Fundamentals of circuits - Final project

Presentation skills. How to engage the audience with your slides. Part 2

Once you have the write words, you can start with an eye-catching design. How can you do that? Well first you need to think on what´s the message you want to send with the slides, as the style of the PowerPoint needs to fit with your words. Be careful with the colours you choose, as they will send a message of its own.

When selecting the visuals, you need to think the way you´re going to mention them in your text so the point gets across.

The key is to focus on the most important concept and then elaborate the message from it. And remember LESS IS MORE!

Well this has been my last post related with communication skills, hope you have enjoy it!

Presentation skills. How to engage the audience with your slides. Part 1

As important is to give a great speech in a presentation, as to have an engaging slides to give support to your words. Today I´m going to show you how to make attractive showings.

A great presentation shines in three areas: content, design and delivery. 

First, you need to think about your content, if you´re a great writer, you may be able to get your message across easily, otherwise, you would need to make a list to help you, just to organize your ideas and priorities, if the problem persists, I recommend you to ask for some help on line (you can also hire a professional if you want to), even if you´re a seasoned writer, some help would make a big difference on your PowerPoint.

Hope you like it and see you in the next post, that will be the last related with communication skills!

Interview to Fernando Herández

Here we are one more time with an interview, this time, I´m going to make some questions to Fernando Hernández, the sales director of Abbot Laboratories here in Spain, he does a lot of presentations, so I think he is the appropriate person to teach us some more things about the art of presenting.

Question: When you started working for this company, did you have any previous experience on speeches to big audiences?
Fernando: Not much, before here, I was working in a office with some workers at my expense, but as I´m a seller, I had to present our product great in order to make money for the company, but this was intended to a few audience. When I left that job, I did some courses to make greater presentations, since my new job here demanded so.

Question: How was your first presentation?
Fernando: I remember that my first speech was in Helsinki, I had to present myself at the time I had to present a new products line and it was a huge auditorium, with hundreds of people. I was extremely nervous just before starting so I ask a friend to sit in the first row, to give me some confidence. I started with a strong voice, but I went so quickly that I even say my name correctly (many people asked me for it later), but after that, the showing was so good, and I just loved the experience.

Question: Do you have any routine to follow before presenting?
Fernando: Not much, I usually arrive at the auditorium a couple of hours before, to see the room empty, that helps me to imagine that I´m alone when I´m talking.Then, I test that all the electronic devices I´m going to use are full of battery, I check the slides also, and only if I can, I make the presentation alone there.

Question: How important is for you to make a good presentation?
Fernando: I always try to connect with the audience, I make them to see that I´m full of energy, so that they get infected of it. In my job, a bad presentation could mean millions of losses, and my bosses wouldn´t be very happpy. We have to show that our product is the best of the market, any mistake mean a lot here, so we have to improve our skills as much as we can.

Presentation Skills. How to catch people´s attention

http://www.free-power-point-templates.com/

Our most dangerous enemy when we present are all the things that could distract our audience, usually, we find that enemy in the smartphones, tablets, laptops... It´s imperative that whenever we start a presentation, we talk with a energetic voice, without muttering, otherwise we will loose the attention of people, and we won´t recover it again... Now that you´re aware of the huge importance of the first words, I´m going to explain you how to start.

The very first words we use in a presentation are going to be the most important, they´re going to be decisive for the developing of the presentation, it has been proven that the first 10 words are as important as the 10.000 following ones. Some experts recommend us some ways to start talking, I´ve choose the ones form Patricia Fripp:

-"If I were to ask you..."

-"Would it surprise you to know..."

-"Congratulations, you must be proud of..."

-"It was the most exciting day of my life..."

-"If you were to ask me why is so great to work at ______, I would tell you..." 

Well, this was all for today, hope you like it and it was useful to you! 

See you!