Some people in my program are better at presentations that others. They tend to be the ones who volunteer to present for group projects, and you can see their skills improve with each presentation. Those presentations help them stand out from the crowd, give them practice with selling their ideas, or ideas in general. It's like being a wallflower at a dance - sure, you might be more comfortable, but you're more likely to be overlooked.
I don't like presenting. I'm not afraid of it and I am willing to do it and I make myself volunteer to do it, but I can't say I find it fun very often (Children's Readership Advisory book presentations are an exception). I'm not all that outgoing a person, either; I'm pretty shy. (Yes, a shy librarian. Who'd've thought?) I guess my tip would be to treat presentations of any sort as a performance: you are acting, you are pretending to be a presenter, and your acting can trick people into thinking you're comfortable.
David Lee King is a much more accomplished presenter than I am, and he has a whole list of tips for presenting.
10 Tips to Do Presentations Like Me:
- Don't Use Templates
- Use Presenter Notes
- Use Presenter View
- Learn Your PC
- Use Screenshots
- Do What You Said You'd Do
- Tidy up Those Transitions
- Rehearse
- Interact with the Audience
- It's a Performance
Oh hey, look at that last one.
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1 comments:
I was really shy as a kid (like, apparently my parents' friends thought I was .... developmentally delayed), and I learned over time (painfully!) to be less shy.... It also gets a lot easier to present, or be extroverted, when you are talking about something you are really passionate about (like what you said about children's RA presentations...!)
So, in the "real" world, hopefully it will be easier, if you have a job that you are passionate about :)
My friend Leigh has some other great resources here... http://leighcunningham.ca/2011/03/06/resources-for-introverts/
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