Tuesday, August 5, 2014

How to make your Presentation Professional




How do I make my presentation professional?

The key points to becoming a presenter with excellent skills are;
1. Clearly identify the topic you wish to give the presentation on
2. Identify who your audience will be, and what they will want to learn about your topic
3. Research the topic. Ensure your facts are correct and up-to-date
4. Plan for the presentation and practise your presentation

When would you need to give a presentation?
In South Africa, a wise surgeon once told me; "Learn one, do one, teach one". 
In other words, learn how to do something; become proficient at the procedure through practice; and then - unselfishly - pass your hard-earned knowledge on to others.
You would thus need to give a presentation in order to
1. Share your expertise and experience, drawing on your personal knowledge base
2. Add to the body of knowledge globally, enabling greater excellence in the topic chosen
3. Strengthen your own skills within the area where you practise

Planning your presentation
1. Identify your topic and overall goal for the presentation
2. Clearly know your objectives for your presentation
3. Trust in your prior knowledge which gives you a knowledge base from which to start
4. Research additional information you may need for your presentation. You can do this eg by means of a library search, in a University library, in facilities which offer quantifiable information re your topic, or online on the Internet. 
I keep my own personal library and notes I have made over the years as a point of resource to which I can refer swiftly if I need to make sure of correct facts for any work I do. 
Make a system for yourself whereby you can quickly and efficiently find your points of resource.
5. If you are unsure of where to start, ask a Reference Librarian to help you how to carry out effective research. Also, if you are studying, ask your Professor or teacher for guidance as to how to carry out effective research.
6. What I do is to get a number of University and/or resource books or reliable academic documents either from a library, University library, bookshops or from online information sites. I either photocopy, download or make notes from the resource documents of the pages relevant to my presentation's research needs. I highlight my copies/ my notes. I then distil from my notes the actual content I wish to place within my presentation. I accredit resources from where I have drawn content. A further blog post will be made available at a later date as to how to academically accredit resources. Remember; a presentation is your original writing/concept. Your research notes or quotations are the research you are using and accrediting in order to support your presentation from a body of research excellence.

Writing your presentation
1. Be focused
2. Choose only what key points you need to impart.
3. As a novice presenter, it is easy to wander off the subject and discuss information not to the point. 

The years have taught me to do the following to ensure I deliver my full presentation within the timeframe allotted;
3.1 Write out my presentation in full in case I get nervous or forget what I need to say
3.2 Highlight the main key points
3.3. Work out how much time I need to spend on each topic
3.4 Stay on the topic
3.5 Ask the audience to keep their questions and/or write them on a piece of paper, so that question time can occur afterwards. Questions during the presentation sometimes can turn into a question session, and the main goal of the presentation will not have been fulfilled
4. I type my presentation if I have access to a computer. In the bush or while on Charity field trips, I write my notes clearly and slowly so that I can read them later. I always carry a notebook and pen with me. Clear notes assist a clear presentation

Focus your presentation
I make sure my facts are correct, current and quantifiably measurable if possible. 
I also ask for input from experts in the field, so that the presentation will be lifted from the ordinary to the excellent. "We stand on the shoulders of the giants who go before us". 
Many people have lifetimes of training and experience, their input can only be solid gold if they kindly share the same with us for presentations.

Presenting
Don't read your presentation. Make sure you have practised it well beforehand. 
A great way to practise is to tape your reading of your presentation, and play it back to yourself. 
Identify your weak and strong points while speaking.
Ask your family and friends for their critique. 
Remember to repeat key points in your presentation. 
For example, say I am speaking about the Migratory Habits of the Monarch Butterfly. 
If the main point of my presentation is that the flight of the butterflies is the longest known distance migration on Earth which has been occurring for thousands of years- then I will not only mention this fact once. 
I will repeat it.
Therefore; if your point is important, repetition is key if you want your audience to remember it. 
If you make a point only once during a presentation, at the end of your presentation only 5% to 10% of the audience will remember it.
If you repeat a point six or more times, retention can jump to to 90%.

Question and Answer period should be built into the presentation timeframe. 
A bibliography and a list of additional resources for your audience will strengthen your audience's learning experience. 
Handouts are of paramount importance, if you are in a area and have the funding to make the same available. 
Important materials can be made available in electronic format following your presentation.
You can put the information online in the form of blog posts for use by all as needed. 
Information on the global Web made freely available to all can only uplift our universal community, as we share our body of knowledge in order to make our world a place of better service and academic and practical excellence.

When you give your presentation, appear confident. Make sure you are as neat and well-groomed as possible. Making this effort to appear stylish at your presentation shows both respect for your audience, and for yourself as presenter. Make sure you are a few minutes early before your presentation is due. Don't be late.

Enjoy giving professional presentation!

AN EXAMPLE 
I need to give a Presentation on Charity. 
My presentation is on Undocumented Children - their Difficulties of Paperless Status
So; my topic is clearly identified.
My audience will be eg people in the community who will be able to assess how to approach this issue in order to alleviate the difficulties undocumented children experience worldwide
I will research the topic, both from my own knowledge base and that of acknowledged experts such as the Council of Europe ' Undocumented children are triply vulnerable, as migrants, as persons in an irregular situation and as children. The laws tend to tackle their situation from a migration and status standpoint, and not from a child viewpoint' 1
And Coram Children's Legal Centre. 'A recent estimate put the number of undocumented migrant children in the UK at 120,000, with over half born here. Many of these children have spent the whole or most of their lives in the UK. This group of children and young people are often unable to access appropriate education, healthcare and support as a result of their immigration status, with many facing extreme poverty. At the same time, they are often unable to either return to their (or their parent/s') country of origin, or to take the necessary steps to to regularise their status .. These children are trapped in a limbo ...' 2

My objectives for the presentation is to help our poor children who are desperate and trapped, and reach out to Lumiere Charity for help. 
Quotations from children to me over the years, 
"Please help me. I am desperate." 

"I don't want to earn my living like my mother did, on her back. She died from it" ( from a little girl of 7 years of age). 

"I want an education". 

"I have no mother. I have no father. They are dead. Please be my family."  

"My parents are dead and I can't go back to (my country) and the country here say I have no papers. I am seven years old. I have no food, no clothes, no place to stay. Please help me.

"My parents are dead, I am living in a hole with my baby sister. Please tell me what to do. I am scared for my sister." (He thought he might be four years old - he did not know).

My prior knowledge is my experience and information in working as Director of the Charity of the staggering needs of children and the disadvantaged globally, and of their immense sufferings. 

My research is from the many calls for help globally from children and people in distress for help in their untenable situations. It also consists in finding out factual accurate evidence of people in distress.

So; I write out my presentation.
I highlight the key points;
1. Undocumented children find their environment hostile to their aspirations for education, healthcare, shelter and guardianship
2. Undocumented children cannot access health, education and social support systems effectively
3. Undocumented children live in a form of limbo
4. The vulnerability of undocumented children should become a major point in our global village today for discussion and action to resolve this issue as a matter of utmost priority
5. I type out a handout of my presentation to give out 
6. I work out how much time I need to spend on each key point eg my presentation talk is an hour. 
So I will spend five minutes introducing myself and explaining the main topic of my presentation. 
Then I will spend approximately fifteen minutes on key point 1; 
twenty minutes on key point 2, giving concrete researched information re same; 
ten minutes on key point 3; 
and ten minutes on key point 4, making sure I give a conclusion such as 'Therefore it is a matter of utmost priority that we make the vulnerability of undocumented children a major point for discussion and action in our global community today. Thank you very much." 

Thus my hour, divided into 60 minutes, has been divided into subsections. This enables me to give the relevant information in a prepared and concise manner within the agreed timeframe. 
This way I avoid audience fatigue (too much information, too long a presentation). 
I thus leave my audience with concise and accurate information about this issue which is destroying the lives of many of our vulnerable children in our global village today. 
 
Catherine Nicolette Whittle
1  Growing up in a hostile environment; the rights of undocumented migrant children in the UK
http://www.childrenslegalcentre.com/index.php?page=hostile_environment 

2 http://www.childrenslegalcentre.com/index.php?page=hostile_environment  

  Undocumented Children - Difficulties of Paperless Status 
http://lumierecharity.blogspot.ie/2014/07/undocumented-children-difficulties-of_19.html 

What about the rights of undocumented migrant children?
http://newint.org/blog/2013/11/15/undocumented-migrant-children-europe/  







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