Rehearsing the Presentation

After designing and developing the presentation, it is important to rehearse it for time, flow, impact, etc., before delivering it.

Based on the time allotted for your presentation, decide how much time to spend on each screen or each major point in your presentation, or use the auto-timer included in some presentation tools to adjust the pace of your presentation.

Decide what you will say for each piece of information or audio-visual, and if it helps, write it down on an index card or a printed copy of the presentation materials.

Rehearse the presentation by actually delivering it in an empty room or with a few friends or colleagues, who can monitor the pace of your presentation and the time you take, and give you constructive feedback.

Rule to Remember

Face the audience during your presentation to encourage them to interact and engage with you.

Make sure you spend enough time on the beginning, middle and end of the presentation, and not spend a lot of time at the beginning and rush the rest at the end.

Rehearse emphasizing the key points of the presentation, including gestures, if appropriate.

Think of possible questions the audience may ask, and rehearse the answers for those questions.

If you recognize you are using fillers or sentence starters, then consciously rehearse the presentation without using such distracting words and sounds.

It is a good idea to record your delivery using a portable voice recorder and analyze it for clarity, pace, fillers (such as "umm," "ahh") and sentence starters (such as "like," "basically," "you know," etc).

Make sure you are familiar with the delivery technologies, and if you have advance access to the presentation location, load the presentation on the chosen technologies and test it.

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