December 2005 Post Dinner Presentation
Summary for Lori Spangler December 13, 2005
Lori Spangler gave an inspiring presentation – a presentation about giving presentations. It would be hard to find someone better qualified or able to give such a talk. Lori is professionally trained in this discipline, holding a MS degree in communications from Bethel University. Her primary job is to provide training for sales people at Deluxe Corporation, but she is also an adjunct professor at Cardinal Stritch College where she teaches communications. In addition to all of that, Lori has been very active in Toastmasters for 18 years, and has achieved the rank of “Distinguished Toastmaster” in that organization.
Lori summed up the keys for a successful presentation into three categories; preparation, overcoming nervousness, and delivery.
So, how does one prepare for a talk? There are six steps:
- Decide what your purpose is; what would be the goal of a successful talk?
- Select the specific topic and narrow the subject to achieve the goal.
- Analyze the audience so your talk will relate to them and the occasion.
- Gather enough material to support your subject – the web is a great source.
- Outline how you want the talk to proceed.
- Practice the talk out loud; it is worth overcoming the barrier most of us have to doing this.
Nervousness is normal. Even the most experienced speakers get nervous. With the help of the audience Lori developed a short list of symptoms and helpful hints to minimize nervousness.
- Symptoms
- Sweaty palms
- Pacing back and forth
- Changes in tone of voice
- Mind goes blank
- Cures
- Take a deliberate pause – take a deep breath
- Ask a question of the audience
- Take a drink (presumably she meant water)
- Visualize success – or alternatively, your audience less than fully clothed
- Relax your shoulders
- Tell a joke
In the end, delivery is where the rubber meets the road in making a speech. Here are her tips:
- Use your voice as an asset – voices are interesting, make use of that; change tone, volume and tempo to help maintain audience attention and interest.
- Use pauses – you don’t have to fill every moment with talk; this will give your audience a chance to internalize your words and keep from getting lost.
- Take advantage of non-verbals; posture, motion, smile, and eye contact all make the entire experience more interesting than just the words alone.
- Optimize your visual aids. Keep slides simple, and don’t read them. Your job is to convey information beyond what is on the slides. Don’t use too many slides either; great talks are often based on very few slides. If you use a flip chart, write large enough so the audience can see the words; stand to the left side (our eyes naturally move left to right), and don’t worry excessively about correct spelling.
If you perform well in these three areas, you will give a good talk that will be enjoyed by your audience. And if all of these tips weren’t enough, Lori told us that pushing the “b” key on a computer during a PowerPoint presentation will blank the screen (until the “b” is pushed again); this appears to be a well kept secret to most of us. This was a meeting well worth attending.