Speaking on your own is good practice, but a live audience is a whole different experience.

In
what way would you like to connect with your audience? You want to keep them interested and
while at the same time creating a sense of connection between you and them. How? Here are
few tips for you to follow:
● Eye Contact. This is particularly difficult with large audiences, but not impossible.
Change your focal point, scanning each section of the audience so that everyone
feels engaged with you and the presentation. Do not scan back and forth too quickly
because that can make you look nervous. It is also good to avoid constantly looking
up toward the ceiling or down toward the floor so that you do not appear to be bored
or rude.
● Gestures. Studies indicate that up to 55% of communication is body language. We
use our arms, hands, legs, facial expressions and much more when explaining and
emphasizing. A good presenter is careful to avoid keeping his hands in his pockets
or his arms at his sides at all times. Use open gestures as a complimentary
expression to what you are saying and as a means to invite your audience into the
conversation. At the same time, be moderate with your gestures in order to avoid
looking anxious or nervous.
● Verbal contact. Always check beforehand if everyone can accurately see you or hear
you; test the audio and lighting to be sure they are working. Engage your audience
with rhetorical questions (they should be direct and clear) such as “How do you think
we get to this conclusion?” or “What does this tell us?”
● Language. You may be tempted to believe that a good presentation is one in which
only technical or academic language is used. This is not always the case. Either
way, you want to be sure that you speak in a clear and understandable manner. A
good technique you can use is to use the pronoun “we” so that your audience feels
involved. You can ask questions like, “How can we learn something here?” or “What
can we learn from this chart?”

D. Multipurpose Presentations
It is evident that sometimes your presentation will have more than one purpose. For example,
you can use a dinner party for employees to give an award, present a new manager or new
company policies. A crucial thing here is to hierarchically organize them from the least to the
most important one, so that people can go from one step to the next one as the expectation
grows.
E. Instructional Presentations
This is the forum you would want to use to make presentations to deliver new knowledge on
specific directions or even orders. By the end of your presentation, your audience should have
learned new skills or something they didn’t know before. Here is the structure:
● Explain the value of what you’re presenting.
● State the learning objectives.
● If you are demonstrating a process, here are some steps you can follow:
○ Provide a demonstration the first time without commenting.
 ○ Then do that again, but explain it briefly.
○ Do it for the third time, but explain it step by step.
○ If possible, participants should practice it themselves.
● Feedback is quite important; be attentive to your audience and answer their
questions.
● Provide teaching that has practical application and that the audience finds useful.

next step on your presentation is being truly organized. Remember that noise is not just physical
but contextual as well so an unstructured presentation will definitely stop you from being
effective. We’ll review how to organize your information by structuring your presentation.
Your final draft is a master brief of what you have produced. A good tip is to always leave a copy
of your final draft at home or office for someone to send it to you in case of an emergency or
keeping a copy online in a cloud service. Highlight the must know, should know and could know
materials in different colors. Use note cards only if strictly necessary as they can cause you to
do too much shuffling. In this final draft, only write on the top two thirds of the page to avoid
dropping your eyes and voice, which can cause you to lose your audience’s attention.
D. Practice
This was already discussed too, but it’s another great habit. Do it at least, three to six times out
loud, saying it differently each time to maintain spontaneity. If you will be delivering your speech
standing up, then practice the same way using a similar room setup. (If you can't practice in the
actual room where you will be speaking, improvise).
Set up your own chairs in the way they will actually be used. If you can practice in front of
someone, his or her comments will help you to refine your presentation. Remember the other tips
we discussed? Try to videotape yourself and make a note of what you do not like. Do not forget
that if you do not find your presentation interesting and dynamic, then no one else will either.
E. Arrive early
Make sure the room is set up correctly, the microphone you will use is working and check any
visual aids you may be using. Bring extra cables, batteries and a backup CD or USB in
preparation for technical difficulties. Whenever possible, be available to introduce yourself with
your audience as they arrive. They will be more receptive because they previously met you.
Breathing and stretching a bit in private is very helpful before you actually start