A conclusion may seem like the easiest part of a presentation to prepare. Maybe so easy that you don’t put much thought into it at all. This would be a mistake. I fact I would suggest that the conclusion is the most important part of your presentation. The conclusion is the last thing that the …
In order to truly connect with your audience, you need to empathise with your audience. You need to understand how the audience feels. Your key message needs to convey the idea that “I’ve been there, I understand how you feel, I can relate to your experience.” In order to build this empathy with your audience …
One of the best types of supporting material you can put in a speech are stories. Storytelling is deeply rooted in human nature. The tradition of oral storytelling began long before human knew how to write. It was a way of passing on history and teaching a new generation. Anthropologists have found folk tales and …
A new study released by Microsoft shows that humans now have attention spans shorter than a goldfish! This makes it even more important to capture your audience’s attention with the first words of your presentation. The old-fashioned “Good evening ladies and gentlemen” isn’t enough any more. You need and introduction that will surprise them, intrigue …
Supporting material is anything you use in your presentation that supports your key message. This can range from statistics to diagrams to anecdotes to video clips. This post will look at verbal supporting material and how to use it. I will cover visual supporting material in my next post on visual aids. Here’s how I …
You’ve now decided on a topic or key message for your presentation, so you are moving on to one of the next steps: organising your speech. I strongly believe that when planning a speech you have to be messy before you get organised. This means get all of your ideas out. Brainstorming You can do …