Prepare a presentation according to the @Pau García-Milá´s approach

This post is also available in: Spanish

One of the main features of this blog, is to be a repository of contents. Some of the stored contents consist of instructions or procedures I apply when carrying out certain works or activities.

In addition, if all this is also useful for you or anyone else, super.

[Related post: Cómo escribir un buen artículo en un blog (only in Spanish languaje)]

So, today, by means of this post, I will add a new procedure to the collection, which will help me from now on to prepare any kind of presentation, be they further possible presentations of the “safety culture from school” project, presentation of ideas, proposals or tenders to clients, presentation of initiatives, projects or works to public large audiences, etcetera.

Libro_Pau_G_M

The procedure is based on the book “Eres un gran comunicador (pero aún no lo sabes)”[1] -“You´re a good communicator (but you don´t know yet)”- by Pau García-Milá, to whom I meet in person last month, precisely during a presentation of his book, in Barcelona.

In practice, this post is an schematised -and adapted to my work method- synthesis of a part of the book, aimed at reinforcing my learning and using it as a easy-access practical instruction when arranging with a presentation.

To prepare a presentation

To prepare a presentation consist of determining its parts and the order [1] in which we will perform each one, starting from a basic ingredient: the information [2], the content we want to spread.

Using the same or similar concepts than those in Pau´s book, we may prepare a good presentation with these six parts:

  1. Presentation (who I am)
  2. The problem (what do I solve)
  3. The competitors (what was done so far)
  4. My solution (what do I do)
  5. A link with the audience (what do I expect from you)
  6. Farewell (thanks and goodbye)

This six-staged estructure may be applied whatever the kind of presentation and the available supports. That is, even in the simplest formats of presentations, as it may be a “monologue” (just you and the microphone), a minimum estructure must be established. The more supports we use in the presentation (videos, slides, etcetera), the easier is to design and perform a well-structured presentation.

Despite that each presentation meets specific factors to consider -such as the contents, the sort of audience, the aim, the available resources (computers, blackboard,…), the scheduled duration, etcétera- I drafted a simple sketch, as a starting point, to visualise the structure by duration and intensity of each part:

Presentation_sketch

This drawing is right but, as said, is just the starting point as, when it comes to perform a presentation, there are much more elements that may make a difference. It is all about elements such as the humor, the engagement with the audience by telling a story, to respond against unexpected events, to answer raised questions, to adapt to delays or changes in the schedule, etcetera.

In an ideal assumption, we should have taken into account all these aspects when preparing the presentation and all should go as planned when performing it. In practice, this is impossible, for the slef-definition of technical problems, “live fails”, unexpected issues and ability to improvise.

And must be also taken into account the each one´s personality and communication skills: position on the stage, the voice, the hands-gestures, the fear, the embarrassment, the nerves, the insecurity,…

To go deeper into these and much more aspects, I refer you to the Pau García-Milá´s book. Is enlightening.

References:
[1] GARCÍA-MILÁ, Pau. 2014. Eres un gran comunicador (pero aun no lo sabes), 2ª edición. Editorial Amat. Page 92.
[2] GARCÍA-MILÁ, Pau. 2014. Eres un gran comunicador (pero aun no lo sabes), 2ª edición. Editorial Amat. Page 58.