Presentation

1. Delivering the presentation Good job building engaging and effective presentations!

2. Recap We now understand that we need to plan the presentation before building slides. And those slides should be built to support the story we want to convey.

3. Practice Now, it's time to discuss delivery. One of the most important things is to practice. Writing a script is helpful. The idea isn't to memorize it by heart, but to use it as a guide to efficiently articulate the reasonings and insights. The more we practice, the more familiar we will become with our content. Moreover, we should anticipate follow-up questions, and think about appropriate answers to them.

4. Practice Practicing means rehearsing as close to the presentation context as possible, which involves standing up, using the actual slides, and speaking out loud. As we practice we can identify distracting patterns or filler words such as "um", "so" or "like". Additionally, sometimes things don't sound as good spoken as they looked when written. It is also an opportunity to find linking statements, or sentences to transition from one slide to the other. Last but not least, we should also practice how to answer to follow-up questions we have anticipated.

5. Deliver the presentation Practicing our presentation many times is an effective way to be familiar with our content. But there are a couple of things we should consider while delivering the presentation. The first thing is being aware of our emotions. The audience will pick up on them. If we are self-assured, they are going to be confident in our content. If we look nervous or confused, they might be unconvinced.

6. Deliver the presentation How long the audience's attention span lasts varies depending on the setting, but researchers agree it's between 5 and 20 minutes. So we should go the extra mile to keep the audience engaged. We can use eye contact, interactivity, questions - the idea is simply to talk to them, not at them. We're building a relationship with our audience: let's show empathy, act as a guide. We shouldn't use sentences like "as you know", or "obviously". We might damage our connection with the audience if they feel like they don't understand something, or if they are uncomfortable asking questions.

7. Deliver the presentation We should make sure our presentation doesn't last longer than the allocated time. The audience will get impatient if we take longer than expected, and their attention will drop dramatically.

8. Deliver the presentation The audience will understand us better if we make pauses. If we want to convey urgency, it's OK to talk a little faster. But after conveying the idea, we should breathe and give the audience time to think.

9. Deliver the presentation Finally, we should always open up for questions either during or at the end of the presentation. It will show that we are open to feedback, interested in what our audience has to say, and willing to help them understand our message.

10. An effective oral presentation So in general, to give a good oral presentation we should always remember: to talk to the audience (and not at it), that less is more, that the take-home message should be consistent and persistent, to practice, and to prepare for follow-up questions.

Avoiding common errors We have just learned a set of best practices to deliver impactful presentations. In this video, we'll talk about common mistakes we should avoid.

2. Recap But first, let's recap. In order to deliver a compelling presentation, we first need to plan what we are going to present (following some guidelines). An important step is to prepare and practice our speech: the more we practice, the better we become. Lastly, we can deliver the presentation, provided we avoid some common mistakes.

3. Length A lot of presentations are ineffective because they are too long. The audience has an attention span that we should take into account, and if we go beyond 20 minutes, we are at risk of losing them. Moreover, it is important to keep some time for questions the audience may have. People that are interested in our project surely will have some.

4. Purpose A common mistake is to forget to state the purpose of the presentation in the introduction. This simple mistake could ruin the rest of the presentation, preventing the audience from understanding the importance of our findings and leaving them in the dark throughout the presentation, diminishing the impact of our story.

5. Guide audience As speakers, we should guide the audience, deliver a sequence of information that supports our story, and keep our audience's attention. To that aim, we should not wait until the end of the presentation to show all our findings together. Instead, we should include them throughout the presentation, providing a backbone to the message.

6. Audience involvement Another common mistake is to just give the presentation as a monologue, without engaging and involving the audience. Remember we're presenting to them, not at them.

7. Audience involvement First, we should introduce ourselves using a strong statement, saying who we are and why we are presenting.

8. Audience involvement Because our audience is not aware of our thought process, we should always state our key assumptions. This gesture shows empathy.

9. Audience involvement Another way to connect with the audience is to ask questions in the middle of the presentation. Ideally, we should know the answer and it can serve as a hook for our next slide.

10. Audience involvement Lastly, we can keep our audience engaged by always relating what we are showing to the main idea. In that way, they can keep track of our story easily.

11. Body language If what matters is the message, the speaker is at the center of the presentation.

12. Body language We can use that to our advantage and create emphasis using natural gestures and movements - for example, moving our hands or pointing at the slide, smiling or making a facial expression.

13. Body language Good body language conveys confidence and strengthens attention,

14. Body language so our audience will be more focused on our message. This is especially true for live presentations, a little less for online presentations.

15. Voice tonality Our voice is also a tool we should use as speakers. We should use different voice tonalities to emphasize our message.

16. Voice tonality For example, varying the speed of our voice make our talk more interesting. We can speak fast to denote a sense of urgency, excitement or emotion, or slow to highlight the importance of a finding, introduce new ideas, or hammer fundamental ones.

17. Voice tonality We should also speak loud enough so that the audience can hear us if we are giving an in-person presentation. In case of online presentations, we should check that our microphone is properly set so that our voice is clear.

18. Voice tonality Intonation also matters. It's difficult to give blanket advice, as it depends on the language, but basically we need to sound engaged. If we don't appear interested by what we present, we can't expect our audience to be.