Whenever I had to make a presentation to my director 'or' VP, I start my preparation at least one week before the actual date. This time, I was caught up with so much work at office and hardly had any time to prepare the content. It is scheduled for first hour on Monday and it is already Saturday morning...I had no choice, but to finish off the slides. With lot of difficulty, I managed to complete this by evening, only to realize that I lost the two most important slides, should have been little more cautious while restoring from auto-saved version :(
I had to do them again. I was not completely satisfied with the content. So, I had modified few and added few more slides. In between, there were unexpected guests..Finally gave it a go on Sunday night. Practiced it couple of times.
Not sure why, but this time I was not feeling so confident. I haven't got a chance to get these reviewed with my boss + Kids have holiday, so I had to prepare lunch for them +On the way to office, I noticed typo in a scrabble formation in a slide (Gosh !! this needs some time to correct). I thought, I'll leave it like this and when some one spots, I'll pretend that I've added it intentionally to check the audience attention ;)
Finally, after calming down myself with few long breaths and bottle of water, I started the presentation. Time allotted was 20 mins. I had content to speak for ~12 mins. But, with lot of discussions, Q & A, it got extended to 30 mins. After couple of slides, VP stopped in between and told that I need to give a training on how to do technical presentation. He is so impressed. I mentioned that the credit goes to my boss/director. He says - No, his presentations are not half good as what I did..
Finally, I felt happy with the outcome. You find only pictures and words in my slides. I get bored to see those presentations with long sentences and presenter simply reading them out. According to me, the most important thing is to understand what the audience is expecting and talk about only that and NOT everything what we know. Empathy !!
Also, make it light in between so that the attention is NOT lost.
Be crisp and clear :)
I had to do them again. I was not completely satisfied with the content. So, I had modified few and added few more slides. In between, there were unexpected guests..Finally gave it a go on Sunday night. Practiced it couple of times.
Not sure why, but this time I was not feeling so confident. I haven't got a chance to get these reviewed with my boss + Kids have holiday, so I had to prepare lunch for them +On the way to office, I noticed typo in a scrabble formation in a slide (Gosh !! this needs some time to correct). I thought, I'll leave it like this and when some one spots, I'll pretend that I've added it intentionally to check the audience attention ;)
Finally, after calming down myself with few long breaths and bottle of water, I started the presentation. Time allotted was 20 mins. I had content to speak for ~12 mins. But, with lot of discussions, Q & A, it got extended to 30 mins. After couple of slides, VP stopped in between and told that I need to give a training on how to do technical presentation. He is so impressed. I mentioned that the credit goes to my boss/director. He says - No, his presentations are not half good as what I did..
Finally, I felt happy with the outcome. You find only pictures and words in my slides. I get bored to see those presentations with long sentences and presenter simply reading them out. According to me, the most important thing is to understand what the audience is expecting and talk about only that and NOT everything what we know. Empathy !!
Also, make it light in between so that the attention is NOT lost.
Be crisp and clear :)
