Power of Presentations

Last week Wednesday I had the enjoyable experience of being part of a judging panel for the Jack Petchy Foundation, Speak Out competition.

This competition provides a platform for young children between the ages of 14 - 16 from previously disadvantaged areas to talk for 3 minutes about a topic which they are passionate about.

I was involved in the Hackney regional final, where the winner of this event stood the chance of presenting in front of 900 guests at the main gala event on the 2nd July.

At the event there were 15 youths who took to the stage with enthusiasm and passion, whereby each took the opportunity to persuade us with their personal ideas. I was extremely impressed with the level of the presenters, conscious that many of these youths mostly likely never had a platform to present to such a large audience.

We had to mark the presenters in three areas namely, content, deliver and structure.
The overall winner was a young lady who talked about gang wars and how youths are killing each other over the simplicity of a entering their territory which is defined by the post code they live in. When she arrived at the stage she went straight into the incident of when she was personally involved in a turf war scuffle, using excellent body language and vocal verity she allowed the audience to get a glimpse of what it's like to be right in the middle of a extremely hostile and dangerous time a place. At the end of the 3 minutes she left us with a defining question of is it really worth dying over a postcode?

But the evenings success was not just one talented young lady but each and every one of the presenters, because it showed me how important it is to empower our youth. The evening also taught me how getting on stage really develops a person's self confidence. I'm sure everyone of those participants are looking to the future with more confidence that they will be able to secure employment and go on to become leaders of the future.

Therefore I encourage you after reading this blog to see where you can get involved to empower the youths of the future.

Mark de Stadler

Public speaking nightmare

You’re preparing to give a presentation to a group of your peers. As the time draws closer you notice your heart is beating twice as fast and your palms are getting sweaty. Your mind is plagued by thoughts of how this is going to go wrong. You tell yourself that your colleagues don’t even care what you're about to say, they’ll be bored of you after the first 30 seconds and all be playing with their phones by the time you reach your conclusion.

A polite round of applause welcomes you to the front of the room. You feel a small bead of sweat trickle down from your brow and you stutter in your first sentence. A polite cough echoes around the eerily silent room. The computer has frozen and isn’t moving onto the next slide. Make a joke about it? Pretend like you don’t need the power point you worked so hard on? People shuffle in their seats, growing impatient as the temperamental soul that is technology brings your whole presentation to a halt.

Panic overwhelms you. You’ve lost sight of where you were and frantically look through your notes that now seem like a language unknown. You start to rush your words, desperate for the ordeal to be over. You care no longer whether your presentation makes sense or conveys the point you intended. You conclude your message half heartedly and the same polite applause accompanies you back to your chair. You sink back, wishing you would fall straight through the chair, the floor and into a place where presentations were not a part of your job.

Any of that sound familiar?

Dale Carnegie work with thousands of individuals who have felt the same worries, anxieties and doubt over their public speaking as you do and seek to develop those skills to ensure they no longer need panic when in front of a crowd. We can work with you to make sure you engage your audience, use positive tone and body language and provide you with confidence that once you’ve finished your presentation, you can sit down knowing the message you wanted to put across, has been received.

We will be running a complimentary preview to one of our Presentations development programmes (High Impact Presentations) on Thursday 10th May. For more information give us a call on 0207 379 4323.

Brett Mills