B) Meeting the press.

Students: Try to think of some tricky questions that you could ask after the presentation.

Student A: be polite and try to avoid answering them.

XII. Steps towards a successful presentation. Make up a dialogue:

Student A ( PR executive): is preparing a first-time presentation and asks the training officer for advice.

Student В (Training officer): consult the PR executive on the presentation.

Remember that thinking about the audience is the key to success. So begin by defining who these people are and what they expect. Use the following questions and statements:

ü What kind of language do these people use?

ü Why were you invited to make this presentation?

ü Can people hear you?

ü How should you look at the audience?

ü Should you use notes?

ü Are they friends, colleagues, customers or total strangers?

ü What work-related problems do these people have?

ü Does the audience appreciate humour?

ü Should you show any visual aids?

ü How long should the presentation be?

Step 1. Define who these people are. Define their essential features and motivations. What work do they do? What is their level of education? What kind of language do they use? What problems and opportunities might they have?

Step 2. There must be something special about your expertise that is of interest to the audience. An audience can be disappointed if the speaker ignores the reason why he or she was chosen.

Step 3. When you were invited, you were probably given a general idea.

The best thing is to take only as much time as is necessary to discuss it.

The only thing worse than being long and boring is being too short

and not fully understood.

Step 4. Your knowledge of their problems is probably why you were invited to speak. They expect new insights, a different point of view, and ideas that they can take away and use so that they feel their time was well spent listening to you.

Step 5. If your audience is from a particular industry, what terminology does it understand best? The audience dictates your choice of words, but remember, you should always make your language clear and concise, especially if the language is not your mother tongue.

Step 6. What is funny in one culture may not be in another. The subject of your presentation is probably serious and, for some people, humour may be out of place. A light touch here and there is all right but humour cannot replace good ideas.

Step 7. Use visual aids if they make your speech easier to understand.

But make them clear and simple. Don't laboriously read out aloud what is written on the screen, on the board etc. Make sure that everyone can see it, even from the back of the room.

Step 8. Speak loudly enough to make your voice carry to the furthest listener. No one wants to listen to someone who mumbles and who does not speak with conviction.

Step 9. Make direct eye contact. Try to convince your audience you are talking to them personally. It also makes you feel that you have made contact with them as individuals.

Step 10. Make an outline, perhaps on small cards, and consult them as you speak. This forces you to organize your presentation in a logical, coherent way and not wander off the point.