Last week PRSourceCode hosted a complimentary Webinar featuring Susan Tomai and Bill Connor of Oratorio Media and Presentation Training and Jason Oxman of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA). The Webinar, “PR Open Forum: From Pitching to the Podium – Presentation Tips for PR Pros,” focused on ways to strengthen presentations, make messages more compelling and clear, and how to deliver presentations with impact.
Weren’t able to make the Webinar? Check out this Q&A with panelists Bill Connor and Susan Tomai of Oratorio Media and Presentation Training:
What advice can you give on how to tighten up a presentation or pitch?
Susan: You have to really know what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and to whom you are talking. What are their needs? This will help to get your focus across.
You have to decide, “What kind of impression do you want to leave with the audience? What kind of impression do you want to leave with that journalist or reporter on the telephone?” You really need to do your homework ahead of time – and make it easy for that reporter.
What are some tips you can offer to someone looking to overcome stage fright - or to at least present more smoothly despite it?
Bill: There are many ways to deal w/ butterflies, but one of my favorite quotes came from one of my former colleagues - he said, “everyone gets butterflies – the trick is to make them fly in formation.”
I use breathing techniques and visualization. There are many techniques out there, but these are the two that work best for me. Try inhaling to the count of four, then exhaling to the count of eight – try doing 15 reps. It calms you. For visualization, essentially roll a little movie of yourself achieving. See yourself in your mind’s eye – visualize yourself walking up to the stage to applause.
Susan: The key point is to know what you’re going to say. Be prepared with your opening line – have them memorized so that you come out and you know what you’re going to say. Practice your pitch outloud – not in your head.
Do you have any advice for reading the audience? How can you regain their attention if you start to lose it?
Susan: When you start noticing that you’re losing your audience, you’ve pretty much lost them. You’re going to lose your audience if you don’t have your timing, blocking, and pacing. Another good tip is to move in closer to your audience.
Also, now that you’ve been in the hot seat, do a favor for the next speaker – give them your attention – be a good audience. It’s a good thing to do and it benefits everybody.
Do you recommend embedding videos into presentation, and if so, what’s the maximum length they should be?
Bill: People love videos and entertainment. That said, clips in presentations shouldn’t be more than a minute to minute and a half. Looking at the nightly news - the average story length is about a minute and 10 seconds.
Susan: The video has to have purpose. It has to mean something - there has to be a reason for it to be there. In a longer presentation, inserting a video will make the longer presentation seem like it flew by.
Bill: It’s not just videos – it’s stories and other elements of a presentation. Sometimes we see people start a presentation with a joke – who doesn’t love a joke? But if it really doesn’t lead into the thread of the presentation, it usually falls flat.
Want more tips? Click here to check out the archived audio and slides.
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