What makes a presentation good?

Whether online or offline, introduction speech or business pitch. We have to do some public speaking daily. We can try to run from it, but we cannot avoid it. And the people who are good public speakers are at a great advantage. They can share ideas effectively, convince people, get better opportunities, crack interviews, get more sales, and whatnot. This article will show you how your next presentation can be more effective and engaging.

Getting comfortable on stage

Nobody wants to be in a situation to be extremely nervous on stage. The audience looks scary. In the attempt to impress those strangers the presenter does many strange things. And in doing so, he sometimes makes an informative presentation humorous for the audience.

Here are some tips you can use to be more comfortable on stage and feel more confident-?

1. Realize that the audience is not your enemy. They are just some good people like you and me who have come to listen to you and get some information, entertainment or infotainment. Those people are not there to find your mistakes (unless you have many enemies and bullies in your audience). We all make mistakes on stage. Even the most experienced speakers make blunders sometimes. The fact is most of the time, the audience does not even notice. So it is better to accept that there will always be some mistakes. There will be some stuttering. Sometimes you will forget some part of the speech resulting in dead silence. But we need to stop obsessing about these mistakes. We have to focus on the next part of our presentation and try to make that error-free.?
2. Practice smartly. The best way would be to practice the speech again and again. Delivering the content in front of friends, recording yourself with a camera or mobile, and trying to eliminate the errors. But there is another way. Using mental representations. Imagine yourself giving the speech to an audience in your mind. Recite the whole content in your brain. If possible, visit the venue beforehand so that you are familiar with the surroundings. Imagine yourself at the venue or someplace similar. By using this technique we can practice our content a hundred times without expending much energy. Mental representation is a powerful tool.?
3. Prepare your content thoroughly. There is no shortcut to this. If you want to be confident, you have to work on your content. I do not like to memorize the speech. I prefer to remember the main points of the content and elaborate them on the spot. Though memorizing the speech can be a good option, when the speech is very short (less than 15 minutes). But having a grasp on the content enables us to avoid any long pauses in case we forget some points. As we can substitute that part with something relevant on the spot.?

Engaging the audience

For a speaker nothing is more disheartening than seeing a disengaged, disinterested audience. Here are some of the tips that can be used to get their attention and keep them on their toes.

1. Use body language- The studies led by Dr. Mehrabian described how the mind determines meaning. He concluded that the interpretation of a message is 7 percent verbal, 38 percent vocal and 55 percent visual. The conclusion was that 93 percent of communication is “nonverbal” in nature. This is how we have evolved as a species. For million of years we communicated through gestures and sounds. Our brain is hard wired to understand and respond to gestures. So make sure you use some relevant gestures, at the right time. Use them to highlight a point, fill energy to your words, make a joke more funny.
2. Create Suspense- Many speakers reveal the information they are trying to share beforehand. Their slides show everything, and they just repeat whatever is written on their slide. Sometimes they say " I will give you these three points". Though there is nothing wrong declaring what you are about to say, but this habit eliminates the element of surprise. And audience gets and excuse to divert their mind from the presentation. And in worst case open social media. When we create suspense a chemical called Dopamine is released in the mind of listeners. Dopamine generates interest. It keeps the audience on their toes. And when finally the suspense is blown, and the audience gets the desired information. Because of Dopamine they feel satisfaction. The result, they talk about the speech/ presentation for days.
3. Avoid using hard language- To impress people some of the speakers try to use very hard language. Unless we are speaking in front of Royal society of English Literature, we need to use easy and understandable language. Because human mind is lazy. We need to use easy language, so that people would not need to do too much processing. And they do not have to put too much effort to understand what we are saying. Otherwise a distracted, uninterested audience is guaranteed.

" Stupid people use complex words to look smart. Smart people use simple words to make sense".

Delivery vs Content

Most of the people give too much attention to the content. And that is indeed important, but some people ignore the delivery completely. The way we deliver the speech. Gestures, expressions, voice modulation. I have a very cool example to share. Let us consider a song. If the music is good but the lyrics are average (in some cases bad). There are chances that the song can become a hit, because of the good music/delivery. But if the lyrics are excellent and music is bad, the song will be considered bad. It will be just a poem. And the songs which have excellent music(delivery) and excellent lyrics(content) become timeless hits. We can assume the same with presentations. The content has to be at least average. If the delivery is good people will still love the speech. If the delivery is bad, just good content cannot make your speech interesting. Awesome content combined with excellent delivery style gives birth to a legendary and memorable presentation.

Using Stories

This one is ignored so much, and I always wonder why.....?

Specially in business presentations, involving technical terms and data people avoid using stories. People also complain that they cannot include stories in short presentations. They fear that story can be a waste of time and will not be appreciated. In some cases they are right. A story can be a time waste when used at the wrong place. But when used in the right context, at right time, a story can be the most powerful tool of a presentation.

It is the way information has been passed from generations to generations. Storytelling is the method our sacred scriptures use to spread knowledge in the world. Wisest men like Chanakya and Socrates used stories to teach their pupils life lessons. And there is science behind it. When we hear stories a hormone called Oxytocin is released in the body. The effect of this hormone- we feel a bond with each other, we trust each other, we feel safe and emotionally connected. And that is a win win situation for both speaker and audience.

Representing data and technical terms with easy examples and relevant stories is the ultimate skill a speaker can possess. But mastering this skill requires lots of practice and time.

Last advice would be to enjoy your speech as much you can. Because passion and happiness is contagious. Your audience will feel what you feel. So make sure you feel passionate to speak so the listeners are passionate to listen.