For the past few weeks, it had been a challenge just to get enough sleep. My final year projects were really taking a toll on me and I am grateful to have Anna and Ram as my team mates for accommodating my schedule in planning meetings. Meetings were always concise and fruitful from the preparation work; it was truly a pleasant experience working with this team.
Public speaking was never my forte. Every time before I step forward to deliver a presentation, my hands turn cold, my heart races and unfortunately, this is still the case today. I could never rely on memorizing scripts, for the words often elude me when I'm in front of a crowd. Instead, I always try to calm myself with the belief that I'm amply prepared with the knowledge from working on the project, and thankfully it works to a certain extent.
For the oral presentation itself, I looked at the slides quite often, to ensure I wasn't missing out on any content. It would have been better if I had more practice to familiarized myself more with the slides, so that I could focus better on my eye contact with the audience instead. This lack of practice also showed in my speech, which I stumbled a little recalling some of the key information. My voice projection was something I needed to work on; often I started well but as the presentation goes on, I tend to slip off.
Now for the positives. I based my presentation on 2 key points, firstly to highlight the motivation for the proposal, secondly to emphasize how the proposed solution addresses the identified problems. I tried to portray a confident posture and tone of voice to convince the audience of the information presented and ultimately, accept the proposal. I was also more conscious of my hand gestures this time and tried not to swing the pointer around excessively. The slides were designed to contain only the vital information, such that the attention was not shifted from myself yet allowing the audience to follow the presentation. I tried to sustain eye contact with the individuals a little longer rather than shifting around too quickly, to engage the audience and ensure that they were following my presentation.
Overall, I feel that I delivered the key points successfully. It was a good practice for myself and after reviewing my own performance, I hope to identify more key areas that I should improve on and hopefully be more comfortable when delivering presentations.
Hi Bernard,
ReplyDeleteGood job for the presentation.
Initially, I felt that you were a bit nervous when you took over from Anna. Your left hand was in your pocket for the first 2 slides but as you got more comfortable, you actually used hand gestures very effectively to help emphasise the point that you were making. As you pointed out, you referred to your slides quite often and that could be a little bit distracting.
I felt that your varied your tone nicely during the presentation and especially when you were talking about the popular misconception that people have about the air-con. I also really liked the slides- they were simple and easy to read. I really liked the myth busted part, it helped to emphasise your point and I felt it was very effectively and creatively used.
On the whole, I felt that your team did a very good job and your proposal was really convincing.
Hey Bernard,
ReplyDeleteThat was a good presentation.
Since you have mentioned that public speaking is not your forte, I think you still did a good job. Your speech was clear, concise, coherent and most importantly easy to understand. You did make eye contact with the audience but more towards your right side which is the left side of the class room. May be you can work on that next time. Otherwise I liked you responses in the Q&A round as well.
I agree with Ramandeep, your proposal was good and effective with suitable back up information like the sheet of paper with the working of the hours and costs was a good addition to the presentation in my opinion.
Hey Bernard,
ReplyDeleteI like your presentation. And as Megha said, I am impressed with your presentation skills. Even though in the beginning you were a bit nervous but who stays nervous when he/she has teammates like Ramanan and Anna?
You had good eye contact with the audience while your gestures were appropriate to your presentation. One thing that I would recommend you to do is concentrate less on your slides and more on your performance to perfect your public speaking skills. Do not forget you control the slides and that does not work the other way around.
Hope this helps :)