{"id":1412,"date":"2021-10-29T08:27:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T12:27:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/me.business.holycross.edu\/?p=1412"},"modified":"2021-10-29T08:27:19","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T12:27:19","slug":"presentation-tips-and-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/2021\/10\/29\/presentation-tips-and-tricks\/","title":{"rendered":"Business Certificate Presentation Tips and Tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/11\/IMG_2965-scaled.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-1414\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/11\/IMG_2965-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" \/><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Mackenzie M<span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><span style=\"color: #000000\">adden &#8217;22 pursuing the<\/span> <a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.holycross.edu\/academics\/ciocca-center-business-ethics-and-society\/business-certificate-programs\/certificate-business-fundamentals\">Business Fundamentals Certificate <\/a><\/span>through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.holycross.edu\/academics\/ciocca-center-business-ethics-and-society\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Ciocca Center for Business, ethics, and Society<\/span><\/a> at the College, shares how her workshop experience has provided her with countless opportunities to practice presenting in front of an audience. Read on to learn her tricks to a successful presentation!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">From the <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"https:\/\/fullbridge.com\/holycross\">Fullbridge Program<\/a><\/span> to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.holycross.edu\/academics\/ciocca-center-business-ethics-and-society\/opportunities\/marketing-communications-and-sales-workshop\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Marketing Communications &amp; Sales<\/span><\/a> to the <span style=\"color: #0000ff\"><a style=\"color: #0000ff\" href=\"https:\/\/www.holycross.edu\/academics\/ciocca-center-business-ethics-and-society\/opportunities\/global-supply-chain-management-workshop\">Global Supply Chain<\/a><\/span> workshop, I\u2019ve had different audiences and presentation goals, worked with different teams, and created a variety of different presentations, all while <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">keeping the same tips in mind.\u00a0 <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Presentations can range from informative to analytical to persuasive, and it is important to identify the goal of the presentation before getting started. Something that has been consistent throughout is the support of the alumni and staff during the workshop. When giving a presentation, whether it be in one of these workshops, in class, or at work, it\u2019s important to utilize the support you have and make sure the presentation expectations are clear among the entire cohort.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Have a goal for your presentation and stick to it<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Tell a story throughout the presentation and let your slides be the guide<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Know the length of time you have:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Divide the amount of time you have to present by the number of slides you plan to have so that you don\u2019t have more content than time to present.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don\u2019t talk too fast or too slow<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Know your audience:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Are you presenting to your peers, alumni, professionals, people who know nothing about your topic?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The quality of a presentation makes such a difference when presenting to an audience. We have all experienced a time when a presentation just could not hold our attention.\u00a0 To prevent completely boring an audience, I\u2019ve always tried to include visuals and sometimes short videos that allow the audience to take a break and look at something connected to the ideas presented.\u00a0 In my experience, this has helped me to bridge the topics and better connect with the audience.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Content:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Limit the points per slide. Too much information on one slide is confusing to the audience.\u00a0 You should s<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ay more than what\u2019s on the slide.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use bullets, never paragraphs<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Text on a slide should never be in paragraph form and will only distract the audience.\u00a0 <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Instead, use bullet points and say more than what is on the slide.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use basic font types<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don\u2019t try to make your presentation prettier by using funky fonts &#8211; stick to the basics.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Font size should be no smaller than 18pt font.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Stay on brand <\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don\u2019t use too many colors, s<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">tick to colors that are related to the presentation\/brand.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Use imagery whenever possible<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An image says a\u00a0 1,000 words! Use high-quality images.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Do not read directly from your slides<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Practice and be as memorized as possible.\u00a0 Bullet points will remind you of the topics and will help you feel confident when presenting.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">When thinking about presentations for the\u00a0 Ciocca Center workshops, it\u2019s important to use examples of brands or companies that the audience will know. For example, my team presented a growth idea for Lululemon during Fullbridge, marketing ideas for PepsiCo during the Marketing Communications &amp; Sales workshop, and the logistics of a local distribution company for Global Supply Chain.\u00a0 For all three workshops, the presentation had to connect to the audience because people are more engaged when the topic is directly engaged to some aspect of what they know and experience.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"list-style-type: none\">\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Body language:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The way you speak to your audience, the hand motions you use, the eye contact you maintain, are all ways that you can both win and lose the audience. Lo<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">ok at your audience and not just the slides.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Be enthusiastic about what you\u2019re saying. If you don\u2019t sound excited, the audience won\u2019t be either<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Dress appropriately\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Business professional or business casual is typically recommended. Y<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">our entire group is dressed in the same level of professional attire.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I hope that these general guidelines help with your next presentation. Good luck and thanks for reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Mackenzie Madden &#8217;22 pursuing the Business Fundamentals Certificate through the Ciocca Center for Business, ethics, and Society at the College, shares how her workshop experience has provided her with countless opportunities to practice presenting in front of an audience. Read on to learn her tricks to a successful presentation!\u00a0 From the Fullbridge Program to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/2021\/10\/29\/presentation-tips-and-tricks\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Business Certificate Presentation Tips and Tricks&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56,78,86,169,371,429,446,482,515],"class_list":["post-1412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-business","tag-certificate","tag-ciocca-center","tag-experience","tag-presentation","tag-skills","tag-student","tag-tips","tag-workshops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.holycross.edu\/business\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}