Silicon Beach Training Blog » Presentation Skills

Twitter-heckled Key Note Speaker – Know your Audience!

Heather Buckley — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 11:19:06 +0000

Two days ago a Keynote speaker at the Social Media Conference “HighEdWeb 2009: Open. Connected” Showed how dangerous it can be to give a presentation without knowing your audience. Apparently he is not on Twitter and was talking about the effectiveness of Snail Mail Campaigns, and using not very good and outdated PowerPoint Slides. The organisation hosting the event seem social media savvy enough and encouraged attendees to use the tag #heweb09 to follow the back channel discussion.

(See our range of Social Media Training courses to learn more – including a new leading edge SEO training course)

Oh dear – The Social Media conversant audience soon started to tweet about the speakers outdated comments . The audience being well connected caused an avalanche effect as tweets and re-tweets flooded twitter escalating it to the trending topic of the day!

Tweets this presenter could learn from :

Gold font on gray background w/ 1990 drop shadow makes babies cry. Should we stage intervention
“Videos are not automatically good”
hella drop shadow
Someone turn up the contrast
Ugly slide and I can’t hear u
too much background music
OH: it’s always relevant when you use popular hip hop songs from 5 years ago
We’ve had two keynotes, neither of whom build websites…
KAZAA OMG. how old is this video? Kazaa has been dead for years
im currently reminded of towelie from south park, I have no idea whats going on right now
blah blah blah out of business blah blah blah here watch a video
Can anyone hear this guy? Or read his slides?
conspiracy theory about the keynote: it’s a test of the power of the back channel; social experiment
We’ve moved to 10 years ago now…
I think the sound guy has fallen asleep
talking quite, music loud, are they trying to get to go have a quick nap before the 1:30 presos??
Anyone else confused by that video?
I think I’m about to have a seizure
ok. slides with paragraphs of information make me turn around, and tweet about how such things are bad
Watching keynote. Clearly I’m not the only one that sucks at Powerpoint. I was smart enough to not use it though.
Why is this guy here?
18things flashing and beeping. That’s why we need movement on the homepage . Right
Someone needs a class on PowerPoint… Sound levels in videos … And being relevant to your audience.
You know a presentation is relevant when it mentions Xanga.
watching people try to figure out how they can get out, starting to see the OMG I AM TRAPPED looks on faces
Did we go back in time 4 years? Knew all this already. Something new please!!
Worst designed powerpoint ever. Ever.
Oh he wants frequent and immediate feedback. Anyone?
ha ha this reminds me that myspace is the trailer park of social media. ha ha

Presenters beware – twittering will be around for some time, if you have a large audience be sure you know them well and give them what they want. Even if you know all this and are a great presenter following your audience reaction on twitter can only be a good thing, feedback is a good thing and now it is happening real time.

Those interested in building up their online presence using Social Media may be interested in our one day Social Media Training course. Silicon Beach Training offer Presentation Training, and an Advanced Presentation Skills Course. We also have a Presentation Skills Free Resources section.

Top Tips – Preparing for your Presentation

Heather Buckley — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 10:26:09 +0000

Summary on How to Prepare A Presentation.

Here is a summary of presentation skills tips and advice for the preparation aspects of a presentation. In order to make the best of these presentation skills it is advised to combine them with a presentation training course.

You Must Practice.

Think about your audience and what you want to get across to them in your presentation. Think about what you saying and how you are saying it, both in how you speak, and your choice of words, and what type of presentation you want to give. You may find it useful to practice your presentation in front of a mirror or better yet in front or a friend or colleague, as it is often difficult to judge yourself.

Reconnaissance.

It is good to get a sense of the room you will be giving your presentation in, go before hand so you are used to the room and are aware of things like how long it will take you to get your equipment prepared and so on.

However.

Having said this it is also important to not over prepare giving your speech and not actually work on what you are saying. The time you might spend going right through your speech for the 50th time would be far better spent working on your how you want to open and close your presentation.

Make Sure Everything Will Work.

Before the presentation, test what you are going to use and make sure that it will work and that you know your way around well enough to give your presentation. This is especially the case when working on a PowerPoint presentation or OHPs.

Visual Aids.

Approach this with caution. Whilst a visual aid can help to give the audience an idea of what you are talking about or show facts in an easily digestible manner, they can also be confusing and disorientating for an audience and only serve to detract attention away from what you are saying. However if they are used wisely, i.e. a graph or pie chart etc, then they can be a powerful ally.

5 Top Tips for Great Presentations

Andy Trainer — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 10:24:04 +0000

Here’s 5 Top Tips for delivering a great presentation.

We’ve also just published a really comprehensive guide to presenting on our new Free Resources section. We also offer a Presentation Skills Training Course.

1) Tailor fit your presentation around your audience.

It is for the audience that you are giving your presentation, so make sure that your presentation is suited to the type of audience you are speaking to. For instance if the audience will be largely made up novices or people who will not know a lot about your chosen subject then it its up to you to inform them and make sure that it is easily understandable. Similarly you will want to skip the basics if your audience are already well accustomed with the information at hand.

2) Fully prepare and organise your presentation.

Throughout your presentation the audience should never get lost or confused. It should be set up and organised in such a way that it is easily digestible. One of the ways you can accomplish this is to continually clarify and summarise any points you make at the end of each major section, either on the slide or when you are explaining out loud to the audience.

3) Practice.

Public speaking is a difficult thing to do and many people find it nerve wracking and a very uncomfortable experience. Finding the confidence to speak effectively and clearly can be a real stumbling block for some presentations. However this confidence will only come through knowing your stuff. If you are sure that you know what to say and that you are fully prepared for any eventuality then you will find it a lot easier. You may want to try rehearsing in front of friends or a mirror to help you get a better impression of where you could improve.

4) Simplicity can often be best.

It is tempting to try and cram your presentation full of clever and “exiting” little tricks to try and make your presentation stand out, but be careful. Most of the time, if not all of the time, any animation or audio or visual effect will only confuse the audience and make it harder for them to read and understand. Remember that it is about substance rather than style and any novelty items you put in your presentation will generally only help to undermine your presentation.

5) Don’t just read the slides.

Do not read your slides word for word, this is boring and repetitive and doesn’t tell the audience anything that they couldn’t have read themselves. Your job as a speaker is to inform the audience of information beyond what the slides show them. You should expand on the slides and use them as the trigger notes or summaries of any points you which to make.