I fully appreciate that the steps towards better presentations may seem simple and straightforward but it takes courage to make what may seem a giant step to begin the journey. Here's another guest blog, this time from a medical student at Peninsula Medical School in England describing her beginnings.
"I was asked by my medical school to
present at the fourth year students’ “Doctors as Teachers” SSU
conference as I had won the prize for my project the year previously.
I was told that I should cover what I did and what I had learnt from
it in a 40 to 50 minute presentation. This project happened to last 6
months and the write up was 40,000 words, so fitting it into such a
short time frame would be a challenge! I am also very passionate
about my project and the subject matter of medical education so was
keen to do it justice. I had given presentations before but I had
never really felt comfortable with them. I had given a presentation
about some research at a national conference a few months previously
which I didn’t feel went very well. So being able to give a talk to
my peer group with a presentation that was mostly up to me was a good
opportunity to try out a new approach.
I have been
following @ffolliet on Twitter for several years and was intrigued by
his mission to eliminate “death by Powerpoint”! Reading his blog
I thought about the presentations I had witnessed previously and
realised there was one common connection between all the good ones;
engaging the audience and telling a story. I realised that my bullet
point and rigid memorising style was probably the reason for my
discomfort and nervousness. So I bit the bullet (literally!) and
changed my tack. I first determined a “journey” for my
presentation story then started producing Powerpoint slides that I
thought would best reflect this. I was really light on text and spent
most of my time finding good pictures to depict the line of story. I
knew that talking to fourth year medical students that I would need
to keep things light hearted and humorous if possible, but this came
naturally as I was progressing through the presentation slides. The
serious “message” was at the end, and I was hoping to have them
on my side at that point so they really took it in and understood why
it was so important.
When it came to the actual presentation
day things went really smoothly. I remember the last presentation I
gave and just saying words without really thinking about what I was
saying, but this was different. I just picked a few people to focus
on and chatted to them really. I kept it natural and told the story I
wanted to tell. The audience laughed when they were meant to laugh,
which was a good sign! Afterwards I was really struck by the positive
feedback I received. Consultants telling a medical student that their
presentation was worthy of the keynote speak at a national conference
is pretty good! They also came up to me afterwards to talk about it
and the students asked if they could have had my presentation before
their project instead, which I hope means they identified with the
trials and tribulations during my project that I had talked about.
Since this presentation, I don’t
think I will ever return to my previous way of doing presentations! I
found this a very empowering and confidence boosting experience and
would recommend everyone try it out! "
@alicexelizabeth has made her first steps. What is stopping you?
@alicexelizabeth has made her first steps. What is stopping you?
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