Presentation Tips for students

Being a student of MBA I want to share some of most important presentation tips for students. Class presentations can be a time for some students to show of their talent while others are thrown into frenzy at the mere thought of it. I feel that for some of our students, the ability to give a good presentation in English may be mandatory for their jobs. I’ve put together a list of presentation tips that are sure to make you a better speaker/presenter.

Body Language: When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage so body language is very important. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant remain calm, appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous, speak slowly, enunciate clearly. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is preferred to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a prepared speech.

Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Use your eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.

Do not read everything from your notes or slides.

Speak to your audience, loudly and clearly, sound confident, do not mumble.
Make them laugh because it keeps the audience alert and they’ll learn more from you than someone who just educates.

Don’t over prepare because if you rehearse your presentation too much it will sound like memorization (a bad way).

Timing: Practice makes perfect! Remember to practice your speech in advance; fitting all your information into the allotted time is important.

Differentiate yourself: If you don’t do something unique compared to all the other presenters the audience has heard, they won’t remember you. You are branding yourself when you speak, so make sure you do something unique and memorable.

Don’t Apologize: Do not apologize for being unprepared or for your nervousness or presentation, most people can’t tell anyway.

Limit the Number of Slides and remember don't create slides with tons of words and pictures. Once again, key information should be on your slides NOT every bit of information you want to convey.

More than anything you should remember to RELAX and have FUN. I'm sure for many of you this will be difficult, but just remember there are more people like you out there. Presentations are always hard for students but if you fumble others will understand, pick up where you left off and let it roll of your shoulders.