Presentation Skills Training
Presentations remain a vital method for sharing information and proposing ideas to colleagues and potential collaborators. A poor presentation could be a deal-breaker when attempting to secure investment, make a strategy proposal or secure a deal with a client.
Some people are natural public speakers, capable of jumping into almost any speaking engagement with minimal to no effort and maintaining a rapt audience at all times. The rest of us live in the real world where success requires preparation, planning, and hard work. Our selection of the best presentation skills courses will equip you with the attributes necessary for crafting and delivering truly engaging and powerful presentations.
Presentation Skills Course Content and Format
Since presentations are most effective on a face-to-face basis, the majority of presentation skills courses are delivered either in-house or at your provider's training location. This allows for live expert instruction and the vital chance to participate in role-play scenarios. By their very nature, presentations are dependent on the audiences response, and another huge benefit of in-house and open training is the ability to receive feedback from your group and instructor.
Presentations are a multi-faceted tool, so most courses will coach participants on a variety of different skills. Here are some examples of what your course might cover:
- Preparing for the unexpected
- The art of storytelling
- Beating nerves and appearing confident
- Developing a visual narrative
- Body language
- Creating structured presentations
Top Presentation Skills
Knowing the Audience
It does not matter how sharp your delivery, a presentation can only truly be effective if the message is relevant to the audience. The best presentation skills training includes strategies for determining how to read your audience, both before and during the presentation, in order to ensure that attention never strays.
Many courses focus specifically on how to create and use visual aids that contribute to the overall message and effectiveness of the presentation, rather than distract from it. Search for training on popular presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint or Prezi. Learn to avoid the common pitfalls of over-loading slides with bullet points or using stiff repetition of visual materials.
Presenting Your Best Side
Appearance and how you conduct yourself says a great deal about your intentions and who you are. In order to ensure that the message is truly heard and understood you have to look and act the part. Top presentation skills training courses therefore include how to use body language to maximize audience engagement and trust. Many also include a focus on public speaking and guide professionals through learning to control their nerves and manage public speaking anxiety.
Body language can be used in a number supportive capacities during presentations. Accenting, such as dramatic hand gestures or pounding a table, serves to highlight a verbal message. Hand gestures, eye contact and facial expressions can all be used to convey a number of other points as well, including complementing, contradiction, or serve as a repetition of the verbal message. Book a training that includes non-verbal communication in course materials and learn how to turn body language from a liability into a valuable skill.
Structuring Presentations
When asked about structuring, most introduction to writing professors will say the same thing: "tell them what you will tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them". Simple as it sounds, creating a presentation with an engaging introduction, strong body, and compelling conclusion is extremely important and requires a level of skill. Browse some of the best presentation skills training courses above and start getting your message across.