Event Recap: Presentation Skills Bootcamp
By Elizabeth Fella
WiW recently presented Part IV of their Educational Series, a workshop on presentation delivery skills. The class, Think Outside of the Slide: How to Deliver a Powerful Presentation, was taught by Martha Denton, founder of The Presentation School and a Presentation Coach for TEDx. The workshop covered all the essentials of successfully developing and delivering your presentation.
Developing Your Presentation
Martha began by providing attendees with tons of useful tips on ways to develop their presentations. First and foremost, it is important for the presenter to know their audience. At the start of developing a presentation, always ask yourself who, what when, where, why, and how.
It is also important to realize that the culture of your audience plays a role in the development of a presentation. For example, the way you present to an English audience will be different from the way you present to a German audience. Different cultures place value on different things and it is vital to realize that when developing your presentation. It is also important to take into account corporate culture. Research the internal language of an organization and use it in your presentation. Lastly, remember color culture when designing a presentation. If you are presenting to Coca-Cola, do not show up with a presentation with a blue color scheme, the color of Pepsi, its biggest competitor.
Furthermore, properly planning out your presentation is fundamental in the development stage. In order to find your message, write an outline. You can also use a mind map to organize your ideas around a core topic. Once you have your core topic, storyboard your content to decide how you want to lay everything out.
Presenting
Martha also offered attendees tips for the actual presentation. Before presenting, she says to visualize being awesome. Picture yourself giving an amazing presentation. There is great power in visualization, and imagining yourself succeeding will help you to actually succeed.
In addition, Martha recommends picking four people in the audience who are actively engaged and making them your eye contact points. It makes presenting to larger audiences less intimidating because although there may be 200 people in the room, you are only focusing on the four individuals who are your eye contact points.
Lastly, Martha provided attendees with tips on presenting yourself during presentations:
Appearance Tips
- Your mother was right, always remember to stand up straight
- Don’t wear red, yellow, white, or big print - instead stick to colors that are flattering on you
- Wear more makeup than usual onstage
- Don’t wear heals that are too high
For more information on taking your presentation skills to the next level, Martha Denton recommends the books Slide:ology and Resonate by Nancy Duarte. You can also check out The Presentation School’s website to see learn about the different presentation classes offered by Martha and her upcoming events.
A big thanks to Martha for the great workshop and to all the women that participated! Find out about our upcoming Educational Series workshops and all other WiW events by signing up for our newsletter here.
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