Wednesday, November 18, 2009

how to make presentation

As an IT guy, there are times we need to make technical presentation. How to do it well? I'm no expert in presentation at all, but I'd like to share my two cents through my experience.

Face your audience
It's extremely important to face your audience directly during representation. How boring it is to have a full room of guys watching you talking to a computer. Try to make contact with your audience, and know if they are confusing.

Know your audience
To know the level of your audience helps achieve a good presentation. Knowing them well means we can talk to them at appropriate level, neither too sophisticated nor trivial. And the best bet is to assume they have least experience in related fields if you can't know them well in advance.

Practice
It's never too silly to ask some of your friends to be your first audience and practice. This is your best chance to get the most objective feedback from your audience. Practice and stick to what you practiced during the actual presentation.

Prepare cue cards
Prepare some cue cards about important points of the presentation. They will be of great help when you forget something, and they also help you timing your presentation better.

Make a tape or video of your presentation/practice

Watch a video of your own presentation will be a funny thing to do. It also lets you make a better judgment of your performance and improve accordingly.

No comments: