Speak your way
To make a good presentation, you must connect with the audience to know their expectations.
How often do you think about engaging your audience with an effective presentation? More than just impressing your listeners with well-crafted slides, one of the primary objectives for a presenter should be to win the hearts of the audience.
After all, you make a presentation to your audience with the aim of sharing your ideas while expecting them to actively participate as well.
A successful rhetorician would master the art of speaking, bring positive energy and speak on any topic without stumbling. You can be one too. Here are some tips to present slides without fear, overcome nervousness and enhance participation from your listeners.
Public speaking
Start with this simple practice — public speaking. Speak out frequently and share your ideas with your friends on a day-to-day basis. Mingle with a diverse group of people and have an open mind when you strike a conversation with them. If you become a good public speaker, you gain a lot of confidence when you give a presentation.
You should know what your audience expects from you, to keep them engaged throughout your presentation. Investigate and research the interest areas of your audience before you start working on your presentation. This can help your audience stay interested in what you have to say and they remain actively involved throughout the presentation.
An ideal way to start your presentation is to tell your audience what they can expect to learn from your presentation. People do not appreciate a long and boring introduction. Condense the most relevant information and present it to them right at the beginning.
The most important challenge for a presenter is to maintain a high level of interest among the audience. Make your session interactive. Ask them questions and encourage them to ask you questions. If you do your homework and get to know your audience well, you will be rewarded with meaningful participation and inputs.
Use modernday presentation techniques. Create slides using an online presentation application and conveniently store them on the cloud. Get a mobile presentation app that lets you control your presentations right from your own smart phone.
The writer is marketing analyst, Zoho.
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