Workaholic

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Secret of making good presentation

Our group recently had to do a presentation on "Open source vs Microsoft". Since, I was associated with Microsoft very closely, I thought this is a very interesting topic and I will be able to do it well.

I slogged for almost a week. I might have read close to 20 articles. I barely slept during the entire week. Finally I churned out a mediocre quality presentation. I liked the ideas but hated the presentation. Here is a list of Do's and don'ts(for myself...)
  1. Create a template -- Write down topics on what you want to tell and expand the ideas with data and conclusions. Organize your thoughts based on simple questions. Before delving into details create a basic template with the questions.
  2. Do not miss the agenda -- Audience need to know first hand what the presenter is talking about. Agenda-Topic-Conclusion.
  3. Do not prepare too much -- I had so much of information that I did not know where to start and how to collate. Our presentation was only fr 15 mins...so I don't think you need more than a day to prepare for such presenation.
  4. Take help on specifc areas -- I tried to do everything and did not have energy in the end. I hate things like formating and making the presentation look cool and I don't know how to do it. Though my group mates came to the rescue in the end, I thought the help came very late.
  5. Plan all tasks careflly-- I did have a plan in mind but I failed to put it on a paper and communicate it to the team.
  6. Practice-- Practicing helps in expanding key ideas and to avoid mistakes during the actual presentation.

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