During the course of your life, you may be presented with opportunities for oral presentations. Although it may not seem like an opportunity at the time, and you may even fill tension towards the presentation, you will survive, and improve your self-esteem, while building your career.
Over the course of my life, I have given many oral presentations for school and work. Here are a few suggestions I have found useful in presentations. I hope you find them as helpful as I have.
First of all, relax. It's important for you and your audience that you remain relaxed and confident of yourself and the information you are presenting. Never admit nervousness to the audience no matter how anxious you may feel. Second, nervousness is almost never apparent to the audience. They can't tell if your knees feel numb, or if your heart is pounding, so don't admit to the problem. The best plan for action is just push on through.
Another problem for some speakers is eating before the speech. Try to eat a light, well-balanced meal a few hours before or even wait until after the speech. This way there are no embarrassing accidents. Focus on your audience and remember- you"re the expert.
When standing before an audience, whether it's ten people or a thousand, make sure you use appropriate gestures and posture. Stand straight, don't grip or lean on anything, and use your hands and fingers to emphasize the major points of the speech. Theses simple gestures will have a huge impact with the overall effect your speech had on the audience and may help you to avoid fidgeting.
Good eye contact is a must! Your main goal is to keep your listeners attention. People pay more attention to what you are saying when you look at them. When you have a small group like thirty people or less, it's best to make eye contact with everyone in the room. When dealing with large audiences, you should make a sweep of the room, focusing on groups of people in different sections of the room.
