A better way of presentations

Other day one of our student was asking me about how to do a good presentations?. That prompted me to write my thoughts on this subject. I have attended many presentations during meetings, seminars and other events. I have seen some great presentations to the most boring and worst presentations. I was also involved in presenting software solutions to customers and now corporate skills to students. In my Professional career audience for my presentations are domain experts in their respective industries and it is expected that I have the competency to effectively convey what they expect from our software. I was needed to be ready for answering the questions my clients have and naturally I couldn’t anticipate every question, and hence I didn’t always have an answer, at least not at that moment. Presenting in front of audience is a daunting task for many professionals everyday. It is not that easy to keep audience glued to your presentations. One reason is that as a presenter we are trying to prove something to the audience and we command authority at that time. Feeling as a leader on the podium is good to boost your confidence but is not enough to keep audience attentive. In spite of having full command of the subject matter you will fail as a good presenter if you don’t structure your speech to suit audience requirements. The best presentation will be that when you don’t feel like an authority but a resource helping the audience to get something from you. In setting aside the script you wrote and focusing on what the audience need you will develop good rapport with audience and that will carry you thru your presentations more effectively. Knowledge on the subject is mandatory in order to speak but one size fits all, pundit like presentations are boring. Involving audience during the presentation makes the event livelier. Whether you are conducting a meeting, seminar or class room lectures if you focus on audience not on your perfect script as presenter you will be much sought after. Other points you should remember as Presenter are that you start your speech on time and finish on time, check your tone, pitch and volume. Check the podium, hardware, software and other required tools well before the presentations. Audience doesn’t have patience to sit there and watch you helplessly trying to fix software or hardware problems. Also make sure you have enough time for Question and answer sessions from the Audience.

Hope people who speak or lecture regularly at seminars ,meetings,  presentations at universities, colleges and companies will pay attention to the frustrations of wasted time and boring presentations and change their styles and focus on audience and provide good value to them while entertaining them.  I wish to know your experiences about the meetings or presentations you attended. Please write comments so others can read