Tips for Giving Presentations

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Presenting my first case study
My second week of my nutrition education was one of the busiest yet!  I enjoyed teaching nutrition education classes to kids in kindergarten and first and second graders.  I also conducted a needs assessment for all the grades at the elementary school where I will be holding a nutrition campaign in January.
On top of my regular rotation assignments I had my first case study presentation to give this week.  Usually the interns can choose which case study they want to present, but I have only written one case study, a cardiology case study, thus far so that was the subject of my presentation.  Here are a few tips that I use when preparing for and giving presentations:

• Tailor the presentation to your audience.  For this week’s presentation, my audience was mainly dietetic interns and dietitians at my internship.  When you are presenting to an audience of people who work in your field of study you are free to use more technical dialect.  If I were presenting to an audience of the general population I would make sure to use less technical terms such as “the body’s iron stores” instead of “hemoglobin and hematocrit levels.”

• Dress to impress.  Not only does dressing professionally increase your credibility with your audience but it can also increase your confidence in yourself.  I recommend investing in a nice classic suit and to not wear distracting accessories (no feathered headbands, chunky necklaces etc.). 

•  Make handouts.  At the very least just make copies of your presentation slides in notes format so your audience has something to jot their thoughts onto.  If you have a critique sheet, staple it to the back of your handout.  Having a handout will really show them that you thought ahead and are prepared for your presentation. 

• Keep track of time.  Keeping within the allotted time can be a challenge, especially if you tend to talk fast when nervous.  I like to estimate approximately one minute per slide of my presentation.  I also prepare slides that I can elaborate on if I need to extend my presentation time.  Be careful not to go over time as well.  Speeding through the last, and often most important slides of the presentation does not leave a good final impression on your audience.   

• Smile and speak confidently.  Most people experience some level of nervousness before a big presentation.  Even if you are nervous, if you speak with confidence and smile, your audience will never know!

 By: Amanda Bot