Presentations and demos INFO61003 Harold Somers. Overview General remarks Structure and planning Timing Preparation Delivery Visual aids: – Powerpoint

Presentations and demos

INFO61003

Harold Somers

Overview

• General remarks• Structure and planning• Timing• Preparation• Delivery• Visual aids:

– Powerpoint– Demo

• Taking questions• Conclusions

General remarks

• What are they for?– Listening is easier than reading– People like to be stimulated and entertained

• What makes a good (bad) presentation?– Imitate good ones, analyse bad ones and avoid their

mistakes• First impressions count, so the start of the talk is

the most important– Set the context with the first slide: “This talk is

about ...”– The magic trio: tell them what you’re going to tell

them, tell them it, then tell them what you’ve told them

Personal factors

• Try not to be nervous– The audience is on your side: they want to hear a good

presentation– Don’t be too worried if you make a mistake; just be

honest about it

• Involve the audience– “Can you hear me?” (joke)– Audience participation: ask questions– Will you take interruptions? Tell them.

• Judge their understanding by looking at them– But try not to look always at the same person!

Personal factors

• Delivery (see later)• Should you tell jokes?

– Yes, but they should be spontaneous, and relevant– If you are not naturally witty, don’t try to be

• How to lose your audience– Misjudging their level of understanding

• Too high or too low

– Being over-confident or under-confident– Giving a bad talk (!)– Talking for too long, too fast

Overview




Structure and planning

• People’s attention span is quite short (10 minutes if they’re not fully engaged)– Find ways to refresh it:

• Change of pace or tone• Silly joke• Attractive slide

• Best way to keep people’s attention is to have a clear structure, and to remind them of it (see previous slide)

Structure and planning

• Structure:– 10% - 20% Introduction– 60% - 80% Main body– 10% - 20% Conclusion / summary

• Be overt about your structure, both on the slides and verbally

Planning

• Top down development– Identify your main headings– Then subheadings– Then fill in the details

• The three most important things are:– Structure– Structure– Structure

Overview




Timing

• Surprisingly difficult to judge this right• Most beginners over-run, though some

underestimate the time needed• Obviously, have a full run through beforehand,

though remember:– Adrenalin will make you talk faster– The audience may slow you down

• So: plan your talk to last 80% of the allotted time• It’s easier to fill in than to hurry

Timing

• What if you are over-running?– Can you talk faster?– Can you skip things? (bad)

• Whatever you do, don’t plough on regardless• In any case, it’s a bad thing to happen• Prevent it by

– Careful preparation– Keeping an eye on your progress– Don’t dawdle at the start

Overview




Preparation

• Don’t underestimate how much time you need to prepare and practice

• The shorter the talk, the more preparation needed– Why?

• Practice the talk with another person and/or video it

Preparation

• Check out the venue beforehand• Get your presentation installed on the host

computer, or have your laptop ready to just plug in– Make sure it works– Have you used any unusual fonts or characters?– Have you used a later version of PPT?

• Practice the changeover beforehand• Be there on time (duh)

Overview




Delivery

– Adrenalin will make you talk faster: SLOW DOWN!

– Don’t just read out the slides: have something to say about them

– Do you need to work on voice projection? Arrange for there to be amplification if necessary

Delivery

• Watch your body language– What are you doing with your hands?– Keep relatively still ...– ... though some animation is natural– Find out if you overdo it

• Don’t block the screen– You may have to move around if the screen is badly placed– Can everyone see?– Not your fault, but apologize to the audience anyway

• Don’t turn your back– Face the audience, not the screen– Point at the big screen not at your monitor– Use the cursor, or a big stick– Laser pointers?

Notes and text

• Never read aloud from notes or text– Notes are OK, but use them as a guide (I use my

slides as my notes)– If you must have notes, use individual numbered

cards– They should be NOTES, not the full text of what you

want to say – Listening to someone reading is boring– You can’t look at your audience if you are reading– And anyway, speech and text should be different– My advice: don’t write out your speech in full in the

first place

Overview




Slides

• One per minute for a short talk, one per 3 minutes for a long talk– Though some slides don’t count

• The information on the slide should complement what you’re saying, not compete with it

• I won’t say anything about this third bullet point: will you have time to read it and also listen to what I’m saying?

Slides

• Don’t overcrowd the slide– Two or three levels of bullet point– Headings, not full text

• If you put too much text on the slide you will be tempted to just read it out: the audience can just as easily read the text themselves, so what’s the point?

• Also too much text on the slide means that the writing will be too small

Slides

• This slide is too bare

This slide is too dense

• A talk with slides is the usual way of presenting scientific results and business plans, so it is important to be familiar with this type of presentation in particular.

• You need first to decide how many slides you will show. For a short talk I find that one a minute is about right. For a ten minute presentation, I will normally produce ten slides with the most important information on, and another two or three with supporting material. I normally try to anticipate the sorts of questions that people will ask, and prepare supporting slides to illustrate my answers to these questions. Usually I find I don't need all these extra slides, but it doesn't take long to make them.

• For a one-hour presentation you can take things a bit more slowly; in this case one slide every two or three minutes is probably about right. Of course you should not follow these guidlines dogmatically; if you find you need to show more slides then that's what you should do. If a slide contains complex experimental or statistical results then it will take longer to explain. In this case you may find you can only show a few slides in a ten minute presentation.

• The trusty old overhead projector is the normal method of showing slides in the academic environment. A common mistake is for the speaker to stand in front of it and obscure the audience's view. Sometimes the projector and screen are deployed so badly that it is impossible to avoid blocking someone's view. If you cannot do anything about this, you should at least apologise for it.

Colour schemes

• There’s a lot of research on colour combinations

• Generally simple schemes work best:– Dark letters on light background– The opposite may look more exciting, but

inverted slides are hard to read if the room is not very dark

Colour schemes




– Dark letters on dark background is a disaster

Colour schemes





Colour schemes





Colours and fonts

• Don’t use too many colours– It looks messy– It distracts form what you want to say

• Same is true of fonts– Simpler fonts are easier to read– Simpler fonts are easier to read– Simpler fonts are easier to read

– Simpler fonts are easier to read– Some fonts are OK for headers but not running text

Templates

• Think twice about having fancy backgrounds

• Is it appropriate? Does it add to or detract from your presentation?

• Familiarity breeds contempt– Everyone has MS Powerpoint

Animations and effects

• Again, simpler is better• Scrolling or wiping is OK• Think hard whether you really need it

Other effects are distracting

Especially whizzing and twirling

Whizzing and twirling is distracting

Whizzing and twirling is distracting

Doing a demo

• These need very careful planning• What do you hope your demo will show?• Make sure you explain to the audience

– Before the demo, what they are GOING to see

– What is happening at each point

• Integrate your demo into your presentation– Better if you can launch it from within

Powerpoint

Doing a demo

• If you need to launch it, do so before the start of the talk, so it is running in the background:– No one wants to watch you loading your

program

• Make sure it works on the platform you are given: try it out beforehand

Doing a demo

• Murphy’s law: If something can go wrong, it will

• DO a demo if required, but avoid it if you can

• Back-up: have some screen shots that you can show and talk through if it goes wrong

• If it is going wrong, just stop: don’t try to fix it

Questions

• Leave time to take questions

• Questioners usually have one of three purposes– To get you to explain something they didn’t

understand– To show off– To put you down

Questions

• To get you to explain something they didn’t understand– Maybe they are stupid– Maybe you didn’t explain it well

• If you think you already explained it, go back to the relevant slide and try again– But don’t be impatient or patronising

Questions

• If they ask you a question that you can’t answer– Because they are showing off or trying to put

you down– Or because it’s a genuinely difficult question

• Be honest and say you don’t know

• Thank them for the question

• Offer to discuss it with them afterwards

Conclusions

• Keep it simple

• Practice plenty

• Be prepared

• Try to be confident– Everyone knows what it’s like to be nervous

• Assume the audience is on your side

Overview




Documents

Presentations and demos INFO61003 Harold Somers. Overview General remarks Structure and planning Timing Preparation Delivery Visual aids: – Powerpoint