This site has a number of lectures and presentations recorded by IMechE in the UK. Some of the recent topics include:

• Nuclear Power (slides)
• Airbus A380 (slides)
• Sub-Surface Railway in London (slides)
• Developing Great People (slides)
• 50 years of the Bentley V8 engine (slides)
• Hybrid Traction Systems (Train propulsion) (slides)

The site gets updated with content from all over the UK so be sure to check back often.

Many of you have already seen this video – this is the 2008 version – but it is always worth a second look. The video is just shy of 5min in length.

Some things you should avoid:

• Turn up late to the presentation
• Be caught unprepared; technology does not always work
• Rushing or skipping things in your presentation
• Too much information on your slides
• ANIMATIONS!!!
• Excessive colour schemes
• Hands in pockets, scuffing shoes, stroking facial hair, etc
• “Um’s”,” ah’s”
• Inappropriate slang, swearing, jargon, acronyms, etc

A few good examples of this is shown in the below videos:

Part 1: Preparation, Preparation, Preparation

Part 2: Short, Sharp & Shiny

Part 3: Slideshows

Part 4: Delivering

Part 5: Group Presentations

Part 6: What NOT to do

Working in a group is often one of the most challenging forms of presenting. There are a few key things you should keep in mind when doing a group presentation:

1. You are all part of the same group, so be consistent with your slides and structure.
2. Be aware of what others are going to be talking about; don’t overlap and talk about the same thing twice.
3. Work out in advance in which order you are speaking.
4. Practise beforehand together to identify any changeover issues or requirements.
5. Know what you each need to be doing during your other team’s presentations.

The final part of this series, Part 6: What NOT to do will be posted in the next week.

This is one of the issues that most people struggle with, and that’s generally due to nerves. For some bizarre reason, most of us are terrified of public speaking, and this interferes with our performance. Many people will be disappointed to know that the best solution to this is practise and experience.

While there are a few well known tips out there for calming yourself, not all of them work for everyone (I don’t find a room full of naked people helpful, to be honest). A good approach to calming your nerves includes:

• Rehearse in front of others or a mirror (if necessary), out loud and without your notes or slides.

• Get a good night’s sleep.

• Get to your venue in plenty of time; don’t be rushed.

• Remember that most people hate public speaking too; you often have their sympathy if you stuff up.

• Don’t rush your presentation; be clear, be calm and be in control.

Some people develop nervous habits while presenting, which are often distracting to your audience. Be aware of your body language and what you are doing with your hands and feet while talking. A good video on body language (as well as general tips) during presentations is below.

Remember: Be prepared and practise your presentation. The next part in the series, Part 5: Group Presentations, will be posted sometime in the next week.

Slideshows are perhaps the most common medium used in public presentations. It’s a shame then that the good slideshows is rare, when there are a few simple facts to remember.

1. Put yourself in their shoes
   If you are bored by your own presentation, then fix it. If you have trouble reading it, then change the colour scheme, re-word the sentence or make the picture bigger.
2. Audience focus
   Whenever something new appears on your slides, your audience won’t be looking at or even listening to you. Keep this in mind when you are presenting, and allow a pause for your audience.
3. People can read for themselves
   Your audience will read all the text on the screen faster than you can speak. If you are just repeating what is on the screen, then the audience doesn’t really need you to reading it to them. Only have the key point on screen and talk about it.A good rule to use:

   If the slide take longer than 10 seconds to read and understand, then there is simply too much information on it.

4. Animations
   While they may look great, if people are watching the slide instead of focusing on what you’re saying, then you aren’t achieving the point of your presentation. Your animations should not be one of the three things they remember about your presentation! Keep animations to a minimum, and only to achieve your goal.

Just to finish off, a couple of videos are embedded below, highlighting some common issues with slideshow presentations. The next in the series, Part 4: Delivering, will be posted sometime next week.

How NOT to use Powerpoint.

Death by Powerpoint.

You can ask us questions, chat, talk about engineering, etc, a bit easier than you can on the blog.

DW

Part 2: Short, Sharp & Shiny

It is almost a given that all of us have snoozed sat through a few presentations before. It could be fair to say that at times we probably wished we hadn’t had the pleasure of this experience.

The question you should ask yourself is, why? What made you lose interest, why did you have difficulty following? People will lose interest if you overload them with information or if it takes too much concentration to follow. Keep in mind that you are the presenter, and so you are doing the work, so you should be making it easy for you audience to follow.

One important thing you should also remember is something called the Rule of Three, which effectively says that you will only remember things in threes. While you may scoff, how many of us still remember Stop, Look & Listen, or even Slip, Slop, Slap? The next question then, is, how many remember what the fourth word was in Slip, Slop, Slap??? How many remember what all four words meant?

Politicians, story writers all take advantage, whether consciously or not, of this fact, to drive home key points. What you should do in your presentations is limit what you are trying to say to three key things, and drive them into your audience. They won’t remember any more anyway, so don’t bore your audience with it.

Part 3: Slideshows will be posted within the next week.

Before you begin working on your presentation, you should ask yourself a few questions to help stay on track.

The first question is often why?

Why are you going to give this presentation? A presentation needs a purpose, or else there is no point in wasting everyone’s time, including yours. When preparing your presentation, you should set a goal so it is clear to you what you are trying to achieve. This then helps you work out the scope of your presentation and focus the content.

Now that you’ve sorted out why you are doing it, and worked out what you want to achieve, the next important question is who?

This is often overlooked, and yet your audience will greatly influence the style and complexity of your presentation. Giving a presentation to primary school children is completely different to a boardroom presentation, for instance. Graphs and dollar signs are a lot less interesting to eight-year olds, who would rather see lots of pictures and have a bit of activity.

Another important question you need to answer before you begin your preparations is how long?

A simple adage of less is more is a good rule to follow, but in some instances it is expected that you talk for a certain period of time. Trying to cram a huge amount of information into a short time frame is useless, as no-one is going to understand it all anyway if you go through it too quickly. Most people are able to regurgitate information if they are familiar with the topic; those that have a great understanding of a topic can summarise it into a few key points.

Some other questions you will need to ask yourself before you prepare:

• What is the venue like? What resources can I use? Is there a microphone, projector, etc.

• How much time will I have to prepare?

• Are there other presenters before or after me? What will their content be like? How does this affect or relate to my presentation?

Part 2 – Short, Sharp & Shiny will be posted sometime next week.

DW