I'm doing a presentation skills workshop next week and need to prepare a 5 minute presentation which will be video-taped and critiqued. I know I'm going to learn lots at the workshop but does anyone have any tips to get me going?? I hate presenting and just don't want to be the worst of the 10 of us on the day.

#1 bit of advice in any presentation situation is that EVERYONE WANTS YOU TO DO WELL!!

People are not hoping you muck it up so relax.

Other than keeping relaxed some other tips I use (I'm weird and enjoy presenting)

- Write out your first sentence on a cue card in full. Once you have the first sentence out it becomes easier
- Speak slowly - most people talk too quickly and um and err a lot. If you feel you are speaking a bit too slowly you're probably talking at the right kind of pace. Doing this allows you to make less mistakes on tricky words etc
- Don't worry about silence! A couple of seconds of silence doesn't matter. It will feel like an eternity to you, but no one listening will notice. Knowing this allows you to collect your thoughts if you get into trouble.
- Don't use too many slides with too much info. People will read the slide and not listen to you! A good picture or graph is useful, as people will have something to look at, but will hopefully still pay attention.

The big one though is the first one. If you remember that, relax, and don't care too much what others think then you'll be fine.

Incidently, I doubt they will list people in order of best to worst - that is very demoralising for those towards the bottom and won't help!

Hope that helps.

Thanks alot - some really good tips (enough to earn you your first star :p)

I'll definitely have to watch out for the speaking too fast mistake - I have a really soft voice and have to in effect shout so that people can hear me - for some reason this seems to make me speak faster too.

I'll try writing out the first sentence -I've never done that before

Hi I found that for the prep you need to keep the slides simple. Do not add to many lists of texts and add some illustrations or graphs/charts etc to remove the monotomy of the presentation. Keep the flow of the slides by adding a title/name slide, an intro/aims slide, body of work followed by a conclusion, it is like telling a story from start to finish. I aim for about one slide a minute, excluding the title, intro and conclusion. Have some notes cards to prompt you if needed but try to remember your presentation without the need to just read word for word. By knowing your subject it enables you to look up at the audience and tell them the story rather than looking down at your notes. Making eye contact with the audience is good, I often talk to a face at the back and in the middle of the audience to help with this! Another annoying feature is to turn around to talk to the screen behind you or talking to your monitor. This makes it difficult to project your voice to the audience. Think of yourself as a weather presenter! If you need to point to things remeber that a light pen will bob about on the screen as you will be shaking, nothing you can do about this unless avoid the use of such things. If you do use it just point and not 'circle' the item them like a mad person!

I would try to rehearse in front of your friends/family or in front of a mirror to get used to presenting and check the timing. Above all remember that most of the students on the course will also be feeling nervous about this too. It is a very useful day, enjoy!