Thing 20: Presentations

I don't think anyone can be completely comfortable giving a presentation to a large number of people.   I was certainly nervous the first time I gave a student induction around 6 months ago. but knowing that I'd put a lot of effort into the presentation slides and the handouts did go some way toward allaying my fears on the day.

I'd decided that I wanted to use something other than Powerpoint for my presentation slides and I'd remembered a presentation I'd been given a few months earlier using Prezi, which I had been pretty impressed with. I'm aware that some people criticise Prezi for the fact that its too easy to get carried away with the zooming in and out of the slides. I'm someone who's particularly prone to motion sickness but I have to say that as long as the slides aren't moved around at a ridiculously fast pace I have no problems at all with Prezi. I find it extremely user friendly and the fact that it can be saved to your account online meant that I could easily share my presentation with my line manager as I was developing it.

My advice to anyone giving a presentation for the first time who maybe slightly nervous or anxious at the prospect would be to practice your presentation out loud to yourself- theres no substitute for actually knowing your presentation and this will give you confidence. I also try to keep the the presentation slides themselves as simple as possible with not too much text. If you can it may also help if you can access the classroom or lecture theatre beforehand just to practice setting up your equipment it will mean having one less thing to worry about on the day!

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