Wrap Up Wednesdays

Wrap Up Wednesdays

Consolidate Plans for End of Week Presentations.

Everything regarding your coming presentation to the public or company officials needs to be checked and finalized. If postponed until the day before there is a danger that in the rush to pack up that a needed piece of equipment will be left behind, handout materials incompletely assembled or some aspect of your room or travel reservations left undone. This is also the day to have a practice for your presentation whether it is required or not. If an omission or change needs to be made, there is still time to incorporate it smoothly into the presentation and become mentally prepared to deliver it.

Physical Aspects of Your Presentation

• If you need to take your presentation equipment with you do have?
Projector
Screen
Control unit
Computer
Microphone
Microphone cord
Speaker
Power cords
Ten to 15-foot connection cord between computer and projector
Presentation on thumb drive to be used with another computer
Hand-out materials
Video camera
Camera tripod
Battery charger
Audio recorder
Signs
Business cards
Books
Sign in sheets
Stick on name tags
Roll on carry bag or bags
Pencils or pens
Paper for audience member
Your notebook for taking down private information

The Location

• If you are going to an off-site location have you?
Called to confirm your space
Reconfirmed with your caterer for any food or beverage delivery
Checked the seating arrangement for your room
Contacted any co-presenters or guests that you will have on stage
Confirmed the name of the sponsoring organization
Contacted the person who will be introducing you
Arranged for your overnight stay or transportation home
Made reservations for any post-event meals
Sent any press releases to local news media including newspapers, TV or Radio

• Do your pre-presentation checks and practices.
Set up the equipment that you are going to use in an empty room
Deliver your full presentation
Record your talk for self-review
If possible, make any changes and deliver it a second time before an audience
Pack everything related to the delivery and presentation in roll-away bag/s
Stash everything related to the presentation in one location prior to loading
Check plane or other transportation reservations

Rather than slinging everything together at the last minute, this pre-presentation gathering and review period will help consolidate the material in your mind, allow time to purchase/gather anything new that might be needed and check out your projection and sound equipment. As you may use these pieces of equipment only occasionally, their prior testing helps insure that the set-up will be worry free when you start your presentation.

It is possible to over-rehearse your presentation to the point where you start to lose your voice and it takes on a strained quality. As you have a microphone, you can speak in a normal conversational voice and your words will be heard if well enunciated and you do not speak at too rapid a pace. You want to keep within your allotted time, without rushing which might require some interesting, but not strictly necessary, parts of the presentation to be eliminated.

Consider the aftermath

• Is a post lecture Q-A period to be allowed?
How is that going to be recorded?
• What are you attempting to get out of your presentation?
Are you trying to increase your client base? If so, how are you going to capture their addresses?
If attempting to make sales, do you have the materials necessary to complete transactions?
What is the company’s purpose in making this presentation? Was it accomplished?
If you were required to write a review of this event, what would you say?
How are you going to document attendance?
What is going to happen to any videos of the events? Will they be published or distributed?
• How do you judge success?
Attendance
Sales
New clients
Audience interests

After expending the time and money to hold an event, an analysis needs to be made to determine if it was worthwhile. If the response in attendance was lacking, what was wrong? Was this lack of interests due to the product, the timing of its introduction, the venue or lack of pre-event publicity? Each presentation is, in reality, a product test. You, the presenter, are also being tested; but the message has much more significance than the person who is delivering it.

Give any presenter a message that is more useful to its intended audience, then the response will be proportionate to the interest, given the same publicity.

Much more information is available on business topics in my most recent book, Create Your Own Job Security: Plan to Start Your Own Business at Midlife. In this book I advocate starting a series of businesses throughout one’s life to raise immediate cash as needed and plan for medium and long-term goals. The ideal result will be to help you discover your business of passion that will carry you through the remainder of your working life. Create Your Own Job Security is available from Amazon.com in either softcover or an e-book, from other on-line book retailers and from your local bookstore.

I will be giving a free two-hour seminar “Create our Own Job,” at the Salvation Army Center at 1833 Broad Street in Augusta, Georgia, on March 15, 2019. The seminar will start at 7:00 PM and last until 9:00. For more information go to https://createyourownjobsecurity.com.