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The objective of a presentation is not about what you say but how you say it. It is normal that
participants will not listen to all what you say. Can you stay concentrated 100% on a movie
when you sit at a cinema ? But the participants must remember the important ideas. How
much information do you think your audience will remember after 3 days ? What are the
objectives of your presentation ? What are the motivations of your participants in coming to
your presentation ? Understanding and applying the fundamentals of communication from
the preparation to the delivery of your presentation is one of the key success of great speakers.
A presentation is not to read slides. That is obvious so what is the reason that so many presenters
fall in this trap ? Lack of preparation and simply not applying natural communication principles.
When you speak to your friends, you like looking into the eyes. Presenting is like speaking to your
friends, with all the necessary respect to an audience of course.
The critical success factors in delivering persuasive and entertaining presentations lies into three
aspects:
ü you are the central point of attention for the audience
ü the audience is your central point of attention
ü how you say it and not what you say is primordial
That means PowerPoint should play a minimum role in your presentation. We will develop this aspect.
But first we will cover the fundamentals of communication. That will help you understand where you
could improve, and understand how you could build effective presentation with PowerPoint.
I would ask you first to forget about all the past presentations you have ever seen, except if you have
been attending one presentation or speech from the US President Barack Obama or from Steve Jobs
(CEO of Apple).
What do they have in common ? they inspire!
"I have a dream". You know that speech from Martin Luther King. What do Barack Obama, Steve Jobs
and Martin Luther King have in common ? They inspire, that is right, but they have also rehearsed,
rehearsed and rehearsed to come to that perfection. Martin Luther King had given many speeches
before that well known date of 28 August 1963. As I said forget about the presentation that you have
seen. We tend to model what we have seen the most, which may not be the perfection. Modelling is a
powerful way to learn, like you have been doing when you were a kid. If you want to be a great speaker,
model only the best speakers. Watch presenters at www.ted.com/talks . Some presenters may not be
the best but the speech are always very well prepared. They inspire!
What is one of the biggest fear of the human beings ? Public speaking is one of them. Being prepared
helps to build confidence. This book will help you to get ready for every aspects of a presentation. I was
shy younger, I can still turn red but today I enjoy so much delivering presentations. You must realize
that it takes a lot of energy. That would mean that you must plan a good night sleep the day before. It
requires a lot of energy as you keep concentrating on the audience. At the same time you receive so
much energy from the participants. I kept improving my presentations from the discussions and points
brought up by the participants.
This is the reason that you should always plan time for discussions and debates. They are great sources
of inspiration and improvement for your next presentations. It also shows you what interests the most
the audience. Indeed, you will also learn from your audience. If you take all the small steps I am
developing in this book, you will get confidence in public speaking and even enjoy it for sure. You will
realize very soon how enjoyable it will be when you will see the audience think, debate and ask
questions from your sole acting.
Next article : The body language and the voice
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