A500.8.3.RB_DiazBrian

During the course of the week I found myself quite eager to work on my presentation.  I reflected on all of the presentations that I have attended in the past and thought about how they were delivered.  I reflected on how I felt about those presentations and the speakers that delivered these presentations.  I also reflected on presentations I have watched online or via live streaming.  Recently my organization held its yearly conference in Atlanta and I was able to view these presentations via live streaming from the comfort of my desk.

I think it is very important for the individual delivering a presentation to make a connection to their audience.  You can have the cleanest most visually captivating slides imaginable.  However if you cannot convey your message to your audience then you will lose the very people you are attempting to connect with.  Once that chain is broken it can be very difficult if not impossible to regain your audience.    What needs to be done in order to deliver a good presentation?  From my own personal experience I have found eye contact to be very important.  Good eye contact conveys connection.  “Numerous studies have shown that people who make higher-levels of eye contact with others are perceived as being:

·         More dominant and powerful

·         More warm and personable

·         More attractive and likeable

·         More qualified, skilled, competent, and valuable

·         More trustworthy, honest, and sincere

·         More confident and emotionally stable

And not only does increased eye contact make you seem more appealing in pretty much every way to those you interact with, it also improves the quality of that interaction. Eye contact imparts a sense of intimacy to your exchanges, and leaves the receiver of your gaze feeling more positive about your interaction and connected to you.”  Retrieved from http://www.artofmanliness.com/2012/02/05/look-em-in-the-eye-part-i-the-importance-of-eye-contact/

 

Another key to a good presentation I believe is preparation.  If you are poorly prepared it will show.  An audience will undoubtedly loss interest if the presentation they are viewing seems to have been put together at the last moment.  In order to be successful with your presentation you should dedicate the necessary time and energy into your project.  Garr Reynolds offered some very helpful information in the his articles Presentation Zen: How to Design & Deliver Presentations Like a Pro and The Big Four: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, Proximity.  After reading Reynold’s articles on the elements necessary for a good of presentation I thought I might look for examples of what elements make a bad presentation and I found the following video. 

   

Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbfactc12Vw   This video showed me what not to do in with my presentation.  Reynolds actually touches on a lot of these elements to avoid such as: using too many bullet points, over use of text in your slides, and the use cheesy clip art or cartoonish art.  

I explored the many tools that PowerPoint 2013 offers to create a presentation.  I was presently surprised the number of different templates I could choose from.  Not only where there an overwhelming number of templates but an incredible amount of features that can be incorporated into a presentation.  So many that on my first night of brainstorming I actually stayed up until 11:30 p.m. familiarizing myself with all of the “bells and whistles” of the new PowerPoint.  I found myself having to take a step back and consider how much time I would be able to dedicate to my project as well as remind myself to keep it simple.  I recalled that Reynolds wrote “PowerPoint was designed as a convenient way to display graphical information that would support the speaker and supplement the presentation.  The slides themselves were never meant to be the ‘star of the show’.”  Retrieved from Presentation Zen: How to Design & Deliver Presentations Like a Pro  PowerPoint Help by Microsoft really does an outstanding job offering tutorial and videos teaching how to use their product.  I was able to watch and read these tutorials in order to help prepare my presentation.  

This experience is one that I will look back on fondly.  I enjoyed using my creativity in this medium to prepare a presentation for our course.  I learned lessons that I will incorporate for future use when it is my turn to stand in a room in front of my colleagues and give a presentation.  I now know the do’s and don’ts of how to prepare a good presentation.  I have always felt comfortable speaking in front of crowds.  Ever since I had the experience of performing in an elementary play as a child, I had become very comfortable in front of people.  In junior college I did not have any type of anxiety or apprehensions when I took a speech class.  I remember learning about some of the more prominent speakers in our history and how they made presentations.  Kennedy, King Jr., Jobs, the list is lengthy.  I think I have always had leadership qualities in me.  Now that I am learning how to apply those qualities and learn the concepts and ideas of leadership I have no doubt in my mind that one day I will be able to become an effective leader.  Right now I am enjoying my journey.