Presentations…a word we all BMS students can relate to. Also in the corporate world, presentations play an important role. Presentation is an art of connecting with an audience. Â Presentation skills can be sum of verbal skills and skills of projecting an idea or topic in the form of a ppt.
Follow the following tips and  inculcate the skills in order to master and gain respect for wonderful presentations.
1- Start with a story.
This may seem difficult if the subject matter is pretty specific enough. But try to think how can you come up with a story that is relevant to the core value of the presentation. It is said that attention of human being is at the peak level in the first few minutes. So grab this as your advantage and start your presentation with a bang!
2- Engage the audience.Â
As an attendee you wouldn’t like if the speaker goes on speaking and speaking without any interaction with the audience. You will most probably lose the willingness to even pay attention to him. Get your audience going with a sprinkling of engagement tactics such as polls, direct questions or you can even say an unusual sentence that triggers the interest to grab their attention. Even a constant eye contact with audience keeps them engaged.
3- Less text, more multimedia.
Honestly, this lesson I had learned in my first internship. My seniors, who are very motivating and encouraging, explained  that the crucial aspect  of presentation is YOU and not the screen behind you. If you were to put everything on the ppt and just read or speak the same, then why would the audience need you? They can read it faster than you can address. Words are boring in presentations. Videos too play a significant role in attracting audience and keeping them engaged.
4- Avoid last minute preparations.
Last minute preparations only churns half-hearted work. Also, presentations skills aren’t learned in few minutes or so. It needs a lot of hard work and practice. If you have a college presentation, practice it in front of your friends thinking of them as the audience or if you have an office presentation you can choose a group of people as your audience.
5- Speak naturally.
This seems harder than you might think. Many of you might be having stage fear. Where that’s completely fine  but try to speak in an empty room and rehearse your speaking style to not sound like you are reciting. People will find it easier to listen to and engage with you when your speech is conversational.
6- Don’t make an unattractive presentation.
This might seem obvious, but even many professionals make this mistake. The font colour should be contrasting to the background colour so that reader does not find it hard to read. Also, the slides should be free of cluster. Also, always avoid the overuse of slide animation — it’s distracting, leads to errors in the presentation and can be cheesy when used in excess.
The more you learn the more you excel. Lastly, I would like you to see this video below. Don McMillan, a stand up comedian depicts all those mistakes that are included in a bad presentation in his own style.. 😉
 [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjcO2ExtHso]
-Vatsal Doshi
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good article