Overview of chapter 8
An orator is a man who says what he thinks and feels what he says .
William Jennings Bryan [1860-1925]
To start you thinking
Have you ever presented publicly? How did you feel about your performance? What separates good presentations from ordinary ones? Or, what factors make a public speaker successful and/or charismatic?
Business presentations are an important way of delivering information to a group of people in the workplace. Common examples of these are presenting ideas at a meeting, delivering the results of an analysis and providing briefings or instructions. The presenter should aim to inform and/or persuade and/or entertain an audience. To succeed in those aims a competent presenter requires good communication skills combined with a well-planned presentation and appropriate visual aids. This has become increasingly more effective as developments in software packages continue to make the creation and use of visual aids in presentations easier and more accessible. The production of good visual aids is no longer the domain of graphic artists: it is now within the reach of all of us. Aids, it should be noted, do not replace the skill of the presenter: rather they are an adjunct.
This chapter explores the preparation and delivery of public presentations and reviews various visual aids used to support the presentation message.
Learning objectives
On completion of this chapter you should be able to:
- explain the different methods of organising and delivering speeches
- identify techniques which will enable the speaker to give an effective public presentation
- choose the right visual aid for your intended use
- understand the usefulness of a variety of visual aids
- exercise judgement in the use and placement of visual aids.
