when running Q & A.
. If there are tables set them up so you can walk between them for the same reason.
. If a large theater sized room with adjustable seat, go for a slightly curved, amphitheater design.

Remember, your presentation begins with the comfort and workability of the space you are presenting in. As often as possible, follow these key points for a successful experience for everybody involved.

Setting Up Your Equipment: The Visual Advantage

The way we deliver our message to other people is made up of three components, the three V's: Visual, Vocal, Verbal. Each carries a percentage of the listeners' perception of the total message. The visual component usually carries the most weight with audience members -- a person's body language, posture, eye contact and facial expressions are the main areas in this equation.

Have you ever watched a speaker sway or rock at the podium or in front of a room? It's very distracting and can detract from even the most interesting presentation.

How you appear to the audience will have an impact on their reaction to what you are going to tell them. Your posture and the way you conduct yourself is an important part of your presentation. Your objective is to be comfortable and controlled while you are presenting. You want the audience to see that you are relaxed and in control (no matter how you really feel!).

Stand up and spread your feet about 6 to 8 inches apart, parallel to each other with your toes pointed straight ahead to achieve a comfortable speaking position. Then, flex your knees and put your weight on the balls of your feet. Standing in this position will stop any swaying or rocking motion and will diminish any distracting heel movements.

Stand up straight and face the audience head-on. Keep your posture open with arms relaxed and hanging down at your sides. If your arms are crossed in front it may make you seem defensive. Hold your head up high with your chin up. Having your chin raised gives you the aura of being in control; chin down connotes acquiescence. Visual signals that make you appear not to be in control will detract from your presentation.

Gestures, a form of body language, are also a part of your overall visual picture. They are visual reinforcements of the words and ideas you are trying to communicate to your audience. Gestures include hand, arm, and head movements and can enhance your presentation or detract from it. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who "talks with their hands?" In some cultures, it is an accepted and commonplace addition to spoken communication. In our culture, some hand gestures such as finger pointing and fist raising can be interpreted as hostile or threatening.

Another negative related to gesturing concerns the position of a speaker's hands and arms. When giving presentations, men frequently stand in the "at ease" position commonly used in the military. They cross their hands behind their backs, and they keep them there. Or they cross their hands low in front of them like a fig leaf on a statue. Both men and women frequently cross their arms over their chests thinking they appear relaxed and confident. To many in the audience, this stance makes the speaker look merely defensive. By facing audience members with your arms crossed you are closing yourself to them, and they will sense this. Since your objective is to communicate with openness and sincerity, you want to make open gestures to reinforce what you are saying.

Another gesture to avoid is putting your hands in your pockets. Some nervous presenters use this as a way of keeping their shaking hands out of sight, and often wind up jingling the change in their pocket or their keys, without realizing it. Some people can't get their hands back out again and wind up spilling out the contents of their pockets as they try to release their hands. To avoid embarrassment, it's wise to empty your pockets of change and keys before presenting.

Gestures also help you to emphasize important points during your presentation. They reinforce what you are saying with a visual message. The most effective gestures are spontaneous ones. They come from what you are thinking and feeling and they help the audience to relate to you and what you are telling them. It is much more effective to watch a speaker who uses movement than to listen to someone standing behind a lectern with hands clasped in front of him.

Your gestures should be varied; don't use the same motion over and over again. Repetition can be distracting to audience members and you may find they are watching your gestures instead of listening to the presentation. Some gestures interfere with the audience's ability to pay attention, such as the threatening ones mentioned earlier (finger pointing and fist waving). Instead, use your palms and open them out to your audience. Move your arm and hand as a single unit gesturing up and out toward the audience. Use either one or two arms. Try a sweeping motion and relate the extent of your gestures to the size of your audience. Bigger audiences need bigger gestures. Don't forget that nodding the head, and smiling are effective ways to emphasize what you are saying. As a presenter who uses gestures effectively, you will be projecting confidence and competence and the response you get from your audience will let you know when you have succeeded.

Whether they read from prepared notes or do impromptu speeches, effective speakers make eye contact with audience members.

Don't be afraid to make eye contact with audience members, their reactions to you will help your performance as a presenter. If you sense boredom, you may have to pick up the pace; if you sense enthusiasm, it can help to pump you up. When you make eye contact, you are relating to your audience, which will help get your message across.

In order to make proper eye contact, think of the audience as sitting in a "Z" formation. Start with a familiar or friendly face. Look at that person for three to five seconds, or to complete a thought, and then move on in a "Z" around the room. Break your "Z" by starting from the middle or the back of the room to vary your eye contact. If you make eye contact with someone who quickly turns away, try not to look directly into that person's eyes again. In some cultures, direct eye contact is inappropriate, and some people just feel uncomfortable being looked at. You may also nod occasionally, and you will probably get a nod back, at least if the person agrees with what you just said. If you get a head shake, you'll know who disagrees with you.

Speakers also know they need to be aware of facial expressions during presentations. Once you become aware of the expressions you make, it will be easier for you to eliminate them. Put a mirror next to your desk at work for one week. Watch your face when you are talking on the telephone. Be aware of any artificial, unfriendly, or deadpan expressions you may be making. Do you squint, frown, make strange faces? Practice smiling and looking pleasant. That's how you want to look during your presentations.

It isn't easy to speak and smile at the same time, but it is important to smile during your presentation if congruent with your message. Some men find it more difficult to smile while presenting than women do, but practice helps here. Videotape your presentation or practice in front of a friend. Watch your expression and see if you have smiled enough and in appropriate places. If not, you can write reminder notes to yourself in the margin of your speech or just practice smiling beforehand.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Before giving your next presentation, keep these words in mind and remember the visual signals you want to give the audience. When you master the visual mix of appropriate body language, proper movements, eye contact and more, you're well on your way to successful speaking.

Using PowerPoint: The Correct Approach

Always add to your verbal presentation with the visual, remembering that your speech is the first thing that connects you on a human level to your audience. This sounds obvious, but it is easy to slip and let the PowerPoint presentation become an outline of your prepared points that are redundantly read. Shortened bullet points also fail, if they have nothing to add to the presentation other than being a guide for you to follow. Never create a presentation that contains all the words you intend to speak Use it primarily to present the graphs, diagrams and illustrations that will act to support your words and information that your audience can take notes on.

Don't distract from your flow by using it to display cute but unassociated cartoons or merely attention-getting gimmicks. If you want to keep the focus on your presentation, highlight your specific points and expand on them.

Prepare yourself as if your screen were blank. The slides shouldn't be a crutch for unprepared or poorly organized speech. By using presentation programs as a visual supplement to, rather than the main communication of an effective presentation, you insure yourself against the unexpected failure of almost any part of the presentation. Technology means technical difficulties and no presenter should be thrown with an unforeseen failure of their supplementing equipment.

It helps to educate yourself on the troubleshooting of both your equipment and the software that you run, in case you do have a failure. If there is a natural break in your flow and a correction can be quickly made, you stay in control of your own credibility. Be aware of intact cable connections, the difference between "slide view" and "slide creation view" while the program is running and comfortable with the architecture of your laptop's organization. Never be in the position of waiting helplessly for someone else's expertise.

Your success will be in delivering a memorable presentation that is only enhanced with presentation software. Avoid overwhelming your audience with a frenetic, image saturated or animated distraction. Use the technology wisely and build your program on the tried and true methods of the art of communication. Polished interaction effectively communicates important ideas and messages that people can relate to their own experience. Using presentation programs should add to, and not detract from that goal.

Effectively Lead a Meeting

Poorly run meetings are the bane of many, if not most, organizations. People get together and, before you know it, the talk veers toward sports or why the vice president really got sacked. Or people lose track of the purpose of the meeting and start running down blind alleys.

As this article shows, there's a lot you can do to ensure a meeting succeeds in benefiting your organization.

Set the Purpose
To have a good meeting, you have to know what you want to accomplish. What's your ideal result: A decision made? A problem solved? Be very clear about the meeting's purpose and you're half way to achieving it.

Invite the Right People
Try to keep your meeting to no more than six to eight people. Any more and most of the participants don't get a good opportunity to air their views. People spout rather than discuss. And larger crowds encourage some to perform rather than think. Also, choose participants carefully. Among the criteria:

. Invite those with essential information/expertise/background.
. Invite those directly affected.
. Invite those with exceptionally good analytical skills in areas germane to the topic.
. Invite those with political clout, if necessary.
. Avoid, if possible, those who like to show off, the argumentative, and those fundamentally unable to stay on track.

Circulate the Agenda
After inviting people to the meeting, write an agenda for it. At the top of the agenda, state what the meeting should accomplish. ("Purpose: To decide whether to go forward with producing the Microbot.") Remind people to bring special material if necessary, and let them know if they will be expected to speak at length for any reason. Some people circulate an agenda a week beforehand. That's too long-people will lose it or forget about it. A day or two in advance is early enough.

Lead the Meeting
If a meeting is to succeed, it needs a leader. That's you. Make it your job to get results. To do that:

1. Set a time limit and announce it at the beginning. "I think we can get through this agenda in forty-five minutes. I promise to have you out of here at 2:45." This puts everyone on notice that the clock is ticking. Take minutes or, preferably, designate someone else secretary. Let people know they'll get a summary of the meeting within a day. That way they can concentrate on discussing, not note-taking.

2. Stick to the agenda. Consider it inviolable. Give a certain amount of time to each item and check your watch regularly. If you don't, either the meeting will run over or you won't accomplish your purpose. (How often have you been to a meeting in which the whole time was taken up by just two of many agenda items?)

3. Redirect conversation when necessary. "That's pretty interesting, Lenny. I'd love to discuss it with you sometime. Getting back to the problem at hand..." Sometimes you have to be firm if people are going on and on. "Thanks Carmine. Can we hear from someone else on this?" Directing discussion in a meeting takes skill, diplomacy, and tact. But it's an ability that will serve you well.

Summarize, Come to a Conclusion, and Call for Action
If you're successful, the meeting will have come to a useful conclusion. End the meeting by summarizing the discussion and stating the conclusion: "John's evidence, I think, shows persuasively that there is a market for the Microbot. Agnes proved we could manufacture it without buying new equipment, and Mark seemed thrilled with the marketing angles the product provides. So we're agreed: We move forward to the prototype stage."

You can be sure anyone who doesn't see things your way will jump in: "I didn't say we wouldn't have to buy any new equipment-just nothing major. But I'm still in favor of it."

Now's the time also to remind people of their commitments. "For the next meeting, Thursday at 2:00, Agnes will provide a design spec for the Microbot, Mark will sketch out a preliminary space ad, and John will give his opinion on pricing options. Any questions?"

Send Along the Results
Within a day, send a copy of the meeting's minutes and conclusions to each participant. Be sure to include their commitments going forward and when the next meeting will take place. If you want results, you must follow up on these commitments. Just because they are priorities to you doesn't mean they are priorities to anyone else.

The Visual Advantage

The way we deliver our message to other people is made up of three components, the three V's: Visual, Vocal, Verbal. Each carries a percentage of the listeners' perception of the total message. The visual component usually carries the most weight with audience members -- a person's body language, posture, eye contact and facial expressions are the main areas in this equation.

Have you ever watched a speaker sway or rock at the podium or in front of a room? It's very distracting and can detract from even the most interesting presentation.

How you appear to the audience will have an impact on their reaction to what you are going to tell them. Your posture and the way you conduct yourself is an important part of your presentation. Your objective is to be comfortable and controlled while you are presenting. You want the audience to see that you are relaxed and in control (no matter how you really feel!).

Stand up and spread your feet about 6 to 8 inches apart, parallel to each other with your toes pointed straight ahead to achieve a comfortable speaking position. Then, flex your knees and put your weight on the balls of your feet. Standing in this position will stop any swaying or rocking motion and will diminish any distracting heel movements.

Stand up straight and face the audience head-on. Keep your posture open with arms relaxed and hanging down at your sides. If your arms are crossed in front it may make you seem defensive. Hold your head up high with your chin up. Having your chin raised gives you the aura of being in control; chin down connotes acquiescence. Visual signals that make you appear not to be in control will detract from your presentation.

Gestures, a form of body language, are also a part of your overall visual picture. They are visual reinforcements of the words and ideas you are trying to communicate to your audience. Gestures include hand, arm, and head movements and can enhance your presentation or detract from it. Have you ever had a conversation with someone who "talks with their hands?" In some cultures, it is an accepted and commonplace addition to spoken communication. In our culture, some hand gestures such as finger pointing and fist raising can be interpreted as hostile or threatening.

Another negative related to gesturing concerns the position of a speaker's hands and arms. When giving presentations, men frequently stand in the "at ease" position commonly used in the military. They cross their hands behind their backs, and they keep them there. Or they cross their hands low in front of them like a fig leaf on a statue. Both men and women frequently cross their arms over their chests thinking they appear relaxed and confident. To many in the audience, this stance makes the speaker look merely defensive. By facing audience members with your arms crossed you are closing yourself to them, and they will sense this. Since your objective is to communicate with openness and sincerity, you want to make open gestures to reinforce what you are saying.

Another gesture to avoid is putting your hands in your pockets. Some nervous presenters use this as a way of keeping their shaking hands out of sight, and often wind up jingling the change in their pocket or their keys, without realizing it. Some people can't get their hands back out again and wind up spilling out the contents of their pockets as they try to release their hands. To avoid embarrassment, it's wise to empty your pockets of change and keys before presenting.

Gestures also help you to emphasize important points during your presentation. They reinforce what you are saying with a visual message. The most effective gestures are spontaneous ones. They come from what you are thinking and feeling and they help the audience to relate to you and what you are telling them. It is much more effective to watch a speaker who uses movement than to listen to someone standing behind a lectern with hands clasped in front of him.

Your gestures should be varied; don't use the same motion over and over again. Repetition can be distracting to audience members and you may find they are watching your gestures instead of listening to the presentation. Some gestures interfere with the audience's ability to pay attention, such as the threatening ones mentioned earlier (finger pointing and fist waving). Instead, use your palms and open them out to your audience. Move your arm and hand as a single unit gesturing up and out toward the audience. Use either one or two arms. Try a sweeping motion and relate the extent of your gestures to the size of your audience. Bigger audiences need bigger gestures. Don't forget that nodding the head, and smiling are effective ways to emphasize what you are saying. As a presenter who uses gestures effectively, you will be projecting confidence and competence and the response you get from your audience will let you know when you have succeeded.

Whether they read from prepared notes or do impromptu speeches, effective speakers make eye contact with audience members.

Don't be afraid to make eye contact with audience members, their reactions to you will help your performance as a presenter. If you sense boredom, you may have to pick up the pace; if you sense enthusiasm, it can help to pump you up. When you make eye contact, you are relating to your audience, which will help get your message across.

In order to make proper eye contact, think of the audience as sitting in a "Z" formation. Start with a familiar or friendly face. Look at that person for three to five seconds, or to complete a thought, and then move on in a "Z" around the room. Break your "Z" by starting from the middle or the back of the room to vary your eye contact. If you make eye contact with someone who quickly turns away, try not to look directly into that person's eyes again. In some cultures, direct eye contact is inappropriate, and some people just feel uncomfortable being looked at. You may also nod occasionally, and you will probably get a nod back, at least if the person agrees with what you just said. If you get a head shake, you'll know who disagrees with you.

Speakers also know they need to be aware of facial expressions during presentations. Once you become aware of the expressions you make, it will be easier for you to eliminate them. Put a mirror next to your desk at work for one week. Watch your face when you are talking on the telephone. Be aware of any artificial, unfriendly, or deadpan expressions you may be making. Do you squint, frown, make strange faces? Practice smiling and looking pleasant. That's how you want to look during your presentations.

It isn't easy to speak and smile at the same time, but it is important to smile during your presentation if congruent with your message. Some men find it more difficult to smile while presenting than women do, but practice helps here. Videotape your presentation or practice in front of a friend. Watch your expression and see if you have smiled enough and in appropriate places. If not, you can write reminder notes to yourself in the margin of your speech or just practice smiling beforehand.

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Before giving your next presentation, keep these words in mind and remember the visual signals you want to give the audience. When you master the visual mix of appropriate body language, proper movements, eye contact and more, you're well on your way to successful speaking.

Use Your Body To Speak

It's been said that words convey only 7 percent of your message when you're presenting. Some studies put the figure closer to 13 percent. Neither figure seems wholly believable, but there's no doubt that vocal variety, voice tone, body language, and visual aids convey a good deal of your message. These ingredients often make or break the presentation. People are watching them as closely as they are listening to your words.

Imagine you're telling people how to run a new tooling machine that's due to arrive in a week by standing stock-still at a lectern and reading from a paper. It's doubtful you'll teach people much, and you'll soon see a few heads nodding off. For a presentation on this topic, you would want to be completely visible in front of the group, acting out movements and perhaps pointing to diagrams on a flip chart or overhead transparency.

Let Your Experiences and Confidence Animate the Body
It's best to use personal anecdotes and experiences in your talks whenever you can. You'll unconsciously use gestures that not only inform but give your talk great credibility For example, "There I was in the foxhole, rain pouring down, when the sky lit up with tracers. Surprisingly, no attack came that night. But I had two revelations that dark, rainy night, and I'd like to share them with you..." You'd begin this talk hunched down, perhaps pulling an imaginary poncho over your head, then gaze upward as the sky lit up. Your movements, completely authentic, would inform the audience that you were the genuine thing.

'Punctuate' Your Words
You can use gestures to prompt people: "Who's ever had that experience?" you ask as you raise your arm to signal for a show of hands. Some people have naturally elegant hand movements. They fluidly move their hands in circles, raise and lower them, or use them to underscore important words. If you have this ability, use it. It amplifies your message and helps convey meaning.

Get Out from Behind the Lectern
Even if you're giving a presentation on the most abstract subject imaginable, move around. But don't pace back and forth. Instead, pick a couple of points in the room and every so often walk to a new spot. Stay there a few minutes, then move to another. Some very effective speakers mingle with the audience by walking into an aisle, walking back to consult notes or turn a page on the flip chart, and moving around the room. If you must stay close to the front of the room to tend to visual aids or for some other reason, move out so people can see your whole body. You have that much more opportunity to express yourself.

Involve Your Listeners

As you gain experience presenting, one basic truth about public speaking gets clearer and clearer: the more you involve your audience, the more they'll focus on you and your message.

Start Before the Presentation
An accomplished consultant with an expertise in sales and marketing spends half an hour before a presentation going around the room introducing herself. She greets people warmly, then asks them questions like these:

"What kind of business are you in? What are your big challenges? Are your sales growing or declining? Why do you think that is?"

She follows these questions up with others designed to help her sharpen her content:

"How do you think my talk will help you improve your marketing efforts? What areas are you hoping I'll discuss?"

Such questions bring risks, of course. If an audience member thinks she'll devote the talk to solving his business problems, he'll probably be disappointed. But involving the audience in this manner before the talk ensures that her talk will be relevant to the needs of the audience. She may not be able to solve particular problems, but if she knows, for instance, that half the room is having trouble adopting an effective internet strategy, that's news she can put to good use.

Involve People During the Talk
You can keep an audience interested by interacting with them during the presentation. Here's how:

. Ask for a vote. "I can go two directions here - I can talk about reengineering order fulfillment or product development. Which would you prefer?"

. Ask for volunteers. "OK, now to show you how easy it is to run this video camera, I need someone to come up and act as guinea pig." Someone usually will.

. Ask for input from particular people. Sometimes it's useful to single people out and ask questions or have them speak briefly about something. But be careful here. You must appear to have perfectly good intentions-i.e., people must feel you're not going to ridicule them. A friendly demeanor helps, as does a sharp eye as to who might respond favorably.

. Ask the audience for an answer. If someone asks a question you can't answer, and it's appropriate, you might throw it out to the audience: "Gee I don't know. Does anybody here know the answer to that?" Note: Interacting with an audience is unpredictable, so be prepared to think on your feet if things don't go as planned. If you know you're going to ask a question or ask for volunteers, think about what could go wrong and have an escape route planned.

Maintain Eye Contact
It's also important to involve the audience by looking people in the eye as you speak. And don't look at people or over their heads. Look into their eyes and make a connection. Don't hold it too long; you don't want to intimidate or make people uncomfortable. Hold your gaze long enough that the person knows you are speaking directly to him or her. Maintaining eye contact helps the audience feel included. And it can remind you that you're really just having a conversation with individual people-not an intimidating "group."

Rest assured that the more you involve people, the better they'll respond to your message. And by winning their attention, you're well on the way to accomplishing your real goal: persuading or informing.

When Speaking, Simplify and Personalize Facts

A speaker once talked of the vastness of Siberia. How vast is it? "You could take the entire continental United States," he said, "and drop it inside Siberia and have room to spare on all sides."

He went on to discuss Siberia's forest resources. But rather than quote quantities, he simply said that Siberia has more timber than all the timber in the entire United States, and that it had a full quarter of the world's known timber reserves.

When you personalize facts, you not only put them in terms people can understand, but also create an image that can stick in the mind for years.

Another way to personalize facts is to relate them simply and directly to the audience's experiences.

When speaking of the overall yearly consumption of beer in the United States, for example, you could make the figure more meaningful for your listeners by saying something like, "that's twenty-two gallons of beer a year for everyone in this room. And when you take out children and the 25 percent of the population that rarely drinks, we're talking thirty-four gallons a person. What's thirty-four gallons? About fifteen cases."

Most people can't comprehend 6 billion gallons. But they understand fifteen cases of beer stacked up in the liquor store.

Learn To Speak Without Notes

Giving a presentation without notes or an outline can make you a much better speaker. For one thing, it goes a long way toward helping you appear relaxed and natural in front of a group. And when you're relaxed, you connect.

Speaking without notes can also impress an audience greatly, adding to your credibility. Not long ago, for instance, management expert Rosabeth Moss Kanter spoke for an hour on world trade. The audience was astonished! Kanter used no notes! What a brilliant person! Well, she is brilliant. But speaking without notes doesn't take brilliance. You can do it, too. This article offers you one way -- there are many others not covered here.

First, don't memorize a presentation. Speaking without notes doesn't mean you should memorize a presentation. If you get lost in the middle of a memorized presentation, it can be hard (and sometimes impossible) to find your way again. And even if you don't lose your way, a memorized talk has a "canned" quality that diminishes the impact on an audience. They sense they're listening to a recording rather than the inspired thoughts of a living, breathing human being.

Use Memory 'Pegs'
You can learn to speak without notes by creating a series of images you use as memory "pegs," and then hanging your notes or outline upon them. Here's how to do it. Create an image for each of the numbers one through ten. Make it personal. For instance, one is the apple tree in the back yard. Two is the Honda. Three is a favorite mug. And so on. Learn to use these memory pegs by first remembering shopping lists.

Let's say you need a cabbage, bag of coffee, and gallon of milk. Take your first image-the apple tree-and picture it with cabbages hanging from the branches instead of apples. Then think of coffee beans filling the interior of your Honda. Then imagine a gallon of milk teetering precariously on top of your mug. The zanier the picture, the better it will stick in your memory. After you get the hang of the system, use it to remember the main points of a speech.

Handle Q&A With Confidence

Many post-presentation question-and-answer sessions are nerve-wracking for speakers because they are unpredictable. You wonder: What if no one asks a question? What if I get a question I can't answer? The key to handling Q&A sessions is planning plus a few tricks to maintain a degree of control.

Prepare for tough questions
As part of your preparation for the presentation, set aside half an hour to imagine the questions you're going to receive. Formulate answers to them. Most important, be ready to answer the questions you don't want to get such as "How come your job isn't being cut along with ours?" Your audience, collectively, will be smart. They will probably ask good, pointed questions. Be your own best critic and prepare for them.

Q&A Basics
Follow these guidelines for a successful question-and-answer session:

Set a time limit: Before you begin, say something like, "I've got ten minutes now to take a few questions." Then adhere to the time limit you set. Having a time limit helps people focus their questions, and it gives you a legitimate out when you've reached the limit.

Move closer to the audience: Ideally, Q&A sessions are more intimate than the speech or presentation you just gave. If you're standing behind a lectern or table, move out in front of it, or go into the audience in the manner of a talk show host. Doing so helps relax both an audience and you.

Have a few questions ready to get things started: Experienced speakers will often have a few friends in the audience ready with softball-easy-questions to get things moving positively. Or they may ask questions the speaker wants to address. You can also ask yourself questions if no one is forthcoming: "I'm sure one question on your minds is probably this: How do I collect severance benefits if I'm laid off?" Once someone-even you-asks the first question, people loosen up and begin asking their own.

Use questions to repeat or amplify important points: Always do your best to answer the question that's asked-no one likes the politician who can't give a straight answer to an honest question. That said, take advantage of opportunities to use an answer to hammer home important points you made in your speech: "...and that takes me back to my original point: wearing a helmet on the job can save your life." If you don't know the answer to a question, admit it. If the answer is easy to find out, promise to get back to the person. (With a large group, or with people you don't know, ask the questioner to slip you a business card after the talk so you can respond.)

Listen hard for the question being asked: Many people find it difficult to ask a simple, clear question. You sometimes have to strain to understand what's being asked. If in doubt, try restating the question to confirm that you understood it correctly. For example, "What I think I hear you asking is whether or not there's a chance the plant will reopen before the fall. Is that correct?" Make sure you answer the question. If in doubt, ask for confirmation: "Does that answer the question?" Q&A sessions are important events for building credibility and validating all the good points you made in your speech. If you seem evasive, you may damage the work you did up to that point.

Disarm the long-winded: Some people don't ask questions; they seek a platform to express their own ideas. The rest of the group will thank you when you break in and say, "Have you got a question for me?" Others are unable to come to the point. Interrupt them, if necessary, and say, "I think what you're leading up to is this: Have we got any R&D money left over for Product X? The answer is no, and here's why." If possible, don't give the speaker an opportunity to break in again to "clarify" your question. After answering the question, take another, immediately, from a different side of the room.

Eventually, you'll learn to look forward to a good Q&A session. Nothing cements a talk as well. It wraps up the presentation for both you and the audience, and it helps ensure that it did the job intended to the satisfaction of all.