If someone wants something from others, one has to persuade them to do that. People want to be Steven Jobs but they realize that it is just their wish after presentation. Lee Sang Hoon, the representative of Cooldesign, gave a lecture on how to make a better presentation.
First, in an official presentation a speaker has to know what the audience wants to hear and focus on that rather than what the speaker wants to say. He said “The audience wants to know why it is needed and how it affects them.” So the speaker has to mention them at the start with examples, concrete numerical value, and reliable sources. Especially in companies, enormous money depends on the decision so the company does not allow the project to proceed if they are uncertain whether it will be a success.
Second persuasion styles differ between public speaking and conversations. In conversations the others can participate and the original speaker changes his or her attitude for based on the other person’s reactions. A public speaker has to check the audience members’ expressions to prevent misunderstanding. Moreover, smiling and reliable behavior are needed to create a favorable impression and feeling of trust.
Even if a speech is prepared perfectly, it must be delivered well. Delivery is just as important as composition. Contents are the most important aspect, but other details also make or break a speech: gesture, eyes, pronunciation, and voice. Elaborate and slow speaking allows an audience to understand the message clearly. Speaker has to open their mouth as three fingers can enter their mouth when pronouncing “ah”. Dividing the script so that each spoken unit is on a separate line can help remind the speaker not to rush through the speech. In addition to improve the volume, abdominal breathing is necessary. It is hard to focus on content and abdominal breathing, but there is a posture that can be practiced to develop the habit of abdominal breathing: standing with a straight back and slightly bent knees. As little as three 10-minute sessions per week is enough to make a noticeable difference.
Lastly, many people avoid presentations because of stage fright. People usually forget what they have to say in spite of hard practice. Lee said “Gods of presentation also fell tension but they just act relaxed. Feeling tension is natural and it must be accepted. If your heart beat increases sharply and you cannot even sleep because of tension, you have a great chance before you.”
During his lecture, Lee also gave some tips on producing presentation slides, so that they are more visible and refined. In freestyle figures, points and lines can be manipulated easily. Many people think the color of freestyle is too simple to represent its content, but it can also input diverse colors and pictures. Just basic cutting and middle arranging are the only skills needed to make pictograms, without Photoshop. Also, using the basic figures can emphasize enlarged texts as a prop. For example, the trapezoid can emphasize with gradation of dark white.
People use colors to classify and emphasize, but if they color all of the texts, not only can the eyes be tired but also it is hard to notice which text is to be emphasized. The key point in using color is decreasing the number of kinds and using a triangle structure. The triangle structure means that if one color is selected, then other texts are colored within two colors at the other points of triangle. The three colors are not merely complementary colors that harmonize well. The representative reminded his audience, “The perfect is not when there is none to add but when there is none to subtract.”