Presentations are ways of communicating ideas and information to a group. A presentation carries the speaker's personality better and allows immediate interaction between all the participants. A good presentation contains at least four elements: * Content — It contains information that people need. But unlike reports, which are read at the reader's own pace, presentations must account for how much information the audience can absorb in one sitting. * Structure — It has a logical beginning, middle, and end. It must be sequenced and paced so that the audience can understand it. Where as reports have appendices and footnotes to guide the reader, the speaker must be careful not to loose the audience when wandering from the main point of the presentation. * Packaging — It must be well prepared. A report can be reread and portions skipped over, but with a presentation, the audience is at the mercy of a presenter. * Human Element — A good presentation will be remembered much more than a good report because it has a person attached to it. However, you must still analyze the audience's needs to determine if they would be better met if a report was sent instead.
PRESENTATION SKILLS
The first step of a great presentations is preplanning. Preparing for a presentation basically follows the same guidelines as a meeting. The second step is to prepare the presentation. A good presentation starts out with introductions and may include an icebreaker such as a story, interesting statement or fact, or an activity to get the group warmed up. The introduction also needs an objective, that is, the purpose or goal of the presentation. This not only tells you what you will talk about, but it also informs the audience of the purpose of the presentation. Next, comes the body of the presentation. Do NOT write it out word for word. All you want is an outline. By jotting down the main points on a set of index cards, you not only have your