The night before presentation

This is just a random post. I have a big presentation tomorrow, and I am bored thinking of how to sell in the presentation, and so, I decided to post something.

This is a presentation on the conference that I am organising, it's called BioBiz. Basically, I am to sell this conference to the directors of s

ome medtech companies during their council meeting. I made a similar presentation to another group of companies the next day after our ES2007S presentation.

Although it's the same presentation, but because the audience has change, my strategy has to change as well. I've not really prepared for this presentation because I was busy watching overdue webcasts for the past few days, and now, I am suffering the consequence of my laziness =_=. Just want to share with you a few lessons (they are still at the hypothetical stage, not proven yet) that I've learnt about presentation (particularly presentation that requires you to sell) which might be helpful to you :

1. Don't leave the charting of your ppt strategy to the last minute, you need time to build up the momentum. the sense of excitement and confidence towards it. Previously when I did my first presentation, due to the need to prepare the slides and the stress due to the high-ranking audience that I have, I thought about the presentation for one whole week and in the end, I can speak and present very naturally, cause everything is in my head. Now? I'm just stuck at it...
2. You should speak properly a few days before your presentation. Stop using lah, ehm, uhhu if you don't want them to appear in your presentation. Speak the language of your presentation. For the past few days, I was studying with my friend from China and have been speaking Chinese. Suddenly, I discovered that I can't pronounce some words clearly and can't construct sentences properly. Somehow, your tongue adapt to the language that you speak.
3. Presentation notes can only be used one time, not twice, even for 2 similar presentation. For the second time when you try to use the same note, you'll find that you box yourself up to conform to the previous things that you said, and you'll have the tendency to start memorising things, which is not good at all, because when you try to memorise, you forget it much more easily! For every presentation, INTERNALISE IT!
4. Animation is very important! Use it well to enhance the effect of your presentation.
5. When you are trying to print multiple sets of presentation slides from Microsoft Powerpoint, please send your printing set by set and don't try to print 5 sets in one goal. The thing is, the second set of your slides will continue to be printed on the same piece of paper after the first set finishes. Ex: Let say one set of slides take 5 pages, and so if you print your slides in a double-sided form, you are suppose to have one blank page. However, the 1st slide of your next set will be printed on the blank page... (not sure if you get what I'm trying to say, if you don't, just follow, you won't regret it)
6. When you are selling your idea, if you need to tell your audience that they've miss out something in the past, or they are not good enough, don't put it on the slides, just tell them verbally in a respectful manner. Reminding them too much of their mistakes doesn't help them to be more receptive to your idea. When you want to tell them about a problem, make sure you will suggest some solutions at the same time. No ones like to hear that NOTHING CAN BE DONE TO SOLVE THE PROBLEM!
7. Use personal experiences to connect with the audience. This will make your presentation very natural.
8. If you have a small group of audience, there will tend to be those who has very stiff face (I'm not sure why). Try to establish some eye-contact but don't keep looking at them. Trying to look-out for people who are more friendly and attentive and look at them more. That will help you to stay calm and happy throughout =D
9. Don't be defensive when people shoot you questions. Being defensive will offend the audience and evoke the defensive side of them.
10. It will be great to print out slides for your audience, so that they can take note during your presentation. It helps to leave a better impression.
11. If you are invited to make the presentation, always express your appreciation for the opportunity and thank the audience for their time here.
12. Always smile to everyone!

That's all I've got. I was just so bored that I started to do some formation with my slides. I formed a hexagon, and tried to make sure that the angle between the sides are 120 degree. Doing these kind of random things just make me happy. Looking at the photo, it's not really 120 degree...sigh....disappointed. =(

The hexagon!

That's all for now, I have to go back and start pronouncing the words properly.

All the best for your study. =D Enjoy it man!

I'm getting Josh Groban's new album "Illumination" tomorrow! Yay! I highly recommend him, this is the REAL music and voice that people will remember for life (not just for entertainment) compared to all the Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber type of music...