I never cease to be amazed at the number of people who are asked to deliver presentations… be it to their work colleagues, an association, service club or a large audience… and never remember, and more importantly apply, the six P’s of success… proper preparation prevents pretty poor performance.
They fail to prepare prior to the presentation!
Now I don’t mean they haven’t written and rehearsed what they are going say or spent hours getting their PowerPoint presentation ready.
I mean quite simply they haven’t checked out the room or space where they will deliver their presentation.
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So, if you’re been asked to deliver some sort of talk, be it a short thank you to a guest speaker, a chat about your system at work or a speech to a paying audience, remember to prepare by physically checking out the location before you stand in front of that audience.
The least you can do prior to everybody else arriving is to have a look at the room where you will talk. Check to see where you should stand for the audience to see and hear you and check out the microphone and the speaker volume (if being used). If you are using support like PowerPoint check out that your slides will actually work in the computer that’s being used for the show. If necessary, pester the organiser so you talk to the ‘tech person’ to get everything right.
The worst words an audience can hear when you start talking are “It worked okay last night””, “Can you hear me?” or “Can you see that?”
These are just a couple of things you can do prior to your presentation but, if you do so, you’ll end up holding the audience in the palm of your hand… an excellent place to have them.
If you don’t… you’ll never get a second chance at that first impression!
Winno, I’m involved in a group called Annexe Arts. One of the things we promote is story telling. It’s usually held at Oakleigh Bowling Club in fact there is one on tonight March 21st at 7pm for a 7.30 start. Today is world Harmony day and the theme is Harmony. So come and tell a story or listen to a story about Harmony. $5 entrance and $50 for the best story of the night. If you want to hear to hear some great stories google The Moth which is an internation story telling event. It’s held in Melbourne on the first Monday of the month at The Howler in Brunswick.
Great to hear about the group and it would have been fun to be part of it Kevin but unfortunately I have another commitment. I’ll certainly google Th Moth and see what’s what!