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Advocacy card - Writing and delivering a presentation
A presentation is a formal way of delivering a message face-to-face to an audience. It can vary from a brief talk to a small group, to a formal presentation to hundreds of people at an international conference. Giving a presentation can be a nerve-wracking ordeal, but this can be lessened by good preparation and practice. The stages in developing a presentation include planning, writing and delivering.
Advantages
- You can offer your selection of facts and opinions.
- You can speak directly to an audience.
- You can show visuals to illustrate your message.
- A presentation is easy and cheap to organise and can have a powerful impact if planned well.
- You can give out copies of your presentation as a written record (unless you need to change the focus during the event).
Disadvantages
- It is not easy to make an interesting, lively presentation.
- A bad environment could spoil your presentation – noise, distractions, bad lighting, etc.
- You could be open to difficult questions from an unpredictable audience.
- Some people are not good at giving presentations (but it is a skill that can be learnt).
For more information about delivering effective presentations see Documenting and Communicating HIV/AIDS Work – A Toolkit to Support NGOs and CBOs, International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
Skills-building activity – option 1
Objective: By the end of the session participants will be able to prepare and deliver a simple presentation
Preparation time: 2 hours
Resources: ‘How to...’ Handout
Instructions
Timing: 2 hours
1 Introduce the topic and explain the objective of the activity to the participants.
2 Ask participants to explain what a presentation is and its purpose.
3 Ask participants to divide into groups and prepare a five to ten-minute presentation on an advocacy issue (possibly an issue already discussed in the workshop) for the whole group. Each group should decide which member of the group will make the presentation.
4 Presentations often include:
- a clear message with two to three key points each
- use of visual aids
- clear instructions to the audience on when to ask questions.
5 Ask a number of groups to deliver their presentations to the whole group and invite feedback on each, based on the following kinds of questions:
- How clear were the messages?
- How persuasive were the arguments?
- How useful and clear were the visual aids?
- How clear and useful were the answers to the questions?
- What could be improved?
6 Discuss which presentations worked best, and what made them more successful than others.
7. Invite participants to discuss their experiences of delivering presentations, especially as part of advocacy work.
Facilitators’ notes
- You may want to ask some pairs to do a different activity – preparing some advice (for example, ‘Try to...’ and Try not to...’ tips) for planning and delivering a presentation.
- Encourage the use of visual aids but emphasise that too many can be distracting.
- Encourage positive feedback as well as suggestions for improvement.
Skills-building activity – option 2
Objective: By the end of the session participants will be able to identify common mistakes in delivering presentations and know how to avoid them
Instructions
Timing: 45 minutes
1 Ask participants to brainstorm the various mistakes (for example, forgetting to turn on the microphone, fidgeting, slides in the wrong order, speaking too quickly, etc.) they have seen people make during a presentation. Make a note of key mistakes.
2 Facilitate a discussion around how to avoid each mistake. Encourage practical solutions to the mistakes.
Examples (written on a chart around a diagram of someone giving a presentation)
Advice on writing and delivering a presentation
Keep to your time-allocation.
Look at the audience.
Look at different people in the audience throughout the talk.
Be enthusiastic! If you are not, how can you expect your audience to be?
Be animated, but not so much so as to distract your audience from what you are saying.
Don’t read your notes. Use them as prompts but not as a script.
Stand so that you do not block your visual aids.
Keep your body language positive. Looking down at your shoes or covering your mouth with your hand will only undermine your presentation.
Try to give yourself time to prepare, write and practise your presentation.
Try not to use too many visual aids – for example, five for 20 minutes.
Try to use concrete examples to illustrate concepts, ideas or points.
Try to check your equipment before the presentation to ensure that everything is in order.
Try to have copies of your presentation or other documents available as handouts.
Repeat questions asked if you think others in the audience may not have heard them.
If you are taking questions, switch off the projector as it can be noisy.
If you are using visual aids, look at them from time to time so your audience does too.
Speak up and vary your intonation. Speaking in monotone will likely put your audience to sleep.
Check the physical environment. Lighting, ventilation and noise can all affect how well your presentation is received.
Check that your visual aids are clear and interesting.
Try not to dominate question and answer sessions – give clear concise answers where possible to allow as many questions as possible to be put forward.
Reference: Adapted from <Documenting and Communicating HIV/AIDS Work – A Toolkit to Support NGOs/CBOs, International HIV/AIDS Alliance.
How to...write and deliver a presentation
Planning a presentation
- Review the key factors that will affect your presentation, i.e.: Who is the audience? What are their interests and level of knowledge about the topic? How much time has been given for the presentation? Does this include time for questions? Where will it take place? What equipment will be available? How formal will it be? What is the broader context of the event – is the presentation the main event or part of something else? How will the presentation fit?
- Gather the information and materials that will inform the presentation.
Writing a presentation
- Some people just use bullet points as the basis for their talks, while others prefer to have the text written out in full.
- Make sure the presentation has a beginning which introduces the topic, a middle which contains the bulk of the talk, and a summary or conclusion.
- Catch the audience’s attention at the start with a quote/anecdote to make the situation human and real for them.
- Identify and list the key points and ensure that each has supporting facts and references. Place these key points in a logical order. Persuade the audience by supporting each statement with quotes, comparisons and examples.
- Make or select visual aids that support your presentation but also add some value – for example, added interest or a ‘human angle’.
Delivering the presentation
- Try not to read your written text aloud – try to either learn the text or just use bullet points as a reminder of each point.
- Keep to within the required timeframe.
- Speak loudly, clearly and slowly, and pause to allow people to consider key points.
- Use good visual aids to make the presentation more interesting and easier to understand.
- Make eye contact with the audience – don’t look at the floor or at one person in the audience.
- Make the presentation like a conversation – don’t talk at people, talk to them.
Dealing with questions
- If the question is complex, repeat and rephrase it so that it is clearly understood.
- Reply to the whole audience, not just the individual who asked the question.
- Think before responding to a question.
- Take a light-hearted approach to sarcastic questions – don’t get flustered by them.
- Don’t bluff if you don’t know the answer. Better to admit you do not know, throw it back to the audience or say you will find out the answer.
Source: Advocacy in Action
This is an extract from Advocacy in Action: a toolkit to support NGOs and CBOs responding to HIV/AIDS, developed in collaboration with the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations (ICASO) and published by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance in June 2002.
To view the whole report follow this link.
To download this section, complete with graphics, in pdf format (which requires Adobe Acrobat software to read it) follow this link (file size 1.0 Mbytes).