Seminars are one of the perfect ways to interact and convey the message to the target audience. This has been a great method to convey the message in an effective way. Public speakers are always in high demand and people follow them. This cult following is not easy to achieve. It comes only when one is a perfect speaker and a person who leaves an everlasting impact on the audience.
A good PowerPoint seminar contains efficient planning and flawless delivery. Efficient planning is required for an impressive presentation. A good presentation is a constitution of several elements. The different elements that make a good presentation are namely the content of the presentation, the layout of the PowerPoint slides, and the style of delivery.
The content of the presentation
The topic: Before jumping into what the content of the presentation should be, it is important to come up with and narrow down to an interesting and engaging topic that is relevant to the audience. The speaker must give value for the time to the audience. He must emphasize that the audience must learn something by spending their time listening to him.
Investigation: Proper research is required even before framing a structure for the seminar. It gives the speaker control over the language and the confidence to pronounce and answer the questions the audience might ask. It also helps the speaker frame new ways of representing information.
Describe: An outline or structure gives a definite direction to the presentation, the presenter, and the audience. Making a proper outline saves a lot of time, while incorrect planning at this step can be a burden later, and the presenter has to realign and redo the entire structuring. When he creates the structure, he can include it on the second slide after the title slide (which usually contains the topic, presenter’s name, and date). This helps provide the audience with direction for what’s to come next.
Introduction: This is a short introduction to the topic and you can start with quotes, any interesting facts or questions. Icebreaker techniques can be used here to engage the audience in the discussion.
Body: This is the longest part of the presentation and carries the theme. It is highly recommended that the presentation is light on text and makes use of important points clearly. Using relevant, high-resolution images can enhance the look of your slides.
Conclusion: The conclusion summarizes the entire presentation. It can be a quote, an interesting question to give the audience thought, a summary of what has been discussed, recommendations or suggestions, or some points of learning and action.
Designing the PowerPoint Slides
Microsoft PowerPoint is an excellent tool for making a powerful presentation. The simple features of Microsoft PowerPoint help even a novice to create their own presentation. The following are the points to keep in mind when designing a PowerPoint presentation.
Sources: Using fonts like Times New Roman and others that are already installed in Microsoft PowerPoint gives your presentation a drab look. Free and attractive fonts available on the internet can be easily downloaded and used to make a beautiful PowerPoint presentation.
Color: You can use color schemes to make the slides look attractive. Make sure you use a good color combination. Make sure that the text is legible and that the colors are not too strong for the eyes.
Alignment: The alignment of images and text are equally important. It should look nice and not disconnected.
Text: If you use more text, the slides start to look clunky and uninviting. Therefore, it is recommended that only the main points are presented in a bulleted format and used on the slides. Another disadvantage of this is that the audience loses focus on the speaker and starts reading the slides. If it is important to use the text, it should be divided into smaller sections and parts, and appropriate paragraphs should be made.
Images, Graphs and Tables: Care should be taken not to use copyrighted images without appropriate approvals. Images need to be of good quality when displayed on a large screen and therefore high resolution images are preferred. The source of graphs and tables that are taken from external sources must be cited.
Animation: Lots of text and images flying everywhere don’t give the presentation a clean look. This is a distracting factor too. Therefore, one must be careful while using animation and must not overdo it.
Cohesion: This is a crucial factor in presentation design. Grouping similar topics and categories helps. You can then set different font styles, background color, theme, font styles, and font colors for the groups to make them look consistent and similar, and to give your presentation a structured look. This will not cause the presentation to disconnect into different parts.
delivery style
Dress: The speaker is encouraged to wear clean, formal clothing.
Body language: The speaker must be confident. He should use open hand gestures and should not be clumsy in his appearance or attitude. The speaker must take care of the volume, clarity and tone of it. He must make sure it is clear and audible to the last person sitting in the back row of the room. Eye contact with everyone in the room is a sign of a good speaker. The use of the stage is immensely important. The presenter may choose to use the stage freely, but must be careful not to stand in front of the screen to obstruct the slides being projected.
Resources and the setup phase: Resources are the tools, equipment, or any other materials the presenter needs. These include projector, clicker, flip chart or laser pointer. After arriving on stage, the presenter must make sure that everything is ready.
Connect with the audience: The audience must feel connected and must pay attention to what the speaker is saying. This can be achieved if the speaker interacts with them and finds ways to make the session interactive, provides relevant examples that seem connected to their lives. Small activities, games, questions and quizzes help to connect with the audience.
The dos and don’ts discussed above can help even a novice speaker. The key to delivering a fantastic presentation, of course, comes with experience and practice, and the speaker must continually practice their research, design, and delivery skills to improve their overall presentation ability. It is obvious that giving a good presentation is not a skill that is acquired overnight, but an art that must be learned, honed and developed over time. With the help of the above indicators, a speaker can look to deliver a presentation that is relevant and interesting.