Presentation Training Skills

Presentations Skills Training Seminars are provided across the United States & Canada via public open enrollment seminars in most major metropolitan areas and can also be delivered on-site via private presentation workshops. Our presentation skills training courses can be provided as off-the-shelf presentations seminars, workshops, or classes. The classes are ready to be delivered to a diverse audience or can be customized to provide a tailored presentations and personalized approach based on client needs. All presentations skills classes are limited to a maximum of twelve participants so as to increase seminar effectiveness and provide the individual level of presentations coaching and interaction that is associated with the Presentations Skills Training Workshops Center.

For more information on our presentations skills training workshops please contact us.

Business Presentations Training - Preparing For a Presentation

Presentation pre-preparation is essential, but when the presentation includes data and analysis it is critical. Why? Because the information is typically complex and often numbers are involved. Get it wrong and your audience can draw the wrong conclusion. But may consultants don't know how to prepare. Here's my recommendation, observe professional comedians.

Last year I watched a recording of myself doing a presentation. I did a good job but not a great job. I thought that I needed to inject some humor into the presentation. So I took a course in comedy.

But the course wasn't quite what I expected. It didn't, for example, teach how to tell jokes or do funny voices. But it did teach what the instructor called comedy fundamentals. And what I found interesting was the fundamentals of comedy applied equally to the fundamentals of presenting with data or analysis. Here's what I learned and what you should do too.

1. Write like you speak.

When building your presentation speak it out loud, then stop and write it down. By capturing the natural rhythm of your voice and using words with which you are comfortable, you will sound natural. For example here's a short paragraph from a presentation I did recently.

"Last month all of your projects came in late. The key reason was that you put due dates on the tasks. Instead of doing the tasks as quickly as possible the project managers tired to time it so they came in on the due date, and often something went wrong and they were late."

2. Rehearse out loud and on your feet.

Now reread what you've written whilst standing up. This time make a mark every time you take a breath. This gives the added benefit of helping you slow down and sound even more conversational. See below how I captured the rhythm of how I talk.

"Last month all of your projects came in late the key reason was that you put due dates on the tasks Instead of doing the tasks as quickly as possible the project managers tired to time it so they came in on the due date but often something went wrong and they were late."

3. Emphasize key words.

Finally I want to emphasis key words so my audience really sit up and listen. Here's how it looks.

Underlining helps me to modulate my voice and really make the important words hit home. And one final tip I learned was to do one hour of preparation for every minute of your presentation. If comedians take their presentations that seriously shouldn't you do too?

Source: Stuart Corrigan link

Related: Presentations Training