The benefits of presenting to an audience

 

Your audience are here to experience you bringing a message to life in a presentation. Not you reading off a slide, or a written essay. That's what gives you the upper hand when presenting. 

Hear why your body language, tone of voice, and storytelling abilities are all crucial to get your audience on board, with Ken Rea.

Focus

The benefits of presenting to an audience

Natasha [Skills for Study editor]:

Let's talk a bit about the benefits, like why should students be practising these skills? What are some of the advantages of giving presentations? 

Ken Rea [Professor of Theatre]:

Well, it's it's a good thing to think about is at the beginning is do you actually need to communicate this information as a presentation? Would it be better to do it as send out an e-mail and save everybody's time? So think about what are the strengths of a presentation?

Yeah, so, it's not just the words they're reading.

Your audience gets a different experience, not just the words.

 It's your body language that brings that to life and your tone of voice that brings all that to life.

So it's very important that you are aware of that. 

You use all that, and if you've got stories, compact, relevant stories.

 Use those to bring it to life, and of course, to remember that unlike a written presentation, like an essay or something, it's a combination of intellect and emotion. Which a lot of people forget.

Natasha:

That's very interesting. So what do you mean by intellect and emotion? 

Ken Rea:

Well, the important thing is to get the balance of those two. If it's all intellect, your presentation, it's going to be. Boring. If it's all emotion, you're going to look fluffy. It's the balance of the two that makes an effective presentation.