Keys to Organizing a Speech or Presentation - Step 2: Prepare

Step 2: Prepare

You are going to do a presentation and are in the process of putting it together. You have a plan for the presentation and now it is time to prepare the material you are going to present. Preparation occurs in the following areas:


Knowledge
Materials
Delivery
Appearance

The first rule of preparation is to know your subject. You may be presenting yourself as an expert and are planning to inform your audience. You may be intending to amuse and entertain or you may be attempting to persuade a group to give you money or to adopt your way of thinking. No matter the purpose of the presentation, you have to know your stuff. You may be an expert in your field and require very little research to bolster your knowledge base, but current scenarios and statistics will help establish your credibility. So, research and refine your facts and supporting material.

Once you feel confident in facts you are going to present, it is time to narrow the amount of material you are going to use so that it is pertinent to the subject and can be spoken in the time frame allotted. This takes some real work that includes constructing the speech and timing the presentation. When you have the presentation fitted to the timeframe, prepare the audio visual aids and handouts that will accompany the talk. Then practice again with the additional materials to make sure your presentation falls within the specified timeframe.

Then, practice again. If possible, have someone critique the presentation for clarity, content and delivery. If there is no one available to do that, record yourself and listen carefully to the results, Delivery includes having the right tone, speaking clearly and appropriately framing the content for the audience and the size of the room. You can have terrific content and lose your audience through boring or inaudible delivery.

Finally, make sure everything looks good. Materials should be neat and clean. Visual aids should be clear and uncluttered, in large enough print that is surrounded by sufficient white space to make it visually appealing. And you should prepare to be appropriately dressed and neatly groomed.

Now you are ready to get out there and wow your audience. While you are doing that remember the rules of presenting that we will talk about in our next installment.

Beverly & Kristen
www.keytransitions.net