Planning Your Presentation

Preparing a presentation can be an overwhelming experience if you allow it to be one.

The strategies and steps below are provided to help you break down what you might view
as a large job into smaller, more manageable tasks.

Analyze your audience

The first step in preparing a presentation is to learn more about the audience to whom
you'll be speaking. It's a good idea to obtain some information on the backgrounds,
values, and interests of your audience so that you understand what the audience members
might expect from your presentation.

Select a topic

Next, if possible select a topic that is of interest to the audience and to you. It will be
much easier to deliver a presentation that the audience finds relevant, and more enjoyable
to research a topic that is of interest to you.

Refine the objective of the presentation

Once you have selected a topic, write the objective of the presentation in a single concise
statement. The objective needs to specify exactly what you want your audience to learn
from your presentation. Base the objective and the level of the content on the amount of
time you have for the presentation and the background knowledge of the audience. Use
this statement to help keep you focused as you research and develop the presentation.

Preparing the Content of Your Presentation

Prepare the body of the presentation

After defining the objective of your presentation, determine how much information you
can present in the amount of time allowed. Also, use your knowledge about the audience
to prepare a presentation with the right level of detail. You don't want to plan a
presentation that is too basic or too advanced.

The body of the presentation is where you present your ideas. To present your ideas
convincingly, you will need to illustrate and support them. Strategies to help you do this
include the following:

 Present data and facts

 Read quotes from experts
 Relate personal experiences
 Provide vivid descriptions
And remember, as you plan the body of your presentation it's important to provide
variety. Listeners may quickly become bored by lots of facts or they may tire of hearing
story after story.

Prepare the introduction and conclusion

Once you've prepared the body of the presentation, decide how you will begin and end
the talk. Make sure the introduction captures the attention of your audience and the
conclusion summarizes and reiterates your important points. In other words, "Tell them
what you're going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them."

During the opening of your presentation, it's important to attract the audience's attention
and build their interest. If you don't, listeners will turn their attention elsewhere and you'll
have a difficult time getting it back. Strategies that you can use include the following:

 Make the introduction relevant to the listeners' goals, values, and needs
 Ask questions to stimulate thinking
 Share a personal experience
 Begin with a joke or humorous story
 Project a cartoon or colorful visual
 Make a stimulating or inspirational statement
 Give a unique demonstration

During the opening you want to clearly present your topic and the purpose of your
presentation. Clearly articulating the topic and purpose will help the listeners focus on
and easily follow your main ideas.

During the conclusion of your presentation, reinforce the main ideas you communicated.
Remember that listeners won't remember your entire presentation, only the main ideas.
By reinforcing and reviewing the main ideas, you help the audience remember them.

Practice delivering the presentation

Most people spend hours preparing a presentation but very little time practicing it. When
you practice your presentation, you can reduce the number of times you utter words and
phrases like, "um," "well," and "you know." These habits can easily diminish a speaker's
credibility. You can also fine-tune your content to be sure you make your most important
points in the time alloted.

In addition to planning the content of your presentation, you need to give advanced
thought to how you want to deliver it. Do you want to commit your presentation to
memory, use cards to guide you, or read from a script? Or, you might want to use a
combination of methods. To help you decide, read the advantages and disadvantages of
the four delivery methods described below.
Speaking from Memory

A distinct advantage of speaking from memory is your ability to speak to the audience
without relying on notes or a script. This allows you the flexibility to move away from
the podium and to maintain eye contact with the audience. However, speaking from
memory has disadvantages, too. Presentations from memory often sound rehearsed and
the possibility exists that you'll forget an important point, present information that's
inaccurate, or completely lose your train of thought. If you decide to deliver your
presentation from memory, have notes handy to jog your memory just in case!

Speaking from Notes

Many people like to speak from notes. Typically these notes are either on cards or paper
in outline form and contain key ideas and information. If you are using an electronic
presentation tool, you may be able to include your notes in the presentation itself. The
benefit of delivering a presentation from notes is that you sound natural rather than
rehearsed and you can still maintain relatively good eye contact with the audience. The
down side is that you might not express your key ideas and thoughts as well as you may
have liked had you planned your exact words in advance.

Speaking from Text

Speaking from text involves writing your speech out, word for word, then basically
reading from the text. As with speaking from memory, an advantage of this method is
that you plan, in advance, exactly what you're going to say and how you're going to say
it. A disadvantage is that you might appear to the audience to be stiff or rehearsed. You
will need to make frequent eye contact and speak with expression to maintain the
audience's interest.

Using a Combination of Methods

You may find the best method to be a combination of all three. For instance, experts
suggest you memorize the first and last ten minutes of your talk so that you can speak
flawlessly and without notes. Notes may be suitable for segments of your presentation
that you know very well, for example, relating a personal story. Finally, speaking from a
text might be appropriate when you have quotes or other important points that you want
to make sure you communicate accurately and completely. You can make a smooth segue
to written text by saying something like: "I want to read this quote to you verbatim, to
ensure that I don't distort the original intent."

Introduction

It can be an overwhelming thought to consider presenting your original research, quality

assurance activity, case study, clinical initiative or idea at a conference.1 The two most
common methods of research presentation at a scientific conference are oral or poster
presentation. Information pertaining to poster preparation and presentation has previously
been outlined by Ranse and Aitken, 2 whereas this article will focus on information to
assist the novice presenter with preparation of an oral presentation - from submitting the
abstract to closing the presentation.

Number of Slides

The duration of your presentation will determine the number of slides that is acceptable.
As a general rule, if your presentation is 10 minutes in duration 5 slides would be
acceptable; if your presentation is 20 minutes in duration 10 slides would be acceptable.
Remember you are talking to your slides and not from them.

Font

Font type and size is determined by personal preference. Basic fonts such as ‘Times New
Roman’ or ‘Arial’ are easy to read. A font size of 26 – 30 is acceptable.

Slide Detail

Each slide should have a maximum of five points or short sentences. Slides should
represent summary points of your discussion rather than your verbal presentation in
totality. Avoid using transitions between slides and within slides as these become
distracting.

Advantages of oral presentation

Oral presentations provide an opportunity to receive instant peer-reviewed verbal

feedback.3 Such feedback can be useful in providing guidance when preparing your
presentation as a manuscript for submission in a peer-reviewed journal.

Content

As described above, the content of your slides should be brief. Your presentation should
have a distinct introduction, body and conclusion and the following headings should be
included: title, overview, background, objectives, body, conclusion, recommendations
and acknowledgements

Title

Your title slide should convey the message of your presentation. Additionally, you should
include the names of the authors, regardless of whether they are present or not [1 slide]

Overview
Your overview should outline the progression of your presentation. It is purely a brief
overview of what you’re going to discuss and in what order [1 slide].

Objectives

This should outline what you hoped to achieve [1 slide].

Background

This slide should outline the current literature on the topic and provide a rationale for
undertaking the research or quality project. If the presentation relates to a clinical
initiative or idea, the background should highlight how the problem was identified [1
slide].

Body

If you are presenting the findings of your research or quality assurance activity, the body
of your presentation should include: Methods [1 slide],

Findings

/ Results [1 slide], and Limitations [1 slide]. Depending on the type of presentation, the
body should include a maximum of three slides on the discussion or main theme of your
topic. If your presentation has in-depth findings with multiple figures, tables and/or
graphs, additional slides maybe required.

Conclusion

The conclusion should summarise the key points and objectives of your presentation [1
slide].

Recommendation

This slide should highlight your recommendations for clinical practice, research and
education [1 slide].

Acknowledgements

If you received assistance from any funding bodies, individuals or institutions, it is

important that you publically acknowledge the assistance you received [1 slide].

Final preparations

Prior to attending the conference it is important to ensure that your presentation opens
and runs in the sequence and format that you intend it to. You should confirm with the
event organisers that your slide presentation is compatible with the software that is
available at the conference. It is a good idea to practice your final presentation with a data
projector as colours and images are sometimes displayed differently. Additionally, you
should check the presentation to ensure your font size and images are appropriate and
clear, and that your presentation runs within the time set by the conference organisers. At
this stage, it is worth inviting your colleagues or peers to review your presentation and
provide constructive feedback.