Good, clear, and confident presentation skills are essential in any Computing related degree, as well as in the workplace. It is one of the hardest skills to pick up down as, much like with everything else, practice makes perfect. Unlike programming, many developers, engineers and designers don’t find themselves giving a few presentations every day. Also, it is in the nature of many people to be shy when presenting something they do not possess complete confidence in. I’m sure many of us could give a presentation on our own life story with ease, but if put on the spot and asked to deliver a sales presentation on why Product A is exactly what their industry needs 99% of us would crumble.

As a disclaimer, I am no expert on Presentations, but I have given and seen enough to know what defines a good presentation. These next points are as much for me as for you, as they’ll one day save my ass when delivering a presentation to a board.

Know exactly what you want to say

You’d be shocked at how many people step up onto a stage to give a presentation without the faintest idea of what they are going to say. I’ve sat through many presentations given by students and recruiters at job fairs that suggest the skill of giving good presentations is largely ignored, even when a good presentation can be the difference between getting good or bad marks. Worse yet, for a recruiter, you could lose out on the best students for the job!

A presentation tends to take a lot longer to plan out than to execute. All in all, I’d say that for every 100 words in your script counts for 30 seconds of talk time. Don’t believe me? Read out five lines from a document and see how long it takes you.

Of course writing a full script for your presentation is foolish. You’ll want your presentation to be fluid, so you will need to build on key points of your presentation. If you’re not confident in your ability to explain something off-the-cuff then it’s probably best not said.

Once you have your finished presentation go over every section in front of a mirror. It’s a lot easier to break a presentation into sections, so make sure that every section of your presentation is perfect before you continue. Once you can present to yourself in the mirror then you’re good to go!

If you’re unlucky enough to be giving a presentation that you did not read then use your time wisely. Construct a list of important questions on the presentation, learn everything you possibly can (most important bits first), and practice as much as you can.

This point gently leads me on to my next…

Don’t read your slides to me!

The entire point of a slideshow is to back up what you’re going to say to your audience. A common beginners mistake is to put all the necessary text on a page and to read straight off of it. Sure, you’ve done your research, but effectively all you’ve done is written a report and put it on a page for us to read. As far as presentations go, you haven’t given us one. You’ve just been made redundant by your own work.

At most any slide or page of your presentation should never have more than five bullet points unless they are absolutely essential. The content (your ’speech’ to the audience) is what the audience has come for, and you need to provide that. At best your slideshow should just be there to entertain and act as a cover for the topic you’re talking about.

Powerpoint != Presentation

Imagine the scenario. You’ve spent hours perfecting your slideshow in Powerpoint, you’ve made several back up files just in case you lose your USB Pen, and you’re stepping up to deliver the presentation. You boot up the computer only to find that the Projector has just blown on you. The audience is here to see a presentation, and now you can’t give it. You, my friend, have just FAILED!

That’s right! I don’t care whether you’re using Keynote or Powerpoint, because they’re presentation programs. If you’re basing your entire presentation off the program you’re using then you’re not communicating anything. You’re messing around with a program that just happens to have some content on it. Wikipedia defines a Presentation as:

“The process of showing and explaining the content of a topic to an audience.”

Your job is to explain a topic to an audience, that’s all there is to it. If you were to go to a presentation on Product A you’d expect to leave knowing at least something about it.

“…and in conclusion”

NO! You do not need to come to some grand conclusion after the presentation you’ve given!

The conclusion of a presentation is one of the hardest parts to accomplish, because it encapsulates the subject into a positive form of action. You need to have complete confidence in your presentation and the content you’re providing. It’s the final point where you get to change the minds of those on the fence, so go out with a bang! A technique that works well for me is to finish with a story that highlights the strongest points of my arguments.

Your presentation needs to be strong from start to finish. Don’t end a potentially great presentation on a low-note.

Relax!

Some people stress out far too much when a presentation is looming. If you’re stressing out over giving a presentation then you do not have enough confidence in your content. When you think about it, the presentation should be the fun part! You get to show off all the fantastic work you’ve done, as well as entertain a crowd.

Learn from the Best

There are two types of people that give the best presentations, and no, they’re not involved in any sort of tech industry. They are:

1. Politicians
2. Stand-Up Comedians

When you think about it, what are these two actually doing? A Politician is giving a presentation on his/her ideas, without even using slides! Imagine that! Now look at some stand-up on YouTube (other video websites are available) and notice how relaxed many of them are.

Here’s a clue for you, many of them aren’t. I’ve been to many a stand-up gig and noticed the acts huddled up at the bar after the show. Now they’ve got a hard job! Presenting a product, service or other content is a walk in the park when compared to telling your own jokes to a large group of drunks every single night. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of them came home from work, curled up into a ball and cried themselves to sleep under a veil of crippling self-doubt.

The overall message here is NOT to try and be funny, not many people can pull that off, and even when famous tech-nerds like Steve Jobs have tried there have been times where the entire room goes quiet. Confidence will take you whenever you need to go, and if you make a few mistakes along the way be sure to laugh them off and enjoy the ride.

Your Slides

Now onto what your slides should contain. It’s already clear that a slide should only act as an indicator of the real content, so here’s how things should go for an ideal presentation:

1. Make a clean layout for your slide, possibly with a differing title page. If you’re not confident with your ability in Photoshop or any other graphics programs then go with white on black, or vice versa. Start with the basic template provided and edit from there. If you’re not perfectly confident in the quality of your layout then use a default one!
2. No more than five bullet points per page. You’re the one providing the content, and it needs to be spread out. The bullet points are just a reference.
3. LARGE WRITING! There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to see the presentation
4. Never ever use Clipart. Ever.
5. If you’re using images give them their own slide and leave them up for longer than text.
6. Use only sans-serif fonts in your presentations.
7. Consistency is key. Once you’ve decided on a presentation layout, stick to it.

Q&A

If your presentation content requires it then be sure to give a Question and Answering session at the end. The only real way to prepare for this is to know your content well, so make sure you answer the question (you, not anyone else) if you can. If you’re unsure of the answer the best course of action is to tell the truth, tell the audience member that you need to check the facts and get a good reference before you can answer their question, and be sure to follow it up, find the member that answered the question and to answer it for them.

General Advice

Just to make this post easier to read here is some general advice in bullet point format:

• Know your audience! Find out who is going to be there, what they do and adjust your presenting style to cater for them.
• Keep your slides jargon-free! We don’t all know what HTML, PRINCE2 or WYSIWYG is! If you absolutely must use words like these then be sure to highlight in your slides what they mean!
• Talk slowly and clearly. I suffer from westcountry-accent syndrome, and it’s very hard to speak to an audience without it, but I manage it just fine as long as I talk slowly and clearly. Plan your pauses, but don’t leave them too long. It’s all about relaxing!
• Get a good night sleep! If you’re tired it’ll make everyone else tired.
• If you’re going to provide code in a presentation, either put it in a handout or put it in a highlighted text box with a different font.
• Don’t stare at the presentation or your screen. In fact, don’t look at it at all if you can help it. All eyes on the audience, and be sure to give them eye contact. What I do is give eye contact to one person, then scan across the audience and give it to another person, then another, etc.
• Keep to your time! If you have a mobile phone set a vibrating alarm to warn you that you have three minutes left. There’s nothing more off-putting than someone giving a presentation that clearly doesn’t want to be there.
• If you can walk, walk around the stage! Just remember that you’re not running a marathon.
• Finally, NEVER LEAVE IMPORTANT BELONGINGS UNATTENDED BEFORE YOU GO ON STAGE! Countless people lose phones, keys, money and other valuables because of this. Get someone to take care of everything before you hit the stage.