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Thanks to everyone who attended the discussion group today. It was a great way to start the series.
I wanted to summarize some of the main points we talked about.
1. How to OPEN UP
Using Timothy Koegel’s OPEN UP acronym, we discussed the various traits and characteristics of an exceptional presenter. They were:
Organized
Passionate
Engaging
Natural
And how an exceptional presenter must:
Understand the Audience
Practice
2. Organizing Your Presentation
Structure
A basic structure we can use in our presentations is:
1. Start with a purpose
2. State your Objectives
3. Explain the current situation
4. Describe the end result
5. Detail the next action
6. End with your purpose statement
Our discussions highlighted the importance of starting with a strong purpose statement, that is telling the audience the one or two most important things you want them to remember or take away from the presentation.
If you start with a clearly defined purpose, then everything else in your presentation should fit naturally around this purpose. If it doesn’t then it probably shouldn’t be in the presentation.
Technology
It is imperative that we are not over-reliant on technology, in particular powerpoint or other media tools that we use.
It is important that we know our presentation enough to do it without looking to these tools for help. They should only be used to re-inforce the points we are making, not to make them for us!
3. Understanding the Audience
At this stage of life most of our presentations are going to be given to our fellow classmates. In order to engage with them and keep their attention it is important that we understand their needs and what they are expecting from us.
Three things came up during the discussion
Who’s doing the marking?
An important but often overlooked fact is that it may not be the lecturer who will be giving us our final presentation grade. Part (or perhaps all) of this may come from peer review. As a result we must gear the presentation to the needs of however is doing the marking. If we want to get a good grade that is 
Presentation Fatigue
Often class presentations are often held one after another. When this occurs, it is easy for much of the audience to tire and begin to zone out. It is important that we understand this and that we aim to engage the audience early and often. Getting active audience participation is a must!
But we already know this?
Many times when we are presenting a theory or concept, much of the class will already be familiar with this. We must make sure not to bore the audience by telling them things that they already know. Rather than explaining the theory or concept in great detail, we must show how this is applicable in a real life example. Something that will benefit their learning. After all, as presenters we should be aiming to educate our audience.
There were a lot of great points raised during the discussion today and I hope you can implement one or two of them in order to improve your next presentation.
Looking forward to seeing you at the next session!
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