cartoon scared who

Let it be a school or office presentation, you have to be prepared to face the worst reaction from your audience. However informal it might sound, colleagues and classmates might cut you off in the middle of the slide and ask a question you haven’t prepared for. If you don’t have a good comeback for that, your presentation just got served!

After preparing presentations for a zillion business classes and half a zillion internships, here are a few tips to get you across this threshold and stand your ground.

  1. Don’t read from slides:
    Slides are meant to be guidelines for the audience informing them what you’re going to be talking about. Your words should be a brief summary on these guidelines (memorize them or jot them down). Reading from slides beats the purpose of a presentation. By reading, the presenter loses focus on the topic and might have a harder time answering questions.
  2. Walk n Talk:
    I get tensed and restless while presenting. It becomes harder to remember what to say while you have a hundred faces staring upon you. So I walk around in circles and try to keep a conversation going on. It’s eases the tension, and actually makes you want to present better, joke around a bit, engage the audience etc.
  3. Know your material:
    Sometimes students tend to create a presentation because they just have to. It could be mandatory for the course, chance to get a better grade or compensate for a midterm or final. In these circumstances, take the opportunity to learn the material you’re presenting about till you know it like the back of your hand. Helps to answer questions, and talk about interesting facts regarding the subject.
  4. Clean & Clear:
    Keep your slides as simple as possible; white background, black font and a simple logo or design to represent the topic. The cooler it looks on your laptop, the more annoying it will look on the projector.
  5. Always have something to say:
    There might a pro or two who is familiar with the topic and might ask you a complicated question. My secret is ‘never lose your cool and puff up your chest to say’ – “That is a really good question sir. But to be honest with you, I did not come across that area during my research. I will find it out soon and let you know. Thank you for the question.”
    As stupid as it may sound, it will buy you out cleanly.

Presentations are meant to be fun and always remember that your audience might be equally clueless or too shy to ask you any serious questions. Just be yourself and grab the opportunity to boldly speak. Bring out the 007 in you!