Recap WITI Boston - January 9, 2014

Communication Skills that Deliver Credibility and Success
WITI Boston, January 9, 2014
By Claire Robinson

"Your slides are not your presentation - YOU are the presentation", Tom Kennedy told the WITI Boston audience of 40 women. Slides are just a tool in your presentation. Other tools include stories, quotes and other visual aids (pictures, charts, graphs, etc.) beyond your slides.

Tom told us that a successful presentation is all about your audience. Begin your preparations by clearly identifying these 3 items:

- Audience - who are they and what is it they will be listening for
- Result - what do you want to have happen by the end of your presentation
- Message - what is the clear, concise message you want to deliver

After identifying these items, it's time to prepare your presentation. First step is a more detailed audience analysis, so that your presentation will engage them right from the beginning. Understand their concerns, their attitude towards your topic, how much they will already know about the topic, the demographics of the attendees and finally the environment in which you will be presenting. Do this every time you are delivering a presentation to a different audience.

Next drill down on the result you want to achieve. Bear in mind that a presentation should not be informational, as there are multiple ways to convey information, with a presentation being the least effective. Your presentation should be persuasive instead. What is it you want the audience to do, not simply what is it you want them to think, as you conclude your presentation.

Now focus on your message and how you will deliver it. Two important considerations are to determine what's in it for the audience and what you want them to remember. Often this will start out with creating a handful or two of key points. Keep refining (and reducing) these points to make it crisp. Think in terms of an attention-grabbing headline in an article, short yet powerful.

As you address these 3 points and build your presentation, you are then ready for the last key step - rehearsing. Just like a play, rehearsal will be critical to your success. Rehearse in front of a video camera, so that you can view it after. But when you view it, be sure to focus on your strengths and leverage those, rather than beating yourself up over any weaknesses. Ask your mentor to sit in and help evaluate and provide suggestions for streamlining your message and aligning it more to your audience.

Tom's final piece of advice to us is to actively seek presentation opportunities, as each time you present you practice and improve on your communication skills

WITI Boston would like to thank Tom for taking the time to share these insightful communications techniques. Thanks also to our Sponsor and Host, ACI Worldwide (www.aciworldwide.com).

About our Speaker
Tom Kennedy is an Associated Press award-winning broadcaster, Certified Management Consultant (CMC) by the Institute of Management Consultants (IMC) and adheres to the IMC code of professional ethics. Tom is also a teacher of strategic and crisis communication. He has over 20 years of on-air media experience in major markets across the US and over 15 years strategic communications consulting experience with CEOs and senior executives of international companies such as IBM, Iron Mountain, Millipore, Roche, Bosch, Hewlett-Packard, MIT and others. Tom specializes in helping his clients successfully develop and deliver focused, effective, and memorable messages, internally and externally, including the effective use of the Web, print, and broadcast media. Learn more about Tom here: www.kennedygroupboston.com.

About the Author
Claire Robinson is a Channels Programs and Marketing Manager at AT&T and an active member of WITI Boston

Opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of WITI.