Giving Effective Presentations

For any business, enterprise, or organization, no matter what the industry is or where its based, there is one constant that rings true for them all: one of the most effective ways to communicate ideas and information is via a presentation. For some, giving a presentation before audiences that can include clients, peers, managers, or executives, it’s as natural to do as drinking a glass of water. For others, it can be a less-than-pleasurable experience and can even affect your trajectory within your company. So being able to comfortably get up and captivate an audience is an important arrow to have in your quiver.

In this video course, designed for any and all levels of professionals who want to up their presentation performance, you’ll learn to harness key expert- and research-driven best practices for planning, preparing, and giving formal presentations. This course is designed to empower you—the business professional—with the necessary skills to present more confidently, to communicate more clearly, and to persuade more powerfully. When you’ve completed this video course, you’ll know how to command a presence in a room; plan, prepare, and organize an effective presentation structure; fine-tune your delivery techniques, including fundamentals like posture, breathing, and pace; and develop materials and slide decks that supplement and enhance your presentation.

What you’ll learn—and how you can apply it

• Show confidence and poise through posture, breathing, pace, and nonverbal cues
• Adapt content and structure to fit the expectations of your audience(s)
• Organize presentations for clarity and to build toward strong and meaningful conclusions
• Weave in stories that are relatable, relevant, and memorable
• Design slide decks and other materials to be professional, attractive, visually-rich, and capable of drawing attention to your key messages

This video course is for you because…

• You're a leader who needs to present new visions, goals, ideas, or policies to employees and need to persuade them to act
• You're a professional who regularly provides instruction and workshops to customers or other employees
• You haven’t needed to make a presentation in a while, and you want to sharpen your skills
• You're part of a team who has opportunities to present or pitch new ideas, products, or processes to supervisors or institutional leaders

Prerequisites:

• You should be familiar with Microsoft PowerPoint

Materials or downloads needed in advance: None

Further resources:

• “How to Give Effective Presentations,” Live Online Training, by Curtis Newbold
• “60 Minutes to Designing a Better PowerPoint Slide,” Live Online Training, by Curtis Newbold
• “Visualization and Presentation of Data,” Live Online Training, by Curtis Newbold
• “Leadership Communication Skills for Managers,” Live Online Training, by Curtis Newbold

Other resources of value to the content of this video course include the following:

• “3 Steps to Better Presentation Visuals,” by Nancy Duarte
• “Connect with Any Audience,” by Nancy Duarte
• “Mastering Remote Presentations,” by Nancy Duarte
• The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book, by Robin Williams