Anyone can stand up and talk to an audience. But your experience has been hard-won. You are an expert in your particular field and you must convey your findings successfully. Much preparation can be done in your own www. Firstly, the information you have needs to be sorted. Abandon anything which is not central to the subject matter.
Now re-order the information you have. In a logical order, divided into sections, you will find it easier to remember and present, but it will also be interesting and useful to your audience. When you have the information for your presentation, read it out loud to yourself. Pretend you have 50 people in your living room. If possible tape record yourself.
And don't stop until you have got to the end.
How many minutes did it take? If it was over the allotted time then you need to cut out something or decide whether you can explain things better using visual aids. If you made a sound-recording listen carefully. Were your words delivered clearly? Did you repeat yourself? Did you waffle? Did you repeat 'useless words' such as "I mean", "you mean", "err", "like"? Correct yourself.
The person who reads a presentation is doomed to failure. Eye to eye contact keeps an audience. If you read, your audience will talk, dismiss the paper, they may even walk away. Is it possible to have eye to eye contact with 50 people? The answer is Yes! By constantly 'panning' your audience, from left to right, then right to left, you keep their attention. By looking at the tops of the heads of the first row, then the second row of people, you are welcoming everyone to your subject. With practice, this becomes an interesting game. You can spot the people who are sincerely interested and those who don't care for your work. Your aim is to persuade the uninterested that your words are worthy of consideration.
So, accept the encouragement from your fans, and smile at the ones you feel can benefit. Audience 'training' and 'taming' is a fascinating pastime, and few people are privileged to participate.
The reason you are participating, is that you have a specialist and professional knowledge of your field. It must not be forgotten that your job is to communicate this unique field of knowledge.
If it is wrong to read, then you must know your subject well. There will be plenty of memory-joggers at your disposal. You will have prepared overhead slides or visual displays. In their correct order, they will remind you of your 'text' or speech. some people prefer small cards of several points they must cover. Others prefer to have their full paper, turning it over page by page - not to read, but to remind them 'where they are'.
There are numerous things you can have in front of you besides an audience. A pointer-stick, overhead slides, a slide projector, pens, pencils, chalk, blackboard, handwriting samples, your notes, your delegate pack, your programme, your keys, your jacket, your umbrella, raincoat, your train ticket, your luggage. And every one of these things can confuse you. Keep everything to a minimum. Leave them with a friend in the audience. Keep your visual displays to a minimum, don't use pointer, you can be confused by everything.
Spot trouble in advance. Check out your presentation stage before you arrive and see how it works with preceding speakers. Get to know your audience, find out what expectations they have of your paper and the sessions in general. Build empathy with them before you talk, you will deliver a better paper the more supporters you have.
Practice putting slides up yourself, feel confident with the movements. Speakers should be seen, so stand, do not sit if you can help it. And use your stage area, move around when you can, but don't find yourself ready to show the next visual display when you are across the room.
Vital facts, figures, names and titles must be written down and ready to refer to. Everyone has mental blanks, caused by pressure, fluster, fatigue or drink. And on that point, alcohol may help to calm the nerves but can lead to mental blanks and poor control. Adrenalin was made to be used!
Only you can design your paper. But one thing is sure, you must keep your points to a minimum. Trying to show that you have worked hard can be boring, confusing and exhausting for an audience. You can expect to put over three points, at the most you will put over five points. You can test how effective your presentation was, by asking individuals what three points they learnt. If you get similar answers, that resembleyour message, then you've succeeded. Remember that accident witness research has shown that we remember about 20% of the content of any given event.
Don't show your embarrassment. If you have a 'blank' spell, then tell your audience that you were purposely giving them time to digest the information. Then repeat the main points. While you do this, you'll remember your next points.
Your audience can feel more embarrassed than you, and your job is to create interest and make the day be worthwhile. Your audience will consist of supporters, potential supporters, non-supporters and indifferent people. There is no escape.
Try to avoid a war, answer objections quickly and continue with your information. Any questions will probably be answered in the remaining presentation. If they are not, then the question will probably be irrelevant or forgotten. Do not lose control.
Employ visual aids to aid, not to hinder. If they do not help your case, then exclude them. They should save time - a picture tells a thousand words. Numbers are more memorable and more easily read, in the form of pictures. Whether as histograms, pie charts or graphs; try to simplify, not complicate.
Variety is also useful. 15 pie-charts are boring, a mix of histograms, graphs, pie-charts and figures obviously keeps audience attention. Colour is another way to emphasise a point. But don't use it unnecessarily. A set of black and white charts is better than a confusion of colour, which may be pretty, but will surely detract from the points you make. Use colours to code certain things, to emphasise particular points, not to show off your resourcefulness.
Some people say that 40-50 words are the most that can be absorbed from one transparency. Try to use only 14 lines on each slide and leave one full letter height between lines. Choose your examples to suit your audience, create a summary before and after your presentation. Even in the fury of the last moments, don't use out-dated information. Change it or leave it out.
Copyright 1988 Nigel Bradley. First published in Oxford 1987 (NRB Chesterfield 1988 pp.168-172)
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Last updated 9 September 2001. Please report any corrections to me at this email address bradlen@graphology.ws
9 September 2001