I offer you to read my compendium with master classes on presentation design and presentations with them. The material is aimed at people promoting startups. Performance format: stage, live audience, projection of the presentation file.

For people with little experience, this is a short tutorial. And for those who have already "eaten the dog" - this is a checklist to check the readiness and quality of the presentation.

The notes from the events were used:

1. “ Oratory ”, Robert Minegulov; 11/19/2009, League of volunteer translators “Nead For Speak”, center “Salet”, Kazan.
2. “ Presentation of innovative projects ”, Theos Samphost; November 26, 2009, as part of the seminar "Movement to Success", Innovative Technopark "Idea", Kazan.
+ personal skills.

Presentation preparation

Content

1. Be sure to have charts, numbers, diagrams, figures, tables.
2. The presentation should not contain the entire text of the speech! It should have a visual representation of the information for additional assimilation and something that is poorly perceived by ear, such as numbers.
3. Do not forget that the very juice of the performance should be in live communication, and not in a slide show.
4. The sequence should be logical.
5. A clear structure consistent with the performance plan should be monitored.
6. It is advisable to suppress the temptation to use animation techniques.

• A spinning logo in the footer, for example, can be very distracting.
• Changing objects on a click-through slide is a risk of disrupting the demonstration scenario for technical reasons.
• If dynamic visualization is necessary in meaning, it is better to copy the entire slide and make changes to it. In this way, you can even emphasize the importance of a single slide element. Example: select a keyword by creating a copy of the slide on which it is highlighted, and the rest in the copy is unchanged.

Specifically for innovative projects

1. The relevance of the topic.
2. A brief introduction to the subject area.
3. Disclosure of the technical features of the solution.
4. Prove the innovativeness of the solution.
5. Provide an overview of competing, related products.
6. Show the benefits of the solution.
7. Planned market share, revenue, in numbers.
8. Stage of project implementation.
9. Plan for further development.
10. What investments and labor resources are needed.

Decor

1. If the presentation is conducted on behalf of a particular company, it is necessary to obtain recommendations for its design in accordance with the corporate identity of the company. Be sure to use the company logo.
2. If the presentation contains information on the cooperation of companies, then you can use the logos of both partners.
3. It is highly desirable to use the status bar or page numbering (current and total) so that the viewer knows how much is left. It is possible to use various techniques to achieve this goal, for example, to make several blocks with the same color gradation in the header or at the bottom of the page, color the past slides in a saturated but not bright tone, highlight the current one with a bright one, and future ones with a pale color.
4. It’s better to make a lot of slides than piling one with too much information.

Speech to the audience

Preparing for the performance

Questions to ask yourself

1. How to persuade the audience to your side? Think over a persuasion strategy.
2. What do we know about the audience? Gather information.
3. What are the central ideas of the speech?
4. What ideas can be combined into groups?
5. Do these groups reflect the optimal performance structure?

What needs to be done before the performance?

1. Realize your fears.
2. Present your success.
3. Work out in front of the mirror.
4. Prepare yourself tips in the text.
5. Prepare audiovisual equipment.
6. Test the equipment.

• Any technical problems distract attention, confuse the audience and the speaker.
• If the slides are shown in the dark, then you need to get up so as not to cast a shadow on them, but the face should be highlighted.

7. Than poking a finger at the monitor or casting a shadow by hand, showing important things, it is better to get a pointer - a laser or another, at least a pen, and use it.
8. If there are any dynamic events in the presentation, and you need an operator to help turn them on in time, then you should rehearse this in advance.
9. Familiarize yourself with the venue in advance. Prepare conditions: air temperature, lighting, ventilation.
10. Choose a suit suitable for the occasion, put it in order.

• The costume and image of the speaker as a whole should not distract from the presentation itself.
• You should feel comfortable in these clothes.

11. Relax before the performance.
12. Immediately before the performance, experience some kind of physical activity in order to distribute adrenaline throughout the body. But, of course, without sweating at the same time;)
13. You can not memorize speech by heart, repeat it too much.
14. When the audience has already gathered, you need to ask if they can clearly see the projected slide, is it light enough, is it too bright, or is the font small. You can do a training slide for this.
15. Be sure to ask to turn off the sound on mobile phones. Calls distract not only the speaker, but the whole audience.

Performance plan

1. It is necessary to formulate central ideas, main ideas, theses. They can be 3, 5, 7. They must correspond to groups of ideas.
2. If the task is to convince the audience of something, to incline towards a certain decision, then it is recommended to use theses in the following order: strong, weak, and strongest. The weakest thesis is not to use at all.
3. Prepare a conclusion, conclusions, resolution.
4. Nevertheless, one cannot act like a robot, be too logical, or structure information too clearly.
5. Prepare for discussion and possible issues.

• Trick number 1 : Ask yourself three questions and give three ready-made answers.
• Trick number 2 : Deliberately allow two weaknesses in the presentation in order to successfully answer questions about them.

During the performance

Speech

1. Speak loudly and clearly, but you should not always keep the same volume level. Monotonous speech is worse absorbed.
2. Do not chatter, but also do not lull the audience.
3. Insert short pauses, as if to think, to give time to digest what was heard.
4. Use your wit - jokes attract attention and set in a positive way.

• It is not always worth using prepared jokes; they may be out of place.
• It’s better not to joke at all if you speak to foreigners or in a foreign language.
• Do not joke too often.

5. Do not repeat the same thought many times in different words.
6. If you have to read a lot of text from paper, then you need to read it as if it were your free speech, and not as a test for reading speed.

• You can look through the text in small pieces and retell in your own words.
• After reading a small excerpt from the sheet, you need to look at the public, and then back to the paper.
• Check to see if listeners have grasped the information.

7. The amount of information issued must be commensurate with the time for its assimilation. It is best to be concise, explain the essence briefly and pay more attention to specific issues.
8. Round off in a timely manner, do not delay the performance.

Public contact

1. Communicate with the audience, not with the screen.
2. If the attention of the public is dying away, you can muffle the tone a little, so that people begin to listen, afraid of something interesting and important to miss.
3. Constantly analyze listeners, receive non-verbal feedback.
4. Eye contact: 30% of the time to look at the very center of the audience, the rest is to stare at the faces of the listeners, not forgetting about the listeners sitting on the periphery.
5. Do not look somewhere above the audience, at one point, do not hold your eyes above the surface, but do not focus your eyes on a specific person.

Awkward situations: way out

1. As a reaction to events, you can laugh at yourself without losing self-esteem.
2. If you are nervous, you will be given reflex movements with your hands, for example, torsion of a button. This is distracting, it is worth taking care of yourself.
3. Do not hide your hands behind your back. The attention of the audience is distracted by the question: what are you hiding there?
4. You are a person who is allowed to make mistakes, and it even looks nice. It’s possible to make a mistake somewhere, but to make amends.
5. If you have lost a thought or forgot something - ask the audience a question, this will give time to gather your thoughts.
6. If there are people who are not mostly interested in the information that you carry, ask them to leave the audience (this applies mainly to lectures, reports).
7. If in some corner a stormy closed discussion begins, then you need to stop and look in that direction, to achieve silence.

After the performance

1. To summarize the meeting.
2. Be sure to thank the audience.
3. Do not detain people.
4. You yourself can be late for training, to give an opportunity to come up and talk in person.