Presentation Basics: Step-by-Step Preparation for Beginners

BASIC CHECKLIST FOR PREPARING A PRESENTATION

Roughly note all your ideas on paper, mind-mapping is a useful technique to use.

Gain understanding of your audience, their needs and expectations.
Know your audience, their needs and expectations 

Establish your specific purpose, turn it into a statement, write it down: 'My purpose is to ...'  Ask yourself: “What do I want my audience to think and do as a result of listening to my speech?”

From your rough ideas, select the main ideas your audience will need to hear if you are to achieve your stated purpose.  It is usual for a successful presentation to have between three and five main points.

Plan your introduction:

• Clearly state your purpose
• Give background to your main topic
• Give an overview of your presentation

Plan your conclusion:

• Clearly connect your conclusion to your purpose
• Briefly reinforce your main points

Prepare the body:

• Use a set structure that gives logical flow and coherence
• Clearly state your main points, make sure they are connected to your purpose
• Support and explain main points with examples, statistics, research findings, charts, graphs, photos, references etc
• Clearly connect your main points as well as ideas within main points to ensure coherence
• Integrate relevant visual aids into the body

Practise and adjust your presentation until you are comfortable with it and timing is correct

Good luck with your presentation!

Know your audience, their needs and expectations

The first of my Top Ten Public Speaking Basics

Helpful things you should know about your audience:

1. How many?
2. What are their positions or occupations?
3. What is their background?
4. What is their gender?
5. What is their age?

More things you should know about your audience:

• Are they experts in the subject?
• How much do you need to tell them in order to achieve your objective?
• What is their attitude to you and your subject?
• What is their previous experience of your topic and how might this influence their attitude?

You should establish:

Why your audience is there: voluntarily? no choice? they invited you?
What they are expecting: to be informed? to be entertained? Beware of assuming that your objective and the audience's expectations are the same. You should make your message relevant to them.
What they need: e.g. if their immediate need is to cut costs they'll have a hard time hearing a message about how increasing expenditure in the short term will eventually save money.

My favourite and most useful general workplace needs come from Cristina Stuart of Speakeasy Training.

For management:

• Saving money
• Increasing productivity
• Saving time
• Improving quality

For staff:

• Making more money
• Being recognised for what they do
• Job security
• Job satisfaction
• Career advancement

In a business context you'll find that if you can meet these needs it is easier to achieve the objective of your presentation. You'll probably be able to identify other needs for your particular audience.

I use aspects of NVC or Nonviolent Communication in my work. For this reason I ask speakers to think about how their speech or presentation contributes to fulfilling more universal human needs. For example, paying attention to the need for autonomy helps us to avoid sounding dictatorial or assuming that everyone's values are the same as ours. Our ability to empathise and listen helps us to align our objectives with those of the audience.

Some basic needs you can bear in mind:

• Autonomy
• Celebration
  
• Integrity
• Interdependence
• Physical nurturance
• Play
• Spiritual communion

1. Autonomy: choosing dreams, goals, values; choosing plans for fulfilling these
2. Celebration: celebrating life affirming events; celebrating losses of loved ones, dreams etc
3. Integrity: authenticity, creativity, meaning, self-worth
4. Interdependence: acceptance, appreciation, closeness, community, consideration, contribution to the enrichment of life, emotional safety, empathy, empowering honesty which enables us to learn, love, reassurance, respect, support, trust, understanding
   
5. Physical nurturance: air, food, water, movement, protection from life-threatening forms of life, rest, shelter, sexual expression, touch
6. Play: fun, laughter
7. Spiritual communion: beauty, harmony, inspiration, order, peace

Being mindful of both particular and general needs will undoubtedly help you deliver a presentation or speech that is relevant and meaningful to your audience.

Good luck!