Ed. note: In Part One and Part Two Gayle covered all the important foundational challenges in putting together your material for leading a conference or training session. Now for the real work of putting the presentation together--and step-by-step Gayle will help you do that successfully.
Composing your presentation
Putting material together effectively is by far the most challenging part of any presentation. Therefore, never commit to leading a conference about something you don’t really know or care about. You will likely not pay the price in preparation on such a topic. As a result, both you and your audience will get short-changed.
The skill of presentation allows a great deal of freedom for the creative process. You will eventually develop your own particular blueprint for putting together your conferences. Include at least these basic steps.
• Identify your specific goal. What exactly do you want those attending your conference to gain from the experience? To be most effective, make sure that everything involved in your presentation is compatible with your goal.
• Gather facts. Start with what you know firsthand. Add information from current media. Get input from as many reliable references as possible; keep detailed notes regarding your sources. Never overlook the obvious. The information you think everyone already knows may be precisely what many need to hear for the first time or as a reminder.
• Develop ideas on how to present your facts. Anecdotes, illustrations, or even appropriate jokes will give impact to a point you want to make. Whenever possible, demonstrate. Showing how is always better than just telling how.
• Build in opportunities for participation. People remember best what they experience. As you plan ways your group can take part, remember that successful participation must be fun, easy, and voluntary. Never put someone on the spot, embarrass her in any way, or try to force her participation. Ask Sally if she will take part in a skit, rather than assign her to it.
• Prepare visuals. Used in moderation, visual aids are a definite plus to most presentations.
• Outline. Once you have all the pieces, put them together in logical order. Consider what is coming before and after you on the program and any breaks scheduled. Give particular attention to pace: mixing talk, demonstrations, visuals, and hands-on exercises is more critical in an all-day meeting, but even short conferences benefit from a good mix.
• Prepare a script. Your purpose is not to take this with you to conference nor to memorize your presentation —neither is a good tactic—but writing forces you to be precise in stating your facts. A script allows you to cut out non-essentials and beef up what is not clear. It gives the presentation life. You can see it, study it, mark it, and make it your own.
Notes or not?
Preparing a script is always a good idea. Taking that script with you to the presentation seldom is. The script tends to become a crutch—usually one you don't really need, but one that you will use if it is there.
Working from a script often makes the presenter sound artificial—words seem less genuine. Your credibility will go down a notch or two in Sally's eyes. There are a number of options to give you the advantage of prompters without the disadvantage of using a script.
• Notes or an outline. Either keeps you on track but allows for spontaneity. Include major points, ticklers for anecdotes, and a timeframe.
• Visuals. Computer images can move you along from one point to another. Be careful not to overdo on-screen visuals; give your audience the advantage of a live presentation. And this reminder: never allow a blank screen to glare at your audience.
• Printed work sheets. Handouts can act as your outline and, if you design them with fill-ins, help your audience retain information. Make your sheets attractive; use a good printer to reproduce them. Note your name, conference name, and email and website addresses on each handout.
• A presentation "map." This is an effective visual option for your eyes only. Picture a game board like Candy Land. Working from your script, make this kind of one-page representation of your entire session.
You need not be an artist; the idea is simply to fix a picture map of your conference, whether one hour or all day, in your mind. Use illustrations or signs to prompt you along. You might even use a take-off on Burma Shave. Use vivid color for the major points; but keep the illustration itself uncluttered.
The particular charm of this system is that the pictures are so quickly recalled once you are in front of your audience. And since the map is on one sheet of paper, it's easy to take along and use at the conference as.
Rehearsing
You will always do a better job if you rehearse than if you don't. You will do an even better job if you rehearse properly. Here are the steps:
• Read your script. Scrutinize the flavor of what you've written. Is it positive? Is what you have to say sensitive to your audience?
At a meeting for church office professionals, one of the conference leaders (a writer of Christian books) told us, “I worked in the church office before I started writing and I can tell you I am glad to be out of there.” Sally and I have good senses of humor but we weren't amused; we wondered if Ms. Writer felt we were kind of stupid to still be at the church.
Does all the information meet your presentation goal? Will this help Sally? Is any of it self-serving or self-centered? Weed out the irrelevant ; add anything that was missed. Even if you were very conscientious as you composed your script, there may be a few changes.
• Talk it. Give your presentation extemporaneously using the script only as a guide. Do this several times until you feel comfortable with the rhythm.
• Record or video it. Now you want to really hear what this talk sounds like—and what you sound like. We actually sound quite different to others than we sound to ourselves. Hearing and/or seeing yourself can alert you to phrases or other elements of your presentation that should be changed.
• Time it. If you have too much material, cut it now. For full day presentations where audience input makes timing more difficult, put optional information in a separate folder. If time allows, you will have what you need to fill the time productively.
• Visualize. Imagine yourself on presentation day—the clothes you will be wearing, the place you will be meeting. Imagine coming to the platform, see the friendly faces. Visualize the positive response you will receive for giving of yourself.
All serious rehearsing should be done before the night before. That will be your time to relax and settle down. You’ve done your best and asked God to honor that effort. Pamper yourself a little and get a good night’s rest.
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For the entire series, click on the link that follows:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Please share your thoughts, comments, questions!