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Attendees make one consistent request of presenters and speakers: that the material presented be relevant and useful in their worlds, not merely academic and theoretical. Every audience is thinking: "So what?" Make sure you answer that question for them.
Before you begin there are 10 major questions to ask yourself.
- Who will be attending? How many? Cultural Characteristics?
- Why are they attending?
- What is their educational background and level of knowledge?
- What are their values?
- What are their needs and interests?
- What does the audience expect from me?
- What is my purpose and role? To motivate? Inform? Pursuade? Teach?
- What type of talk are you being asked to give?
- What is the format (poster, panel presentation, case study, technical paper?) How long?
- How is my presentation helping the attendees meet their goals and objectives for attending the Convention?
Create (at least) a 1-page handout which includes a note-taking outline, pertinent information, as well as any references and contact information for presenters. Remember to post your handouts to ASHA's Web site before you leave for the Convention so attendees can print them out beforehand.
Note: Some attendees will decide to attend your session at the last minute, so make sure you bring extra handouts.
Carefully select audio and visual tools. Visuals communicate ideas faster and more clearly than the spoken word. They can arouse and hold audience interest, reinforce your spoken message, and increase audience understanding.
Visuals can also help an audience retain information. You should select your visuals carefully, and keep in mind that that visuals enhance your message but they are not your message.
- Interpret visuals – do not just report them
- Give visuals a headline that helps increase comprehension (think newspaper headline)
- Keep it simple
- Visuals should illustrate your verbal points clearly
- Take care when using laser pointers – do not point at the audience. Flash the pointer off and on to briefly illuminate indicated area.
- Do not swirl the pointer across the screen
- Large and easily readable
- Viewers should get the point within 5 seconds
- Consistent font, colors, and format
- Only one point or concept per visual
- Use slides to build your series of points
- For each visual – ask yourself:
- Is it relevant, or merely "cute" or "faddish"?
- Does it add information or duplicate verbal material? If it duplicates material, is the redundancy desirable or necessary to reinforce an important idea?
- Is it clear and easy to understand?
- No more than 6 lines of text per slide
- No more than 7 words per line
- Avoid using a number of text slides in a row
- Limit the data on graphs and tables to those that are pertinent to the topic at hand
- No more than 3 columns/rows in a table, no more than 3 lines in a graph
- Take care when using laser pointers – do not point at the audience. Flash the pointer off and on to briefly illuminate indicated area.
- Know your slides
- Face the audience when you talk (not your slides)
Three easy steps:
- Outline your presentation
- Prepare your presentation
- Time and refine your presentation
- Practice!
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