III. Dictate the following text to your group mate. Check it together

Well, I may have told all those of you who read this blog regularly that you should always back up your presentations – just in case things go wrong, I discovered something else you should also do. Check your back up copy!

Yesterday, I was doing a class. I had prepared my presentation file the night before. I saved it and went to bed. I did not check that the file had saved correctly, because I had never had a problem with a backup file.

When I tried to open the file I got an error message “The file you are trying to open is not in a recognized format”.

No matter what I did I could not open the file. I had to do the class without my presentation file. Not a complete disaster, but certainly an inconvenience.

IV. How much do you know about making effective presentations? If you had to make the most important presentation of your career, would you be prepared? We invite you to try our quiz to find out. (ANSWER TRUE or FALSE)

1. What we have to say, when presenting, will usually have a much greater effect on our audience than how we say it.

2. The “body” of the presentation (middle portion) is when the audience is usually most attentive.

3. You should have specific objectives when giving a presentation and stick to them.

4. Studies have proven that “how we say the words” (our vocal speed, inflection, and clarity) will have more impact on our audience than “what the audience sees” (our facial expressions, visuals, clothing, gestures, etc.).

5. The most critical thing to remember about the “opening” of your presentation is that you must convey to the audience how important the subject matter is to you.

6. Making certain the content of your presentation is logically organized is more important than analyzing and knowing your audience.

7. Connecting with your audience is more important than making sure you cover all the prepared material.

8. Most business presentations should conclude with questions from the audience…the presentation is over when the last question is answered.

9. If you have done a good job of preparing audio visuals for your audience, the visuals will do the real communicating and, therefore, are more important than anything you can say or do.

10. It is not how a presenter thinks or feels that will most influence his audience, but rather how the presenter behaves.