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Several years ago, I watched Teresa, a director at a large company, begin to give a speech. Her career was on the fast track. She was making a key presentation at an executive retreat. This was a make or break moment for her.

But, her Power Point presentation would not work. As she stood there in front of her company’s senior management, she tried rebooting her laptop, changing projectors and fiddling with the laptop display settings. Finally, she discovered the root of the problem: the battery on her wireless mouse was dead.

So, 10 minutes after her scheduled start time, she began her presentation using a regular computer mouse. By this time, the damage was done to her career.

What’s the morale of this story? Avoid embarrassing yourself and hurting your career by forgetting key items for your next presentation.

You have enough anxiety about public speaking without letting travel problems sabotage your presentation. Here are five simple tips to help you prepare.

1. Test all of your equipment ahead of time. Bring spare batteries for every one of your electronic devices. Also, prepare a backup plan in case of equipment failure.
2. Load a backup copy of your presentation and handouts onto a CD-ROM or USB flash drive. Then pack it in a piece of luggage other than your laptop case. That way, if you laptop is lost, stolen or crashes, you can load your backup copy onto a rented or borrowed laptop at your destination.
3. Print maps or driving instructions to your destination. That makes it easy for you to find your off site meeting location or executive retreat. Also, always plan to arrive early at your destination. While an attendee can be late and not derail the presentation, if the speaker is late everyone is kept waiting.
4. Inspect the meeting room or trade show floor the night before to get a look at the room layout and the sight lines for your Power Point projector, overheads or flip charts. I learned this lesson the hard way when I failed to look at the room ahead of time a few years ago. When I arrived to do my seminar, there was a huge pillar right in the middle of the room that blocked the view of one-third of my class. I had to hastily re-arrange the tables and chairs so everyone could see the screen.
5. Make sure people can find your room. Check the hotel’s signage to see it is easy for attendees to find your meeting room. If not, use masking tape to place signs or arrows leading to your classroom (with the hotel’s permission, of course.) Remember, leave a trail of breadcrumbs so people can find your room.

Use these tips to prepare for a successful presentation at your next off site meeting, conference or trade show.

© 2008 Reflective Keynotes Inc., Toronto, Canada

Good presentation skills and public speaking begin with preparation. Like any other written or visual communication the key here is to prepare, prepare, prepare.

There are a lot of good books available. It is a good idea to join a public speaking practice group like the International Toastmasters for example. Doing it is the best way to learn.

Here are three keys to preparing your presentations and public speeches which I find have worked best for me.

1. Identify and organize what you will be presenting on a sheet of paper.

2. Break it down into 3 major headings with 3 sub-headings under each.

3. Write the content of your sub-headings then edit to fit on 3×5 or 4×6 cards as needed.

1. Identify and organize what you are presenting on a sheet of paper:

Identify your topic and give it a name, a title, ex.: Four Steps to Good Presentation Skills and public Speaking.

Identify the time frame you will have for your presentation or speech — let’s use 45 minutes for easy sub-dividing.

2. Break it down into 3 major headings with 3 sub-headings under each:

Your 45 minutes will give you 15 minutes for each of your 3 major topic headings.

So under each of the 3 major headings and 3 sub-headings write what you want to tell your audience to fit within the 15 minutes for each major headings.

For example, your three major headings will be sub-titles and will only take a few seconds to mention as you move to your sub-headings content.

Then your 3 sub-headings will have the actual content that you want to deliver to your audience. Time these to be about 4-5 minutes each (3 x 5=15 minutes).

3. Write the content of your sub-headings, then edit to fit on 3×5 or 4×6 cards as needed:

Once you have this organized, re-write them on your cards. You might have 1 card per 3 sub-headings if you only use key words that you will elaborate verbally.

Or you might need 3 cards, 1 for each sub-headings, if you write more information to guide your verbal delivery. Do what works best for you.

Personally, I usually write everything down that I will be saying, and highlight the key points I want to make sure not to miss, with a yellow highlighter; then I just glance at the overall content as I move from one sub-headings to the next. So I end up with 1 card for each of my 3 sub-headings.

Do not read from your card. Highlight the important words that will trigger your memory to speak to your audience.

Then practice your delivery beforehand as many times as you need to, timing the whole to fit within your 45 minutes (or whatever the case may be). If you are going to use transparencies or power-point, make sure to use them in your practice run also. You might need to trade a couple of minutes of your verbal content for the handling of the equipment.

When you do the real thing, simply follow your cards, moving each one to the back as you deliver your material. Don’t focus only on the cards, use the cards to keep you on track. Look at your audience, scanning through every one from left to right, front to back. Don’t stare in one area longer than in another, unless you are answering a specific person’s question.

There are many good books on presentations, with samples. A good one is Leading Workshops, Seminars, and Training Sessions; by Helen Angus, Self-Counsel Press, which includes models of room arrangements and other technical information on equipment, etc.

Often our competition can be a good source of the latest examples of what’s in at the time. Check out what the top companies are doing, and better it! For example financial institutions who give free seminars on their service offerings are a good place to get ideas on presentation skills, while getting some education on financial investment!

Give free seminars to friends, co-workers and family members to sharpen your presentation skills and public speaking. Tape yourself and listen or watch yourself back, making notes of habits you might want to omit or change, etc.

Always be prepared, you never know when you might be asked to do a presentation at work, at church or in a community group!/dmh

Srila Prabhupada did not present Shastra as a dry academic subject to be theorized and armchair-philosophized about. Instead of giving abstruse explanations, he spoke and more importantly lived the essence of shastra. He repeatedly emphasized the point of all sastra: “You are not this body. Surrender to Krsna.”

Srila Prabhupada repeatedly said that by reading his books we get in touch with the previous acaryas. Indeed, his purports to the sastra draw on the realization of the previous acaryas whose commentaries Prabhupada consulted before composing his own. A special feature of Srila Prabhupada’s purports, however, is that he was the first to show how the Srimad Bhagvatam’s principles can be applied in practical circumstances in the human society. Also for the first time ever, he comprehensively presented Gaudiya Vaishnava philosophy, replete with all subtleties and complexities, in a non-Indian language.

Prabhupada’s explanation of Vedic philosophy is simple, clear, and uncomplicated English is an unprecedented achievement in literary history. English is a mleccha-bhasa (language of meat eaters), but Srila Prabhupada purified it. Quoting Srila Prabhupada’s purports is as authorized as quoting from the Original Sanskrit shastras. Infact, the words of the acharya are even more potent because without the acharya’s explanations, ordinary people would not be able to understand the meaning of shastra.

Srila prabhupada’s lectures were simple, straightforward bhagavad philosophy. Prabhupada’s songs are preferable to any of the dozens of styles of melodius kirtans because there is a different level of potency altogether. Srila prabhupada’s presentations whether it is the songs he sung or the purports he wrote, everything was always Krishna centric and at no point were for material sensual pleasure. His intense purity and compassion for the fallen conditions souls manifest in all his work. Being a pure devotee of the lord, his words are infallible, totally correct and spoken for upliftment of all concerned.

His words enter the heart of a living entity and purify it. The potency in his works is so strong that even though he has written for everyone, it seems to the reader that he is speaking personally to the individual reader and whatever he has written makes complete sense to the honest inquisitive.

Srila Prabhupada’s works reflected his inadvertent strong-mind and principles. There were no contradictions or interpretations. He presented the message as it is. Srila Prabhupada make Krsna and the Hare Krsna mahamantra famous all over the world even though non-devotees don’t know much about him. This is due to his presentation of Shastra as a messenger. He never took credit for this great benediction that he was giving and continues to give to fallen conditioned souls through his books.

The philosophy he preached through his books was sound in theory and practically applicable under all circumstances. Srila Prabhupada saw nothing as different from Krsna. He saw Krsna everywhere and in everything, and everything in Krsna. Whatever he wrote is a living example or rather an extension of this premise that he lived by. He wanted to engage everything and everybody in Krsna’s service. His works and method of presentation of shastras are still inspiring thousands of people to take up the sublime method of Krsna consciousness practically in their lives. His objective of developing a Krsna conscious movement, which is not limited to study of literature, however is built on how he presented the message of Krsna and Lord Chaitanya throughout the world.