Business

Perfect Your Presentations

Reading 3 min Article Intermediate

Vocabulary - 11 New Words, 1 New Expression

Pronunciation - Scottish (British)

Exercise

Tap all the highlighted words in the article below to see their definition. ⇩

I remember the first time I had to give a presentation in front of my work colleagues and peers, and without sugarcoating it, I was terrified. But, the feeling of accomplishment soon cancelled out the fear which had eaten me up to begin with. Make your aim reading this to focus on the end goal, and not the hiccups or moments of fear along the way.

“Laying the foundations at the beginning will capture people’s attention and interest in your presentation.”

1. Introduce yourself and clearly detail what you will cover

As obvious as it sounds, laying the foundations at the beginning will capture people’s attention and interest in your presentation so much more if you are clear and concise from the word “go”. An example of a brief, yet clear introduction would be the following:

“I’m George from ABA English. It’s a pleasure to be here today. I’m going to cover the importance of English in daily life. The following areas I’ll cover are: English at work, English on vacation and English in your personal life.”

This introduction details who I am, the purpose of my presentation and the areas I’ll go into during my presentation. A straightforward way to capture people’s attention from the get go.

2. Include your audience

Keeping your audience engaged at all times is crucial to keep your presentation dynamic. This is why I’d always suggest asking them questions. These could be simple questions related to what they’ve heard from your presentation so far or even asking them to tell a little about their previous experience in the field of the presentation.

I love playing games with my audience to ensure they’re paying attention. Not only does this guarantee that they’re listening, it also gives them a sense of drive to get something correct. It’s a great way to maintain attention.

“Allocating time for members to do this is another way where you make your presentation dynamic.”

3. Take time for questions

Allowing people to make enquiries about your presentation at the end is vital to ensuring the audience has fully understood the message you want to transmit. Allocating time for members to do this is another way where you make your presentation dynamic by including the audience while remedying any doubts, if the audience have any.

These tips might just be the tip of the iceberg for a great presentation, but they’ll put you on the right track. Take it from me, it’s better to be more dynamic to keep your audience’s attention than just to regurgitate information at them. You’ll be thankful for it!