Constance Miller Public Speaking

PRESENTATION LOGISTICS - Check out everything and make no assumptions.

The animal in you will sabotage your efforts if you do not take the time to get fully grounded in the physical reality of the environment in which you give your presentation. Why do this to yourself? Take the time to do this homework and it will pay off handsomely. The most important logistical elements to clarify are:

Your Contact Person: this is the person who called you to invite you to make the presentation. They are the conduit for most of the information you will need for the rest of the logistical information. Make business friends with them. Their support of your presentation can make your job a whole lot easier and happier for you. Treat them well!
Presentation Location and Room Layout Description: be sure to go there on a reconnaissance trip if at all possible. At least secure a map so you won't be late because you lost your way. Your imagination is not sufficient here. You must not only know about the room, the approximate dimensions, etc, but you must get a FEEL for it. It is ideal if you can attend a presentation in this space prior to your turn to see objectively how a participant can feel in this room. If you are completely unable to do this, then gather pictures, dimensions, descriptions of how this space has been used by others from the contact person, so you will be operating on good information.
Chairperson of Event/Panel: this is the "artistic director" who will share with you her/his vision of how your presentation will fit into the larger vision of the event. They know what part you will need to play, and what emphasis you need to place on your topic to balance the whole program. For instance, if another presenter is planning to talk about computer mapping and your talk is about breaking geographical areas into micro neighborhoods, you will not want to spend much of your presentation time on the technical side of using computer mapping. However, you will want to find out from the Chairperson of the event who it is that will be addressing computer mapping, then talk with that presenter about how much of their presentation will satisfy your need for your audience to gain that knowledge during the event. You can come to an understanding that can be a rough sketch of each other's topics, showing the overlap. Then when it comes time in your presentation to discuss computer mapping you can say "As Mary said in her section on computer mapping. . . " or " Mary will be discussing computer mapping in greater detail later in this program." In this way you can help to balance and support several of the other presenters.
Introduction Sent to Chairperson: Write your own introduction. You do not want to assume that the Chairperson will be able to intuit your professional self-image. As a speaker once said, "You'd better tell them who you are or else they'll tell you who you are." The Chairperson may not take the time to do much but review your resume and pull out of it some standard items which will put the audience to sleep before you get up to speak. So if you do it yourself you are helping the Chairperson and invariably getting a better introduction as well. Write a brief description of who you are, who you represent, and what topic you will address. No more than 2 or 3 points. Now add a bit of spice; something that will bring humor or mystery to the mix.
Microphone Choices: If you have ever used a microphone before, you know the "moment of truth" when you first hear your voice blasting out and echoing around the room, fracturing your sense of balance and focus. You want to have that "moment of truth" not when you get up to the podium to speak before the audience, but way before, when you are alone or with the hotel and/or conference staff. You need to get used to the sound of your amplified voice and speak through it, in a normal way. You need to go to the site at least an hour before the event begins, or if you are staying in the conference center overnight, ask the hotel staff to let you in earlier to try it out before anyone else is present. In this way you can practice your presentation, walk through it, and get really comfortable in the room and with the added complication of amplification. When it is your turn to present, do not ever mention the microphone, even if it doesn't work. Never refer to it in any way because it is a complete distraction from your presentation goals and only serves to make you look foolish, unprofessional and full of blame. If necessary, rent a microphone of the kind that you know will be used and amplifier a week prior to your presentation and practice with it, so you can be comfortable.
Visual Aids: There are a variety of ways to accomplish your task of presenting information in a visual manner, low tech to high. Remember that a presenter actually drawing a chart or simple cartoon to illustrate a point is both visually and kinesthetically appealing, much more so than overheads and even most PowerPoint presentations. Over and over again, audiences give this feedback. They prefer to watch live people do live things. But it's important to consider who your audience is, what sort of room you are presenting in, and what the goals of your presentation are, prior to making this decision. A person drawing a picture on a flip chart may not work for an audience of 150 people because many of them may be sitting too far away to see it clearly. Be sure to find out from your Contact Person what has worked before for this audience, and from the Chairperson find out what technology other presenters are using.

If you have your heart set on a particular technology, be well prepared to use it, practicing it over and over again with the actual equipment you will be using so it works without a hitch. Be sure to bring extension cords, extra projector bulbs, recharged batteries, or whatever is needed to make it work. The old adage, "what can go wrong will go wrong," is useful here.

If electronic or mechanical support systems stop working during your presentation, you have about 30 seconds at most to analyze and fix the problem. Any more than that and you have lost your audience, distracting them from your message. In that case, the best thing to do is to let go of the technology and carry on with your presentation without it. And wherever you were planning to have a visual aid, instead turn the image into image-rich language. It won't be easy but remember the point is to accomplish the goal of the presentation.

Take good care of yourself, the presenter. Give yourself every advantage. Using fresh markers that are brightly colored and wet helps your presentation flow much more than finding that all you brought along are squeaky pale drying up ones. Remember, you are the one who has most to gain and the most to loose if the technology works or fails.
Length of Time: When the Contact Person or Chairperson tells you that you have 20 minutes to present - that's exactly how much time you have. It is your responsibility to time yourself when rehearsing to see how much time it actually takes, then to edit or expand accordingly. Err to the side of brevity. Keep it simple. They usually mean 20 minutes including questions, so factor in enough time for at least three questions and answers if you are going to take questions. It's a good idea to rehearse and time yourself aloud while video or audio taping it, so you get a more realistic sense of the actual time. When in doubt, make it 3-5 minutes shorter than you are asked for, just in case the program is running behind. This is good teamwork, and if you have ever been the last presenter of the day and had people leaving during your presentation because the other presenters ran way overtime then you'll understand completely.

© 2003-2005 Constance Miller All rights reserved.