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 Here's a great piece of advise for all the would-be environmental scientists and managers who cannot express themselves well.  Making a good presentation is a life skill. Learn it well. That will alone land you a job!!

Do you have an example of a good presentation that you made and were applauded for it. Do share it with us.

Here's some essential skills from Inc.:

  • Build a story. Presentations are boring when they present scads of information without any context or meaning. Instead, tell a story, with the audience as the main characters (and, specifically, the heroes).
  • Keep it relevant. Audiences only pay attention to stories and ideas that are immediately relevant. Consider what decision you want them to make, then build an appropriate case.
  • Cut your intro. A verbose introduction that describes you, your firm, your topic, how you got there, only bores people. Keep your intro down to a sentence or two, even for a long presentation.
  • Begin with an eye-opener. Kick off your talk by revealing a shocking fact, a surprising insight, or a unique perspective that naturally leads into your message and the decision you want made.
  • Keep it short and sweet. When was the last time you heard someone complain that a presentation was too short? Make it half as long as you originally thought it should be (or even shorter).
  • Use facts, not generalities. Fuzzy concepts reflect fuzzy thinking. Buttress your argument, story and message with facts that are quantifiable, verifiable, memorable and dramatic.
  • Customize for every audience. One-size-fits-all presentations are like one-size-fits-all clothes; they never fit right and usually make you look bad. Every audience is different; your presentation should be too.
  • Simplify your graphics. People shut off their brains when confronted with complicated drawings and tables. Use very simple graphics and highlight the data points that are important.
  • Keep backgrounds in the background. Fancy slide backgrounds only make it more difficult for the audience to focus on what's important. Use a simple, single color, neutral color background.
  • Use readable fonts. Don't try to give your audience to get an eyestrain headache by using tiny fonts. Use large fonts in simple faces (like Arial); avoidboldfaceitalics and ALL-CAPS.
  • Don't get too fancy. You want your audience to remember your message, not how many special effects and visual gimcracks you used. In almost all cases, the simpler the better.

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Replies

  • Really very useful. Thank u very much for sharing the information.

  • Hi, I agree with comment of  Madhura Karnik regarding sample presentation especially for conference. 

    Madhura Karnik's Discussions
    Madhura Karnik's Discussions | Paryavaran.com -online webportal to network and do business and philanthropy with Indian Environment Organizations and…
  • Awesome! Thanks for posting this! Pictures do speak a thousand words each, so using properly designed tables or charts which are easy on the eye is a great way to add quality to any presentation.

  • Hi, this a really an important post!

    But I think we should have a sample presentation in line with the points mentioned above.

  • Good tips to be note down and quite relevent to those who make presentations frequently.For a field based person have lots of matter in his/her eyes and memories to deliver among the audience and it goes on automatically as a story with relevance.

    I feel that presentation should be crips, to the point and interesting and based on the audience interest.Large number of visual inputs make it more boring and do not serve the purpose.

    With best wishes,

    Dr Satya Priya Sinha

    Consultant Wildlife

    Dehradun Uttarakhand

    India

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