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D a v i d C r o o k a l l

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Simulation & Gaming:
An Interdisciplinary Journal

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Professional presentation - Workshop notes
© 2004 by Da v i d C r o o k a l l, UNSA

You will need a copy of these notes to do your presentations. Before your first class, make a copy of these workshop notes. The facilitator will check to see if you have actually made a copy. An original paper copy may be available at the office; you can ask the secretary to lend you a copy to make a photocopy.

To make a printout, highlight (select) just this part or column, and then chose selection in the print window..

Part 1. Notes for doing your introduction

Presentation

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice)

Introduction

Why is the introduction so important?

Structure of an introduction

Delivery & feedback

Timing

Feedback & recording

Variations

Part 2. Notes for doing a full presentation

Act now

Presentation

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice)

Structure

Structure of a presentation

Delivery & feedback

Timing

Feedback & recording

Group responsibilities

Part 1. Introduction

Presentation

Several rounds of presentations will take place in this workshop. In round one, you will focus exclusively on the introduction to a presentation. (The other rounds allow you to give a full presentation.) The facilitator will give you the subject area for your presentation.

For the moment, you can forget about the second and subsequent rounds; just focus on this first round. You do not need to think about the second round until later.

The facilitator may have asked you to work within the framework of a simulated organisation. Do not worry too much about being part of an organisation. The main thing that you should remember is that you will prepare and deliver the introduction to a conference presentation. Each person in your group must prepare an introduction. It does not matter at all if all members of your group prepare similar introductions – indeed this is recommended. You should help each other in your work – and you will also get help from the facilitator.

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice)

Careful preparation is vital. You have a limited amount of time to prepare, so you have to work in an efficient way. The following plan of work may help you to prepare and practice.

1. Find your precise topic. Within the subject area outlined by the facilitator, find a precise topic. It should not be too broad or too narrow. You should be interested in your topic. Choose a topic that you like, for example: The Beatles in two cultures.

2. Find the main ideas. Find two main ideas in your topic about which you would like to speak. For example: (1) The early Beatles (in the UK). (2) The late Beatles (in the USA). Remember that for this exercise you only need the headings of main ideas because you are doing the introduction only. In other words, you will only mention the main ideas as part of your introduction; you will not give any detail.

3. Work on your introduction. Notes on the content and structure of the introduction are given below.

4. Practice your introduction. Practice with the facilitators and with your group colleagues. Listen carefully to their feedback and try to implement the suggestion that you like when you do it the next time.

Finish by the time limit. It is important to finish will within the time limit given to you. First, you will be ready. Second, you will avoid feeling flustered if you are cut short in your preparation.

Introduction

What is an introduction? It is actually simpler than it might appear. A presentation usually consist of four parts, as follows:

Introduction. This is a kind of warm-up to the main part of the presentation. In the introduction, you do not talk about any details of your topic. In the introduction, you simply introduce. That is, you introduce yourself, you introduce the topic, you invite the audience to introduce itself to you. You introduce your interest in the topic. You establish your relationship with the audience. You open the channels of communication. Below you will find suggestions on how to structure your introduction. So, remember, in this round, you are preparing and delivering only this part of the presentation, not the remaining parts. This is why you do not need to have any details about your topic, just two main headings.
Body. This is the main part of the presentation. It is here that you go into detail about your topic.
Conclusion. This is the end of the your presentation. Here you basically summarise what you said and thank the audience.
Questions & Answers (Q&A). This allows the audience to ask you questions.

To recap, you will only prepare the introduction, not the body or the conclusion.

Why is the introduction so important?

Many reasons make the introduction a key element in a presentation. It is vital to remember the reasons for doing the introduction. These reasons determine what you will do in the introduction. Some of the reasons are:

You. It allows you to get into the swing of things before starting on the main content. That is, it allows you to relax at a time when you are probably the most nervous.
It allows your vocal chords to warm up.
Topic. It allows you to give the title of your talk and to outline the structure of the body of your presentation. That is, it allows you to give a map of your journey to the audience.
It allows you to tell the audience why you are interested in the topic (before getting into the substance).
Audience.. It allows your audience settle down, to warm up and to begin to focus on the topic.
It allows you to capture the interest of the audience.
It helps the audience to adjust to your way of speaking. This is particularly important in an international setting, where people may need a short while to adjust to your accent (whether native or non-native).
Rapport. It enables you to establish your relationship with your audience.
It enables you to get to know and to begin to feel comfortable with your audience.
It allows you to find out a little about the audience’s prior interest and experience with the topic area, and thus to re-adjust your presentation to their level.

In other words, the introduction is the key to your whole presentation. That is why we are focusing on this in this round.

Structure of an introduction

Table 1 summarises a typical structure for an introduction. Table 2 provides some guidelines on each part of the introduction. You do not have to do every single item in your introduction; nor do you have to follow the exact order of items suggested. However, for this exercise and for the first few times you do a presentation, we suggest that you stay as close as possible to this pattern. The times (in seconds) are suggestions only. They indicate proportionately how much time you might give to each section. The total here is two minutes (240 seconds).

Table 1: Suggested structure for your introduction

Step	Main function	What to do (examples)
Start	Get attention & signal start.	Say “hello”, “how are you?”, are we ready to start?”.
Relate to & involve audience	Start relationship.	Be personal, ask many easy questions (general, then specific). Do something surprising. Do a quiz. Do skit. Do guessing game. Etc.
Title (OHT)	Start to focus minds.	Tell audience the title.
Introduce self	Establish credibility.	Be personal, also share personal things about yourself, your organisation, your experience.
Background to topic	Relate you to topic. Start getting audience interested.	Tell audience why you like your topic, why your topic is important, etc. Do not give any details about your topic; you give these in the body.
Plan of talk (OHT)	Help orient audience. Give audience sense of direction.	Give audience a clear idea of main sections in your presentation. Do not give any details.
Transition to body	Signal move to body.

Table 2: Guidelines on each section of an introduction

Step	Notes	Suggested times (secs.), but use your own
Start	Getting attention and signalling the start are often the same thing. You can get attention and signal the start with the same move. For example, you can move towards the podium, clear your throat, simply start talking, say welcome or I think we should start, switch on the OHP, or whatever seems natural.		2
Relate to & involve audience	This can be seen as a continuation of “Background” (above). It is where you show interest in the audience. It extends your background comments (above) into your interest in the audience. Here, you get your audience involved more than in just listening. You establish a dialogue with the audience. You encourage your audience to be come active and you make them feel involved. Several ways of doing this are available. Use one or two ways, according to the conference norms, to the audience’s culture, to your topic and to your own comfort. · Show of hands. A show of hands is a non-threatening way of getting audience involvement. Ask a question that most people can answer. Ask people specifically to raise their hands, perhaps with a demonstration (raising your own hand). Show delight when you get a lot of hands. · Questions. Asking (several) questions is one of the best ways to relate to your audience. However, ask easy questions (Yes/No-questions are better than WH-questions) – ones that people can say “yes” to without threat. Ask the question to everyone, and demonstrate how they are to replay – e.g., a show of hands (see above). After dialogue has been established, try an easy WH question. Possibly, direct it at an eager audience member, leave room for audience to decline replying. · Audience saying more. If relevant, and you have time, ask one or two audience members to say just a few words (about their experience, their reasons, their likes). This can be an elaboration of their answers to your questions (above). · Discussion. If you have sufficient time, ask the audience to group into pairs or threes and discuss an issue. For example, you can ask them “what are the three biggest problems in travel?”. Then ask for groups to volunteer their results. Summarise their proposals on a flip chart. Link their answers to your topic. Say how pleased you are that they and you have similar or different ideas or that you see such a wide range of views.		40
Title & subject	It is important to give the subject of your presentation. It is good to use an OHT (or equivalent) with the title written clearly.		10
Introduce self & organisation	One thing that you must do is to say who you are, where you are from, how you travelled to the conference, why you are pleased to be there. You can also mention the organisation you work for. Some people actually talk a little while about their organisation, especially if it is of particular interest to the audience or relevant to the topic. However, the audience is usually more interested in you as a person. You can do this earlier if you like.		20
Background to topic	Background is not giving all the details. Background is more anecdotal and personal. It is also what you and the audience might have in common in regard to the topic. Background can include some of the following aspects of your topic. · History & context of you and your topic. How you got to where you are now in your topic area. What phases you have been through (e.g., your ideas may have changed over time?). · Interest & importance. Why you think your presentation or your topic is important. Why you think the audience should be interested. · Purpose of your presentation: What objectives do you have in doing your presentation (e.g., outline new ideas, influence thinking, report research).		30
Plan of talk (OHT)	Move from above elements to your presentation. Bring the audience back to your presentation. This is where you give the audience their first glimpse of the content of your presentation. You do not tell them any details. You simply show the plan of the main part (body) of your presentation. It is a good idea to show your plan visually. You can do this with an OHT or a previously-prepared flip chart or white board.		15
Transition to body	This is where you actually move into the first main point of your presentation. It is here that your introduction ends.		3
	Write in your own total time here:

In the introduction that you will prepare here, remember that you must not read a text, nor memorise one. Simply decide on the ideas you wish to share and the things you wish to do. The words will come naturally. Your group colleagues and the facilitator(s) will help you to do this.

Delivery & feedback

At the appointed time, you will do your presentation – or rather, the introduction to your presentation. It is here that you will see the fruit of your preparation and get feedback.

Timing

You should remember that you have a maximum of two minutes to do your introduction. You should consider this in a positive light. First, it will help you learn how to discipline yourself to keep to your allotted time – an important aspect of presentations. Second, it will help us get to the feedback sooner, and (given workshop time constraints) it will allow us to spend more time on feedback.

You may find it useful to ask someone to be a time keeper for you. This person can signal to you as time passes, for example, after 1 minute, after 1½ minutes and at 1¾ minutes. However, you might find this distracting. You will know this from any previous practice you will have done.

Feedback & recording

If time is available, your introduction may be video-taped. You will be told beforehand if your introductions are to be video-taped. If you do not wish to be video-taped, please tell the facilitator. However, a video recording is strongly recommended. It is valuable in the feedback session afterwards. A recording allows you to see yourself and thus to learn much about how you communicate in a presentation.

Thus, after the introductions have been recorded, you will get feedback on your presentation. First, you will have an opportunity to analyse and comment on your presentation. Then, your colleagues will be able to offer suggestions. Finally, the facilitator(s) will give their thoughts.

Variations

Any departures from and variations on this basic format will be given by the facilitators at the appropriate time.

Part 2. Full presentation

Please read these notes carefully all the way through. As soon as you and your colleagues have finished reading these notes, you should start work. Then, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Act now

This stage is similar to the previous one, and follows a similar pattern. It should, therefore, be easy for you to get into the swing of things fairly quickly. However, if you find that things are not completely clear at the start, do not worry. You do not need to understand everything in order to move forward. Just start working, ask questions as you go along, and things will become clear.

Presentation

In the first round, you focused on the introduction to a presentation. In this round, you will prepare and deliver a full presentation. However, you should remember that the introduction is still important – indeed, it is now even more important because it will actually introduce a real body, followed by a Q&A session.

Do not worry too much about being part of an organisation. The main thing that you should remember is that you will prepare and deliver a conference presentation. In the previous round, each person did a separate introduction. In this round, your group will prepare one single presentation, delivered jointly. You should help each other in your work. You will also get help from the facilitator(s).

3 P’s (Plan, Prepare, Practice)

Careful preparation is vital. You have a limited amount of time to prepare, so you have to work in an efficient way. The following plan of work may help you to prepare and practice.

1. Topic. Choose your topic.

2. Objective. Chose clear objectives – preferably just one objective. Check all material against your objective. If your material does not help you to achieve your objective, leave it out. If in doubt, leave it out!

3. Find the main ideas. Find two main ideas in your topic that you would like to speak about. For example: (1) The Beatles in the UK – the early years. (2) The Beatles in the USA – the later years. To save time, use the ideas that you used in previously. If you wish to modify them, that is okay too. Decide who in your group will do which section(s) of the presentation. You can speak more than once, for example, one of you can do the introduction and the conclusion.

4. Work on your presentation. Notes on this are provided below. Remember that you now know how to do an introduction (see above).

5. Take account of feedback. As you prepare and practice your presentation, think back to the feedback that you obtained previously. In particular, you may wish to improve the introduction.

6. Practice your presentation. Practice with the facilitators and with your group colleagues. Listen carefully to their feedback and try to implement the suggestions that you like when you do it the next time. Remember that, with several presenters, your transitions must be clear.

7. Finish by the time limit.

Structure

A presentation usually consist of four parts. You will prepare a full presentation, with three or four parts (depending on what your facilitator tells you), as follows:

· Introduction. You know this one already!

· Body. This is the main part of the presentation. It is here that you go into detail about your topic.

· Conclusion. This is the end of the your presentation. Here you basically summarise what you said and thank the audience.

· Questions & Answers (Q&A). This allows the audience to ask you questions.

Structure of a presentation

Table 3, below, summarises a typical structure for a presentation. Table 4 provides some guidelines on each part of the presentation. You do not have to do every single small item in your presentation; nor do you have to follow the exact order of all items suggested. However, for this exercise and for the first few times that you do a presentation, we suggest that you stay as close as possible to this pattern. Generally the body contains two or three main ideas. We suggest, for simplicity and time reasons, that you stick to just two main ideas for this exercise.

The times are suggestions only. They indicate proportionately how much time you might give to each section. Remember that your absolute maximum in this round is ten minutes. You are responsible for keeping your own time – and therefore for ending on time! (Note that the suggested time for your introduction is now still 2 minutes.)

Table 3: Suggested structure for your presentation

Main function	Step
Tell them what you are about to tell them	Introduction
Tell them.	Body
Tell them what you have told them.	Conclusion
Tell them again.	Question & Answer session (Q&A)

Table 4: Guidelines on each section of a presentation

Step	Notes		Suggested time (mins.); use your own times
Introduction	(Look back at the Participants’ Manual for CP-Sim-A.)			2
Body	The body has two or three main parts. Each part corresponds to one main idea or point. Three is a maximum; you should choose two for this exercise. Each part has an internal structure of its own, which will vary depending on the idea and the supporting material. A typical structure is exemplified below. Illustrative wording is provided in italics.			8
1^st main idea / point	Start body State 1^st idea Support Support Summary Transition	Let me now turn to the topic, which is … My first point is … This slide shows the trend graphically. As you can see,… The example of X will help you understand. X was … Let me summarise the main idea. … This idea is related to my second point …
2^nd main idea / point	State 2^nd idea Support Support Summary Transition
Conclusion	Restate (summarise) main ideas briefly End with impact. Make a short, memorable concluding statement or action, for example: · Quote · Suggest areas for more exploration · Give new idea · Ask open question End and thank audience			½
Q&A	Invite questions & comments Make final comment, e.g.: · Summarise main idea(s) briefly · Give new idea · Ask open question Close and thank audience again, with impact
	Total time (calculate yours):			9

In the presentation that you will prepare here, remember that you must not read a text, nor memorise one. Simply decide on the ideas you wish to share and the things you wish to do. The words will come naturally. Your group colleagues and the facilitator(s) will help you do this.

Delivery & feedback

At the appointed time, you will do your presentation. It is here that you will see the fruit of your preparation and get feedback.

Timing

You should remember that you have a maximum of ten minutes to do your presentation. You should consider this short time in a positive light. First, it will help you learn how to discipline yourself to keep to your allotted time – an important aspect of presentations. Second, it will help us get to the feedback sooner, and (given workshop time constraints) it will allow us to spend more time on feedback. You may again find it useful to ask your time keeper to help.

Feedback & recording

Your presentation will be video-taped. If you do not wish to be video-taped, please tell the facilitator. However, a video recording is strongly recommended. It is invaluable in the feedback session afterwards. A recording allows you to see yourself and thus to learn a huge amount about how you communicate in a presentation.

Thus, after the presentations have been recorded, you will get feedback on your presentation. First, you will have an opportunity to analyse and comment on your presentation. Then, your colleagues will be able to offer suggestions. Finally, the facilitator(s) will give their thoughts.

In some ways, the feedback can be considered as the most important part of your learning. It is here that your experience of presenting can be analysed. It is from this analysis that you learn and decide what actions to take for the next time you present. (All recordings will be erased after this workshop and will not be viewed by outside this group, unless you have given your specific permission.)

Group responsibilities

In your groups, you will each do part(s) of a single presentation. Therefore, you should also work together to help each other. Three heads are better than one! You can ask for help, offer help, ask for advice, give advice, get feedback, give feedback, bounce ideas off the others, brainstorm, have fun, laugh and so on.

To help you structure your work in groups, we suggest the three functional roles. Details are provided in Table 5 (p.9). It is a good idea to change roles when needed. For example, while person A is practising their part of the presentation, person B can take the role of time keeper and person C can be the communication monitor. When person B wishes to practice their part of the presentation, you can change roles.

Table 5: Responsibilities in your group

Time keeper

Keeping to time lines is an important aspect (a) of this exercise and (b) of giving presentations. It is okay to finish early, but ending late creates problems.

The time keeper’s responsibility is to keep a close eye on the clock and remind the others regularly of how much time is left. It is also important to make sure that presenters talk for less than the allotted time. The time keeper also makes suggestions about ways to work that optimise the use of time, for example, by working individually for a while, then working as a group.

The time keeper also helps the communication monitor (see below).

Communication monitor

Communication is the thing. Getting your message across clearly is your number one priority.

The communication monitor’s responsibility is to help the presenter to communicate clearly. All aspects of the presentation (e.g., structure, eye contact, introduction, OHTs) should all contribute to a clear message, and not be done just for the sake of a “polished performance”. The communication monitor provides feedback on these things. For this, you can use the check list (see below).

Coordinator

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