AT&D #12. Presentations

How much experience do you have building presentations? Have you used software other than PowerPoint? 

I’ve had some experience with building presentations, mainly when I was in high school; otherwise, I don’t really recall anything significant I have done in my college years thus far (aside from professional speaking that I currently do for one of my classes). With that said, when creating presentations, I either used PowerPoint or traditionally made a poster board / triboard for displaying visuals alongside research information (in bullet points) to an audience while speaking.

Based on my own experiences, some of my ideas for designing and delivering a successful presentation simply encompass creativity and professionalism respectively. To go into detail, creativity in designing a presentation should mean crafting a PowerPoint or poster board that has emphasis on short and watered-down information (to be addressed in full when speaking) with images throughout to visually represent what is being taken about.

Professionally, a presentation must be performed by adhering to the following points:

• dressing accordingly (semi-casual or semi-formal in some cases)
• speaking clearly (usually prefaced by rehearsing to ensure quality of speech and timing), and
• having the utmost understanding of your topic (which adds to the quality of information that is stated in the presentation and helps with answering questions from the listeners at the end, if applicable)

Other tidbits such as eye contact, not reading a PowerPoint word-for-word, and using body gestures while speaking are very important as well.