Presentation Skills Articles      

What Makes Us Different

The Comprehensive Course

Tailored, Interactive Workshops
-Sales & Marketing
-New Business Developers
-Technical Presentations
-Executive Coaching
-Trainers
-Group Facilitation
-Cross-Cultural Presenters
-Assoc. Spokesperson

What to Expect
-Before a Workshop
-Workshop Structure
-Pricing/Booking Request

FAQs
-Logistics
-Training-specific

Instructors

Clients

Newsletters
& Articles

Site Map

{return to articles main page}

Presentation Skills - a Training Q&A

By Dale Ludwig, President of Turpin Communication
©Sept. 2005
 

1. Who should consider participating in a Presentation Skills workshop?
Turpin Communication workshops are for anyone who delivers presentations or facilitates discussions. Both new and experienced presenters benefit from our training. The majority of time in each workshop (at least 75%) is spent coaching individuals as they work on the real-life presentations. Our goal is to take everyone to the next level of effectiveness, regardless of their starting point.

2. What are some common misunderstandings/misconceptions about presentations?
The most common misconception people have is that presentations and speeches are the same things. People will say that they’re going to deliver a presentation. But when we start to work with them, it’s clear that what they’re really doing is preparing to make a speech. While speeches are formal and scripted, presentations are interactive and well-planned. They require very different preparation processes.

The first thing you want to do is establish a comfortable connection with your audience. You want to establish yourself as someone who is confident, open, responsive and flexible. That’s very difficult if you’ve burdened yourself with a scripted speech that you’ve memorized or plan to read. People tend to forget about the spontaneous, interactive nature of presentations during the preparation phase.

3. How can presenters engage their audiences?
I think this question is really asking, “How can I make my audience  care?” Or maybe even, “How can I avoid being thunderously boring?”
While your presentation’s structure and slides are important, the fundamental requirement for an engaged audience is this: you must initiate a conversation with them. That means you have to look at them. And really see them. You have to treat them as individuals and speak to/with them, not at them. Your audience will be engaged when you establish a personal connection with them.

4. Do I always have to use PowerPoint?
No. Visual aids are there to support you and your message. If you and your audience don’t need the help visuals provide, you don’t need to use them. Sometimes all you need is a single page handout highlighting your agenda and the discussion points you’d like to address with your audience.

5. What are some common development mistakes with PowerPoint?
A lot of presenters treat their slides as if they are the presentation.

They’re not.

Your presentation comes from you. The slides are just there to help you out. Placing too much emphasis on PowerPoint leads to slides that are overloaded and cumbersome. A good slide is easy to see, easy to understand and takes its place easily within the structure of the presentation.

6. What are some common delivery mistakes with PowerPoint?
Presenters assume that they should never look at their slides. Or if they do look at them, they assume that the best way to do it is to look at the laptop monitor. These two “rules” are a response to a very real problem—the fact that a lot of presenters spend too much time reading what’s on the screen—but they aren’t the right solution.

Think about what you want your audience to do when a new slide comes up. First, you want them to understand what they’re seeing. They need to read the heading, the bullet points, and, if there’s a graphic, they need to understand what it represents.

Second, you want them to listen to what you have to say about the slide. The best way to control this process is to control your focus. When you want the audience to look at the slide, you should go to it and look at it yourself. When you want the audience to look at you, turn away from the slide and look at them. When you don’t want any slide to be visible at all, press the letter B on your laptop. The screen will go to black. When you want the slide to come back, just hit B again. This is an excellent way to control listener focus.

7. How can a person become a dynamic presenter?
We always tell the people in our workshops that we want them to be themselves, only better. Start with a solid, personal connection to your audience. Get the conversation going. Next, adapt to the size of the group through increased volume, longer pauses, purposeful movement or bigger gestures. Once you’re feeling comfortable and in control, your natural enthusiasm will come across.

8. Any tips for handling the Q&A session?
The two most common problems presenters have with Q&A are appearing impatient and answers that are too long. To solve the first problem, be sure to look at each questioner as long as he or she is speaking. Don’t start to respond until the questioner is finished. For the second, always deliver the short answer first. A lot of times you won’t need to say any more.

About the author
Dale Ludwig is a Presentation & Facilitation Skills Trainer and President of Turpin Communication which is based in Chicago. For more information visit www.turpincommunication.com