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Training Course Outlines

Assertive Communication Skills
Customer Care
Defusing Hostile Customers
Diversity
Meetings Skills
Minute Taking
People Management
Presentation Skills
Project Management Awareness
Recruitment and Selection Skills
Report Writing
Stress Management
Time Management

Articles

Creating a great presentation
How to write a presentation
Using visual aids effectively
How to lose your audience
Why fear public speaking?
Will they remember you?
Your body language
10 most common mistakes
Public speaking communication
Good speech topics
Public speaking objectives
Basic public speaking skills
What you must do to have an effective presentation

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How do you Create a Great Presentation?

You've heard great presentations in the past. Perhaps they've been speeches, or they could have been presentations with visuals or slides. Or such a presentation could even have been a sermon or part of a television. But you've have probably heard several great ones in your life. What's even more interesting is that people tend to agree on when they have heard a great speech or great presentation. It is apparently, then, not subjective. So what do you suppose makes a presentation or speech a great one?

One of the components of a really great presentation has to do with the structure of the presentation. Let's suppose you are presenting information about choices available to the company for a new capital expenditure. You could organize this kind of information from least to most expensive alternatives, for example. If you are presenting regarding the acquisition of another business, you could structure your presentation chronologically, explaining how each phase of the evaluation and subsequent purchase would take place and when.

Depending on the topic of your presentation, you may choose to structure it in other ways as well. If you are looking at various alternatives to solving a particular business problem or issue, you could move through the causes of the issues and the varying impacts of alternate solutions. The plan, however you structure the presentation, should be to move logically through your ideas so your audience can follow your logic.

An example of a presentation structured from theory to practical application could be as follows. The topic of this sample presentation is "How to Control Nervousness While Speaking."

1. Explain that all of us experience some degree of "nerves" when presenting information to others, and that nervousness can be controlled, and even harnessed so that the nervousness comes across as enthusiasm and passion.

2. Explain what nervousness looks like to the audience. They are seeing, for example, someone speaking very quickly, perhaps reading notes rather than making eye-contact, or engaging in distracting nervous mannerisms.

3. Explain that the appearance of nervousness can subvert the value of your speech or presentation, so it is worth figuring out how to control it.

4. Explain that the presentation must be carefully constructed with the audience in mind, with the purpose and goal of the presentation in mind, and with the best way to organize and understand the information yourself, as the presenter.

5. Explain how to understand the audience and the needs of the audience, so that the presenter can make sure to anticipate their questions and concerns. This research on the part of the presenter will also make the presenter feel more confident in his ability to impart the information---and will assist him in controlling his nervousness because he will become more and more comfortable with the information.

6. Explain how the presenter must make sure he is completely familiar with whatever room and whatever equipment he will use during the presentation. Again, this kind of preparation really does help to build confidence and ease nervousness.

7. Be sure your audience understands the value of actually practicing the presentation or speech. Ideally, he should practice it for a person with the same level of knowledge of the topic that he anticipates his audience will have.

If you, the speaker, follows a logical pattern in constructing your presentation, your audience will be able to follow you and is far more likely to understand your reasoning. One more thought: Regardless of whether or not it seems "fair," people do tend to be influenced by the professionalism of the speaker as well as by the validity of the information being presented. Make sure you have all your bases covered by presenting your information in a logically structured and easily followed format. Even the most relevant and valuable information can be lost in a snarl of illogical fits and starts. Make it easy for your audience to follow you and agree with you by building them a logical and solidly constructed bridge to your conclusions and proposals.

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