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Improving Your Presentation Skills

Improving Your Presentation Skills

April 24th, 2013 by iMindMap

We have all sat through presentations that seem to go on forever. The presenter drones on, not looking up from their notes, and the audience inevitably drifts off. By using Mind Maps you can greatly improve presentation skills, from creating your presentation, to beating your speaking fears and then delivering it with confidence and impact.
Prepare your Presentation
Make an overall Mind Map of the logistical details of your presentation, making main branches of what you want to achieve, the resources you will need and the audience you will be presenting to. This will start to focus your mind on each aspect of your presentation and its implications. Do you want to sell or inform? Is it a formal or informal situation?
Once you have explored the practical factors of your presentation, you can begin to Mind Map its content. Start by making a quick-fire Mind Map, noting down all your ideas as key words to really get your creative juices flowing and avoid the dreaded ‘presenter’s block.’ iMindMap’s Speed Mind Mapping function is ideal for this as it allows you to generate a constant stream of ideas, whilst the software draws the branches for you.
To find out more about Speed Mind Mapping watch our tutorial video.
Make it Memorable
Begin to refine your ideas and what you want to say in your presentation, and work out if and where you can insert videos or other multimedia. With iMindMap you can then use the award-winning Presentation builder to deliver it.
iMindMap smoothly animates your maps so that they grow branch by branch, keeping your audience focused. Zoom in and out on branches for emphasis, and link directly to any files, websites, spreadsheets or other Mind Maps all from within your presentation. For extra impact you can even present your map in stunning 3D. Take a look at the short video below to get you started.
Beat your presenting fears
According to many studies this is the world’s number one fear. However there are simple tips and techniques to help you to overcome these fears and get better presentation skills.

Create a Mind Map of your fears, where each main branch represents a mistake you are afraid of making during your presentation. Explore these fears, Mind Mapping how your fear could arise, for example under ‘Speaking’ you could write ‘Stuttering’ or ‘Forgetting’. After you have explored all of your fears, make a final branch labelled ‘Overcome’. You will see that many of your fears are easily beaten, for example, ‘Laugh’ could be one of your branches, meaning that even if you do stutter or forget your words, you recover quickly and engage with your audience by laughing about it.
Tony Buzan is the definition of a relaxed speaker
When you feel your nerves growing when presenting, simply relax and try and act naturally – the hallmark of a bad presenter is someone who seems uncomfortable. If you make a mistake in your presentation, don’t panic! As in normal conversation, we simply laugh, pause and continue.
iMindMap always has your back when it comes to presentations. The software gives you two-screen control, with your notes on one screen and your audience view on another, giving you added reassurance.
Hone your presentation skills
•Use multimedia, but use this wisely. Make sure that if your technology is not working, for whatever reason, that your presentation still works. Rely on your excellent presentation skills, not just your computer.
•Use colours, sounds, images and videos to engage your audience and to ensure that they remember your presentation.
•Be prepared! The Mind Map below presents a useful checklist of things to watch out for.
•Be active! Audiences don’t engage with presenters who stand in one place, behind a lectern. Move around the stage, use gestures and facial expressions to catch and maintain your audience’s attention.
•Use humour and anecdotes as part of your personal presentation. Audiences will remember information better which is different, funny, bizarre or thought provoking.
•Finally, be passionate about what you’re presenting! This may seem obvious, but if you seem indifferent about what you’re saying, there’s no way your audience will listen to you. Passion is your greatest presentation skill.
iMindMap will help you improve your presentation skills even further,taking your presentations to a new level of confidence. Take a look at our blog post, The worst thing to do in a speech or presentation for more ideas.
Remember, all of these features are available to trial for free here.

Md. Nasir Khan
Director
Central Academic Research & Development
(CARD), Manipur Creative School
ThinkBuzan Licensed Instructor
MindMap, iMindMap, MemorySkills,
SpeedReading & CreativeTeaching
: @smart_nasirkhan
: @nasirkhanlive
:9612016722


Location: Manipur 795133, India

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