ARTICLE:
Fundamental Ingredients for a Savory Presentation
By Melanie Rae us like to eat. So let’s compare the process of creating a presentation to preparing a Thanksgiving meal. You want the food to look good, taste good, be nutritious, and leave people satisfied, but not stuffed. It is the same with a presentation. You want it to look good, sound good, meet the needs of the audience, yet not overstuff them with too much information. Can you make a lavish Thanksgiving meal on a KFC budget? Definitely! You can also make a state-of-the-art presentation with limited funds and time. All you need are three basic ingredients: Visual Aids, Content and Delivery. Visual Aids It does not take a lot of money to create dynamic graphics. It does take fundamental knowledge of a presentation software package such as PowerPoint or enlisting the help of someone who does. (I recommend learning it because it’s the easiest application out of Microsoft’s Office Suite to master.) PowerPoint has templates where all you have to do is open the program, choose your design, type in your information, and save it. You can then connect your computer to a projector and/or print color handouts. Visual aids can also consist of flip charts, handouts, demonstrations, and household items such as toys and books, etc. I tend to use them to diversify the material and to divert the audience’s attention away from me. At least temporarily.
There is nothing worse than watching a lecturer learn to read while giving a presentation. “Theuh-cat-and-uh…” One the flip side, you can also do without the presenter who acts as if it’s kindergarten story time and reads the slides verbatim. Giving a presentation does not have to come with the anguish and stress that many of us associate it with. I remember standing in front of my peers in my college Marketing classroom with my teammates behind me trying to stifle their laughter. I stood behind a podium and from the waist down my knees shook as if I stood on a tight rope. From the waist up, I was a great orator commending the virtues of our idea to create a retractable extension cord. Growing up shy and scared of guests (for example, I would usually go upstairs when they came around), I am surprised that I am in front of audiences on a regular basis and can at least act as if I’m not nervous. I have found that it’s relatively easy to alleviate the fear of public speaking if you prepare. If you have interesting content, practice your delivery, and keep the audience awake with visual aids, all you have to worry about is if there will be enough refreshments for you when you finish. Relate preparing a speech with something you enjoy. Working example: Now only some of us like to cook, but almost all of
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Article: A College Education for the Price of a Library Card
Content Can’t captivate the folks at the table with your storytelling? Well, neither can I. But I do know that a story has a beginning, middle and end, and your presentation should follow that basic structure. I also like to follow the school of thought from the writers of The Simpsons. The opening is seemingly random but then sets the stage for the main plot. In one of my Toastmasters* speeches, I remember starting out with my love for watching reality shows such as Survivor. When you peel away the deception, scandals and starvation on the show, it all comes down to family. People just want to be loved. Next, I defined a Mental Emergency Plan and asked the audience whom they would call and what would they say if catastrophe struck. The main point of the presentation was to urge listeners to share their gratitude with others on a continual basis instead of waiting for the signal from the Emergency Broadcast System. Delivery I can’t stand when presentations start with excuses. “I’m nervous.” Unseasoned. “I didn’t prepare.” So why waste my time? “I really don’t want to be here.” Did he just say?.... Unless you were just asked to step-in for someone who left the office ten minutes ago, don’t tell the audience you are not prepared, especially if you had ample notice. Telling the audience that you’re nervous is like looking for a sympathy hug followed by a Page 2 of 3
“woo, woo, woo”. I know someone whose face became beet red every time he spoke, but he was comfortable and he flowed. The fact that he was sweating profusely indicated that he might have been nervous, but his delivery didn’t show that and he gave great speeches. I’m not a great improvisational speaker, so I practice my speech several times using notes, and continually improve it by coming up with new anecdotes and different ways to say things. I incorporate the basic tenets of effective delivery by using eye contact, working the room, and illustrating with body gestures. Even though it’s practically “memorized” which is a no-no by some standards, I’m not alone in my practice. Motivational speakers constantly repeat their presentations so they know when to pause for laughter or to insertcity-name-here and they are not boycotted. I will say that I do not advocate robotic memorization. You don’t want to hit the “do over button” every time someone walks into the room and interrupts your flow. Now that you have the ingredients, (visual aids, content and delivery), let’s talk about the instructions. 1. Choose a topic and decide if your purpose is to move the audience to action or to disseminate information. 2. Say your concluding sentence aloud. This will summarize your speech and keep you focused on the point of your topic. “By knowing the ingredients of a
Article: A College Education for the Price of a Library Card
great speech and following the steps I outlined, you can deliver a savory speech.” This statement will probably change as you work on your speech but it’s helpful for brainstorming. 3. Write down three to six ideas that support your conclusion. If you really want to be organized, you can write them on index cards so you can visually arrange them later. 4. Choose your key points from the ideas you generated. The number of points you include depends on how long your speech is. For a five-to-seven minute speech, you would probably articulate three points. 5. Think of an anecdotal story or something visual to open the speech. If you capture the audience early, you can feed off their positive energy. You can engage them with a rhetorical question: “Don’t you hate it when…” Paint a picture with your words. Give away prizes. Bribery is always a good attention getter! (I lean toward the free motivators.) Now it’s just a matter of mixing all the ingredients together and baking, ahem, practicing. Follow the theory of “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them”. Using the instructions above start with step number 5, summarize step 4, expound on step 4, summarize step 4, conclude with step 2, and add a Page 3 of 3
little pinch of this and that and voila you’re done!
Buen Provecho!
*Toastmasters is an international speaking organization dedicated to developing effective communication skills. “Through participation in the Toastmasters Communication and Leadership program, people from all backgrounds learn to effectively speak, conduct a meeting, manage a department or business, lead, delegate, and motivate.” www.toastmasters.org
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