Salmon - How to open a presentation: Best ways to fascinate the audience right from the beginning

How to
open

a presentation

Best ways to fascinate the audience right from the beginning

By Avi Salmon

Copyright 2011 by Avi Salmon

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means electronic, mechanical, photographic (photocopying), recording, or otherwise without prior permission in writing from the author.

Preface

Congratulations! Thank you for downloading me and endeavoring to learn practically about how to open your next presentation making it the best presentation you ever gave.

Are you at lost wondering why your lectures are not memorable? How come you see such great presentation on TED but your own does not leave the impression you wanted to get? Do you want to be perceived as the best speaker in your organization?

Presentation skills are a key set of skills that will enable you to achieve your goals faster, create a better image about your professionalism and brand you as The one that knows what she is talking about. After reading this guide you will surly know what to do when you start your presentation and have a set of tools to choose from when building your next lecture at work and elsewhere.

Join me in the journey to make your next public talk a one that will be talked about.

Contents

Introduction

Hello intrepid reader and congratulations on purchasing this book. You have chosen to work harder towards your goals and aims, and this book provides you with the opportunity to improve your skills as a presenter. The chapters will guide you through every stage of a presentation, starting with the all-important role for the first impression . Let's get underway to achieve your goals.

The very first impression that any individual or group of people will have of you is built within a few seconds. This is a very small window of opportunity and you have to take the advantage to gain interest and undivided attention. If you fail to impress your audience at first, you cannot go back in time and try to do so again. The book focuses on the most crucial moments when success or failures are decided. A good first impression is the secret of great presentations. The very first moments are the most crucial ones as the audience decides right away how much attention they are willing to give you. These moments will decide everything from your approach to your topic. This is when you gain their trust. If you do, the rest of the presentation is in your hands. A great start will help you to achieve your goals.

One of the many pitfalls of a poor presentation is the lack of an objective. Many presenters have a weak or misconceived target and end up giving a poor presentation. The audience will pick up on this within moments and quickly lose interest. Avoid this at all costs by having a clear objective and a direction for the presentation.

One other thing that you need to avoid is monotony. There is nothing worse than sitting through a typical Monday morning presentation that looks the same as every other presentation. In order to avoid such dull presentations you need to engage your audience from the start. Furthermore, you have to avoid dreary long dialogues that shift the attention of the audience towards their smartphones and away from you. You should always remember that a bored audience is a deaf audience. A good first impression creates the path way for a successful presentation and will not only get you praise from the audience but also help you to achieve your goal or objective.

How to open a presentation is a practical guide that will introduce useful concepts and ideas that you can put into practice at your very next presentation. While reading this text you can begin to practice better presentation skills by following the advice and tips in later chapters. After going through the text, you can put your skills into test by recalling your previous presentation and think about how you could have presented them better?

By reading this book you may gain one of the important tools of leadership. The greatest leaders know how to speak and how to present their ideas. In order to succeed or become a great leader, it is important to learn these steps and gain the admiration and respect of your peers. Every new contact you make will be impressed by the first impression upon meeting you. When perceived as a good leader by your presentation audience, you already have their attention due to your charismatic leadership.

Presentation is one of the key factors of success. No matter in which sector you work in, or whichever goal motivates you, a presentation is crucial to put forward your most convincing sales pitch or lucrative idea. A great presentation needs a great impression from start to finish.

Avi Salmon is an engineering manager in a large international high tech company. Avi has more than 20 years of experience giving different kind of lectures and workshops including leadership, innovation, constrictive confrontation, Kid programming and more. Avi has taught presentation skills inside his organization and externally to different forums. He is coaching individuals for effective presentation for technical conferences and general presentations. Many of his students and co-workers have found his methods effective. They have become more effective and efficient in presenting their topic and keeping their audience on the edges of their seat. These presentation skills and public speaking abilities are essential and key subjects to learn in the 21st century. Avi holds a BSc. in electronics from the Technion institute, MBA from the Haifa University and coaching diploma. Avi is happily married with three adorable kids.

The following chapters will teach you more about improving relations and wowing audiences with the first impression. The main concept of this book deals with the opening impression of a presentation so the rest of the presentation is up to the individual reader and not within the scope of this book. Simply reading this book is a good start but success will come from putting these ideas into practice. Here is a tip, always remember to get feedback. This will help you to inspire your audience and act upon your presentation's final summary. Later chapters will give plenty of opportunity to try out the scenarios starting today. With this knowledge in your arsenal you are one step closer of becoming a successful presenter and going closer to achieving your goals.

Receiving feedback from your friends is worth nothing instead videotape yourself while you are practicing a presentation. This will give you the best reflection on your presentation and highlight your strong as well as the weak parts. It can be both insightful and amazing It can be insightful and amazing how many details you notice upon watching your recorded video that you never noticed by yourself. There is simply no other efficient feedback method than viewing a self-recorded presentation.

Chapter 1
No second chance for first impression

In 2005, Sunnafrank and Artemio Ramirez Jr. at Ohio State University conducted a research study on relationships and first impressions. As many as 164 students were assessed as Ramirez and Sunnafrank closely monitored their relationships over the semester; watching their interactions as they met and worked together.

The study found that with repeated and continued exposure to their colleagues over multiple meetings during the semester, their opinion of their partner remained unchanged from the first impression upon meeting them. Despite many opportunities to develop relationships their opinion about the other person remained unchanged.

The main fact to take from this study is that people make snap judgments in a very short time, and once that first impression has formed, very little can be done to change their opinion. The amount of time spent with a person after an initial meeting has no effect upon the first impression, whether it's 3 minutes or several weeks.