The most memorable thing that happened this session was the group presentation. The group consisting of Sherwin, Michelle, Lynette and Jia En presented on the approaches Donald Trump used to engage an audience. What was memorable about their presentation was that they were so good! Their presentation consisted of good humor, great energy level, smooth transition between one member to another and equal chance for each person to speak. It was a presentation that kept me entertained from the start to the end and to be honest, I was really impressed by this group.
Some things that I feel I could learn and takeaway from this group’s presentation include:
- Good pacing and articulation when speaking, allowing the audience to catch what they were saying. This was executed best by Sherwin in my opinion.
- Emphasizing on the key words in order to bring across their point
- Good humor throughout and what was even better is that the jokes they cracked were linked to their content – making it a good ‘bait’ to their points
- It is okay to forget your lines. When this happen, the presenter should take this chance to pause and relax. Think about what to say before carrying on. Do not say sorry – some audience may not even have realized you tripped on your words.
Given that my group was presenting the week after theirs, it was indeed quite stressful as the bar has been raised pretty high! Claire went through some tips to better our presentation and these are some of the things which I thought will be very useful for my own future presentations.
1) Endings. They are as important as any part of the presentation. For a group presentation, it will definitely be better to end as an ensemble rather than an individual.
2) Slides. Make good use of your slides. If there are important points on the slides that the presenter want to direct the audience to, direct them to it and proceed to give them some time to read through it. Always be aware of the audience as well – move away if some audience seem to be having difficulty viewing the slides from their position. Once they are done and the presenter want the focus to be on him/her, bring oneself up to the front.
3) Q&A. The presentation does not stop at the conclusion. Q&A are also important and hence, presenters should not forget their presentation and vocal techniques at this point in time too. If the presenter requires time to think through the answer, take your time. It is better to think through and have a clear idea on how to answer, than rush to answer and have to end up using too much fillers “er, ok, so” to fill up the gaps in between because you speak faster than your brain process in this case.
4) Taking everyone with your voice. It is important to address every single audience. From the left, to the centre, and then the right of the audience – every listener should feel connected to the speaker. To do so, one tip was to rotate the body to address every one in the audience. Some presenters have the tendency to cut off certain part of the audience, especially the side where their back is facing. This will result in their voice to not be able to reach the audience, which is not ideal.
5) Reading the audience. I think this is one of the key point that I really took away from the entire module. Given that we present for the audience, looking at the audience faces can give us, as presenter, a sensing on how they are feeling. Are they bored? Are they interested and enjoying the presentation? It is important to read, and think of what to do next. If they seem bored, one way is to get more personal with the audience, and engage with them.
