How to effectively present in English in the 21st Century

Here is a re-post of a blog post I did about one year ago on my own personal site. The reason for the re-post is because I cannot emphasise enough how great story telling is the real secret behind a great presentation. This does not matter whether you are teaching a group of business people how to be more productive or teaching English to a classroom full of university students from Russia, telling stories is the secret to having your students remember you and remember what you are teaching them.

Now, I am very interested in presentations, spending most of days either preparing a presentation or delivering a presentation.

One of my sources of inspiration is TED.com a great website, full of high quality video of incredible people talking about incredible things.

One of the ‘secrets’ of a good presentation is the ability to ‘tell a story’ and in this presentation, Mike Rowe (of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs) tells an amazing story about lamb castration. (click here for 한국어) He also shows you that you do not need slides to do a fantastic presentation. Just be out there, front and centre talking to your audience

Lessons we can learn from this presentation:

1. You do not need to prepare a Powerpoint / Keynote presentation file to do a great presentation
2. The ability to tell a story, and to show some human element in the story, turns a presentation into a great presentation
3. Do not use a lecturn, table or podium unless you absolutely have to. Be out there front and centre and talk to your audience.
4. Show humility – do not try to show you are perfect – you are not
5. Be natural and be yourself

When you give a presentation, it is important to tell a story. The story could be about the way your company has grown, the development of your product, what you or your company has done over the last few years. Whatever you talk about in your presentation, you need to tell a story.

The reason for this is to keep your audience interested. It also gives your presentation a flow, a path forward. Without a story, your presentation will feel flat and uninteresting.

Below are a couple of examples of great story telling in a presentation.

In this video Mike Rowe tells his story without the aid of Powerpoint or Keynote. He just stands, up front and centre and tells his story, with amazing power.
(To view this video with your language’s subtitles click here)

In this next video Adam Savage of tells his story using a few slides, but not too many. The impact of this presentation is actually in the story of how he made the Maltese Falcon, and he does this with amazing skill

(To view this video in your language click here)

The point here is that you tell a story. It gives greater impact and interest to your presentation and it makes speaking in English much easier. Telling a story is like having a conversation with your audience, and if you are using English everyday in your work, then you are likely to be telling stories everyday.

So remember, when you are planning your presentation, think about your story, what it is, and how you will tell it. The time you spend doing this, you will reap the rewards later.