Some tips for an impressive presentation

Duong Minh Tu – Lecturer, Faculty of Business Administration

Presentation is not simply speaking in front of a crowd. The essence of presentation is to present the speaker's views and arguments on an issue to convince the audience to believe and support the speaker's views. In fact, there are many speakers who leave an impression with their engaging speaking style and profound content. So, what makes an impressive speech?

1. Engage and lead the audience into the opening

Some speakers often make the mistake of opening their presentation too hastily and going straight to the point. Usually, in the first one or two minutes, the audience is not ready to receive information. Instead, they often pay attention and focus on the speaker. And this is a good time for the speaker to impress and attract the audience to the topic. Professional speakers are often very flexible and have many ways to lead the audience into the speech. For example, they provide statistics or illustrations for their topic. In addition, speakers can share stories and their personal feelings related to the presentation topic. Or another popular way is that speakers often ask interactive questions to the audience. These questions are relevant and lead the audience into the presentation topic... It can be said that the introduction is very important in the speech and the speaker needs to invest time to prepare an impressive introduction.

2. Provide clear evidence to support the speaker's argument.

To convince the audience, the speaker's bases and arguments must be scientific and rational, limiting subjective bases. And important bases should be brought up first and analyzed in depth. For example, when talking about the causes of traffic jams in Hanoi, the speaker should focus on analyzing and explaining the main causes (population, infrastructure, increased personal vehicles) instead of talking much about the awareness of traffic participants.

3. Clear and pervasive message

Normally, each speech is aimed at spreading the speaker's point of view on a certain issue. However, the speaker needs to note that the message needs to be clear, coherent and especially closely related to the arguments presented in the body of the speech. For example, when the speaker gives his opinion on the policy of banning motorbikes in Hanoi's inner city by 2030, the author needs to clearly express his level of agreement or disagreement with that policy. Avoid general opinions like "neither agree nor disagree".

4. Inspirational Voice

In addition to carefully preparing the speech content, the speaker needs to control his voice to effectively convey the message to the audience. Firstly, the speaker needs to control the speaking speed. The speaker's main speaking speed should be at an average level but should be adjusted to avoid speaking in a monotone. For example, when preparing to present an important argument, the speaker should adjust the speed to be slower than normal. Secondly, the speaker should pay attention to the pitch of his voice. In other words, the speaker should speak with "rhythm", with some parts of the voice rising and falling to avoid boring the audience. Thirdly, the speaker needs to thoroughly overcome some voice problems such as: lisping, stuttering, distorted speech...

5. Control your non-verbal communication

This is probably the biggest difficulty that any speaker must control and master. Any speaker who wants to speak confidently needs to master the skills of using body language such as: hand gestures, eyes, movement, facial expressions... Some common mistakes of speakers are: not interacting with the audience through eyes or only focusing on a group of audiences; awkward hand gestures, crossing arms, putting hands in pockets; tense facial expressions; unreasonable movements... To overcome this situation, speakers should practice thoroughly and adhere to some basic principles such as: Looking at the audience when speaking (M-looking rule, 3-second looking rule...); flexible, confident hand gestures, appropriate hand position...