10 Ideas to Radically Develop Your Presentation Skills

Excellent presentation skills are essential regardless of your audience size, and here are ten ideas to help you upgrade your presentation skills.

Are you looking for ideas that will help you develop your presentation skills? A good presentation should be interactive and impactful, and it's very critical to look brilliant whether you're talking to 10 or 10,000 people, so use these ideas to communicate your message clearly and confidently with some presentation ideas you may not have heard before.

How to prepare for the presentation?

Let's start by discussing your pre-presentation preparations -writing, brainstorming, researching, and organizing your presentation are essential.

1. Retain Critical Elements for End and Beginning

The first thing to do when preparing a presentation is to write down all the ideas, points, examples, and case studies, and it is preferable to use learning cards; Still, you can also use slides, so write one idea on each card or slide this will make it easier for you to move between your thoughts.

After that, you have to arrange your presentation ideas correctly, and many presenters make mistakes when they adhere to the chronological order, so they postpone their most important ideas to the middle of the presentation, which is a big mistake.

Most of us remember the first and last parts of the presentation more than others, and this situation is called the serial-position effect, as people tend to remember the first and last events in a series more clearly.

Wrong behavior

Starting the presentation by talking about the historical background of the subject of the presentation or exaggerating by mentioning simple and basic information before discussing the substantive points. Because of the sluggish beginning, your audience will find it difficult to recall the presentation's content. All significant speeches throughout history have a strong introduction and conclusion.

Here is the poignant opening phrase of political and humanitarian activist Martin Luther King from his famous “I Have a Dream” speech: “I am delighted to join you today in what history will remember as the greatest manifestation of freedom in the history of our nation.”

Here are the inspiring closing words of Malala Yousafzai's speech to the United Nations: “A child, a teacher, a pen, and a book can change the world. Education is the only solution. Therefore, we must consider education as a priority."

2. How to start your presentation?

Always start your presentation with a catchphrase or an attention-grabbing phrase. Research all your presentation ideas and choose your power points. Here are some ideas on how to begin your presentation:

• Do you have a catchphrase or an attention-grabbing question?
• Do you have an inspiring story you can start with?
• Can you make people laugh?
• Do you have an exciting idea that will arouse people's curiosity about what you will say next?

3. How do you conclude your presentation?

One of the best presentation ideas is to always end your presentation with an impactful, memorable phrase, such as:

• What are the most critical ideas for your presentation?
• What practical steps do you want your audience to take?
• What is the most important thing you want your audience to remember?
• Can you express your gratitude to your audience?

Reorganize your thoughts so that you start your presentation with an exciting idea and end with an important and memorable one.

4. Use a variety of presentation methods

Studies by educational researchers suggest that up to 83% of our learning occurs visually, while the Social Science Research Network reports that 65% of people learn visually.

Misconduct

You rely entirely on a single presentation style, such as oral, with very few visual or interactive elements; people usually remember only 10% of the data they receive verbally – such as oral presentations – but they memorize about 65% of the information when the presentation includes visual elements.

Think how graphs, images, or illustrations can be used as visual aids to illustrate your point of view and support your main idea.

Have you ever heard the cliché “pictures speak louder than words”? Think about clarifying some of your main points or ideas in various ways. Each method is a different tool to explain your point of view. Here are some methods:

• How can you interpret your thoughts verbally?
• Is there a chart that can help support your point of view?
• What visual image will help someone understand your idea?
• Can you support your thoughts using a video?
• Can you test your ideas?
• Please ask your audience to try a discussion or brainstorm ideas from your presentation.

It is also essential to avoid using long, continuous texts on the screen or presenting several ideas from your presentation using the same visual image.

Engage the audience with your presentation

One of the best ideas for improving your presentation skills is to involve your audience using attractive and unique methods. Most presenters see the audience as listeners, ignoring their crucial role in their success.

Wrong behavior: Your audience should not only listen; they should contribute to the delivery of your idea, and according to estimates, the period of people's attention begins to be distracted minutes after the presentation starts, and the best way to keep your audience engaged is to involve them in your presentation.

You can engage your audience in many ways, including

1. Air conditioning activities

Actively start to soothe the atmosphere if you want to introduce group members to each other or relieve the stress of attending.

2. Ask simple, interactive questions

The best way to find out how excited the audience is is to ask a few simple questions and allow them to answer them, and this method is very suitable for introverts because it will not force them to leave their seats.

3. Discussions

If participants sit at tables or can smoothly form small groups, ask a question or idea and ask small groups to discuss it.

4. Social Media Voting

You can ask people to visit a hashtag on social media or use online voting to poll the public.

5. Brainstorming

You can ask your audience to collaborate to discuss an idea, play a role, or practice something, and you can also come up with some ideas to help them get to know each other.

6. role-playing

If you need to clarify an idea, try using an audience member to play a role representing the idea.

7. Questions and Answers

The simplest and most common types of interaction are discussion sessions, which can be done during a presentation, after a break, before, or even at the end of a presentation.

8. Using a member of the public

A great way to illustrate a concept is to use an audience member.

9. Find a role model in submission

It is sometimes helpful to look at other presenters and learn from them; everyone should follow the example of someone fluent in public speaking, someone who speaks like you and has ideas similar to yours and has an attractive presence.

How to Design Presentation Slides?

Design is very critical in presentation, so think about your core idea: Do you seek to empower people to become more self-confident? Do you want to sell a new product? Are you pitching an idea to a jury? Use your main idea to guide your design decision.

1. Use appropriate colors

How would you feel if your entire bedroom was painted light pink? Or if the doctors' coats are black? These colors will make you feel uncomfortable.

According to one study, this is because people associate specific colors with specific environments and moods, and investing this intriguing information in your presentations can help you express your idea using color as an emotional cue.

Misconduct

Use colors that don't align with your idea.

Here are some ways to employ colors in your presentation appropriately:

Is your idea associated with specific colors?

For example, medicine is usually associated with white (like a white lab coat), and the environment is usually related to green, so can you associate your field with a specific color, or do you want to associate your product, idea, or service with a particular area? For example, if you're giving a presentation on architecture and how to use eco-friendly building materials, you can use green to connect your content to the environment.

The color tone should match your thoughts

If you feel bold and strong, you should use bold and strong colors, as light or neutral colors are less intense, so use shade to express your excitement.

Using Color Theories

If you want to use bold colors, you'd better dig deeper and use color theories to help you choose colors that go together, and regardless of the colors you use, make sure they are consistent, and unless your presentation is about rainbows, do not use all the colors of the rainbow.

2. Choosing the right fonts

People are affected by the shape of the font as they are fully affected by the shades of colors, so consider how you want your audience to look at you and choose a font that fits your goal.

The Traditional Serif font is superbly aligned with formal presentations, such as summaries of a company's plan or presenting its findings from a scientific study at a conference.

The font shape affects the audience so much that research suggests that people are more likely to agree with sentences written using Baskerville.

On the other hand, the flowlines are more pleasant, as they are suitable for very informal presentations, and it is not advisable to use the Comic Sans font in any presentations.

Think about how you can improve your idea, style, and theme by choosing the right font, and again, maintain consistency, use only a few different fonts.

3. Use of applications

All kinds of apps can help you prepare for your presentation, from practicing tuning your rhythm to getting rid of stuttering.

How to Get Exceptional Presentation Skills?

Now that you've written the perfect script and designed the slides beautifully, it's time for the critical part: standing in front of the audience to explain your presentation. Here are the steps that will ensure that everything goes smoothly:

1. Do not over-exercise

You might be tempted to read the script, memorize its lines, and get off the stage as soon as possible when you're anxious about a presentation, but that can kill your charm. Speaking monotonously is one of the most effective ways to dampen your audience's enthusiasm. The best way to catch someone's attention is to use different pitches.

A study that analyzed 100,000 presentations revealed that using only 10% different layers of sound significantly impacts your audience's attention.

misconduct

We're very good at controlling our voice in our everyday conversations, but sometimes we tend to formalize our words or talk like robots once we're on the podium.

Here are some ways to help you improve your voice:

• As you practice your presentation, test the pitch and volume of your voice and the speed at which you pronounce the words, and try to practice stopping talking excitedly or emphasizing key ideas and keywords.
• Warm up your voice before starting your presentation.
• One of the best ways to do this is to employ emotions in your presentation, and studies have shown that emotions attract the audience's attention, so show your feelings using the layer and volume of your voice and the speed of your pronunciation of words to express yourself better.
• A great way to improve your dish is to pretend that you're talking to an old friend as if you're talking on stage.

2. Employing the display platform to serve you

Most presenters forget about the presence of the platform or the place where they present, and investing space can be a great and unique way to emphasize parts of your presentation, and most people do not realize that our control of the platform indicates that we can provide content that we offer.

 Our use of space is often a reflection of our inner thoughts and moods, and this is directly related to the public's perception of how well you know your content and your failure to invest the space optimally may indicate poor efficiency or self-confidence, even if you are very capable of your content.

For example, if the presenter steps onto the podium, stands behind the display table, and needs clarification, it may indicate that they are stressed and unaware of the content they will be presenting.

On the other hand, if the presenter spontaneously takes the stage, exploiting the factors surrounding them to their advantage, this indicates to the audience that he feels comfortable, which shows his mastery in dealing with his content.

3. Closing with exhalation

It may seem silly and insignificant, but it is very useful.

Exhalation does three essential things:

• It forces us to stop talking, leaving a break and helping us to use different sound strata as we continue to speak.
• It encourages us to breathe and inhale more oxygen, which helps us think and speak clearly.
• It relaxes our vocal cords, helping us speak in a deeper tone of voice.

When it comes to presentations, most people think about what they want to say, not how they want to say it, and how you communicate your idea is just as important as what you're going to say.

It's essential to know your loudest pitch, and harnessing your exhalation is also a great way to prevent yourself from stuttering during your presentation, and this requires some practice; Still, if you can finish your talk with a single exhalation, you'll reach your desired pitch.

Exhaling also gives you a natural pause to gather your following thoughts, it may seem challenging, but you can practice exhaling by reading aloud and observing your breathing, printing a part of your speech, and adding a sign that guides you to the stops.

In conclusion

These ideas will help you improve the quality of your presentations, so keep them in mind and take another look at your presentation, identify your weaknesses, and practice them until you master them. Every time you perform your presentation, you will feel stronger, and your self-confidence will increase.