Presentation.

 Presentation format- 

Before you start planning your presentation, find out from the organizers how much time you have and what format they envision for your talk. Will you be part of a panel or will you be speaking alone? Will you be in a regular session or are you the dinner speaker? Do you have 15 minutes or an hour? Do they prefer to leave time for questions? If yes, does that come out of the allocated time you have been quoted? It is important to know what is expected of you so you can be well prepared and not have to scramble last minute to readjust your talk due to unanticipated logistics.Know your audience Get information about who will be attending your presentation. Are all participants experts at the topic or will there be novices present? Is there a mixed group of people representing different backgrounds or is everyone on the same page regarding technicalities? Depending on the audience, you will have to spend some time giving varying degrees of background on the material and explaining certain concepts. 

Frame your story - There’s no way you can give a good talk unless you have something worth talking about. Conceptualizing and framing what you want to say is the most vital part of preparation. We all know that stories are a powerful tool for communication and therefore, metaphors which abound the narrative structures work best to engage people.Approach 1: Consider it as planning a journey where the biggest decisions are where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in the audience already know about your subject – and how much they care about it. If you assume they have more knowledge or interest than they in fact do, or if you start using jargon or get too technical, you’ll lose them. The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too. Approach 2: Have a narrative structure that loosely follows a detective story. The speaker starts out by presenting a problem and then describes the search for a solution. There’s an “aha” moment, and the audience’s perspective shifts in a meaningful way. As a general rule, people are not very interested in talks about organizations or institutions. Ideas and stories fascinate us; organizations bore us – they’re much harder to relate to. 

The take-away message -

If someone who missed your talk were to ask an audience member in the elevator to sum it up, what would you like that person to say? Focus on that message. Start out with this summary statement in mind and build your presentation around it.

Plan your delivery - 

There are three main ways to deliver a speech. You can read it directly off a script. You can develop a set of bullet points that map out what you’re going to say in each section rather than scripting the whole thing word for word. Or you can memorize your speech, which entails rehearsing it to the point where you internalize every word. Don't do number one as reading a speech is the most boring thing for everyone! For me bullet points proved to be the most reasonable system as remembering the entire speech by heart might prove too stressful or time-consuming. Don't write out the material word-by-word and don't plan on reading text even if you do have it all written down. Having the text written out and parts of it memorized will constrain you. Memorize the structure of the talk and the outline, but not every word.

Timing-

People rarely want to listen to someone for longer than the allotted time. Few people are such amazing speakers that an audience can't get enough of them. Do not assume you are one of those few. Wrap up your talk on time. To achieve this goal, ask someone to give you time cues by indicating when you have five minutes left, two minutes and when you have run out of time. Once you get the last notice, you should stop talking.

Flexibility - 

Organize your talk and know it well enough to have the flexibility to skip certain parts or expand on others depending on the circumstances. For example, if you do add a last-minute introduction, be flexible to skip a part of the prepared content.

Practice makes perfect- 

Practice the presentation a few times: more if you have less experience, less if you are a more seasoned public speaker. It can be especially helpful to give the talk to someone who is not in your field and is not intimately familiar with the material. This is helpful in seeing whether you have made the talk too narrowly focused or overly technical. Such a practice session does not have to involve the entire talk, it can consist of telling someone about your presentation outline.

How to be confident during a presentation

Unfortunately, in many professions, some amount of public speaking is necessary. It might be that you need to present in a small meeting, give an update to the entire company, or present at a conference or other event. No matter what it is or how daunting you find it, there are steps you can take to prepare and improve your skills.

1. Understand the Expectations and Learn the Details
2. Know Your Audience
3. Plan and Structure Your Speech
4. Don’t Overload Your Slides
5. Practice, Practice, Practice
6. Get Feedback
7. Memorize Your First and Last Lines
8. Join a Club or Go to a Workshop
9. Get in the Zone
10. Don’t Bury Your Face in Notes
11. Make Eye Contact
12. Use Pauses
13. Repeat Yourself
14. Let Some Questions Go
15. Keep Talking
16. Remember the Audience Is on Your Side
17. Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself

Handling the Q&A

A well-handled question-and-answer session can strengthen your credibility, demonstrate your knowledge, and give you a chance to clarify and expand on your ideas.

• Make a list of possible questions that people might have about the material that you are presenting, and prepare answers to those questions.
• If someone is being aggressive or antagonistic, simply say, “I’d be happy to talk with you about this in greater depth afterward, but I have limited time and need to address additional questions.” Don’t let anyone take control of the presentation.