How to deliver successful presentation
Any project manager must have presentation skills because he/she will come to the situation of delivering a presentation, to have a successful presentation there are lot of actions and steps you have to take and those actions are divided into 3 parts which are “Before the presentation”, “During the presentation” and “After the presentation”. Let us take each section and describe how to manage it.
1- Preparation (Before):
a. Expectations: In this part you are studying all basic information about your presentation and make sure that is up to what is expected.
i. Topic: make sure that your audience is aware of the topic you are going to talk about.
ii. Audience: know / study your audience because the presentation focus will be different if audience is stakeholders or project team.
iii. Location: select the location properly, make sure that the location will have enough space for all audience, also it must be easily reachable.
iv. Venue: how the presentation will be delivered? Is it conference room or is it conference call?
v. Time / Duration: it is very important to select the proper time for audience, make sure that you selected the time which they will have all the focus on your presentation. Also take care of the duration if it more than 50 minutes divide it into segments and each segment less than 50 minutes.
b. Good Research: it is a key point to have successful presentation, it should be built on good research and not questionable facts.
i. Relevancy: it must be relevant to the audience so they can follow up with you.
ii. Why do they care? You have to find an answer to this question so you can emphasize your presentation on this.
iii. How this can beneficial to them? If you found this answer you got the audience attention.
c. Materials: stay professional and prepare all materials might be needed during the presentation and make sure that you have one focal point where all audience follow up with you like “Power Point”.
2- Presentation (During): Here we came to the most important section which is the presentation itself, although it is depending so much on your soft presentation skills but here are some tips to have to go through this part successfully
a. Arrive & Test: arrive early enough and test the venue and make sure that everything is properly working.
b. Presentation: that is the main part and as a quick tip on it divide it into 3 main segments
i. Intro: give the audience important fact, statistical or a new idea to get their attentions from the beginning.
ii. Message: detailing the intro to deliver the inner message.
iii. Wrap-up: make sure that you can wrap-up the message in one or two sentences as a follow up on the message.
c. Delivery: how you are presenting is depending on the type of message, like if the message is for inspiration, motivation or it is serious situation. Your tone will be affected by this type. Last note “give space for questions”.
d. Next Steps: determine the next steps after the presentation either having another sessions, attending a course or working on proofing the idea you delivered.
e. Your Contacts: mention you contacts details for any further inquiries or questions.
3- Follow Up (After): This part is coming after the presentation and it is focusing on the following up on the presentation with the audience.
a. Send “Thank you”: send a “thank you” mail to the audience for attending your presentation and leave your contacts information.
b. Follow up on next steps: try to follow up on next steps and schedule it if it is under your authority and get feedback.
Notes (Place Your Notes Here)