Bringing it alive!
In this unit:
• bringing a presentation to life
• turning a good presentation into a great presentation
8   Bringing it alive!
%J3J Talking points
1 Before you watch, consider these questions.
What makes a presenlation interesting or memorable?
How can a presenter make the audience feel more involved in a presentation?
2 While you watch other people talking about the questions above, compare their experience with yours.
%EB The presentation
3 Richard Adams, a managing director, is giving a presentation about a policy change in his company. While you watch his presentation, make notes about the following questions.
1 Who will the new policy affect?
2 What will it have a major influence on?
3 In the story about Endo & Kline, why did they almost lose the sales pitch?
4 What is the new policy that he will be presenting?
5 What percentage of people will pay more for a product or service if it is ethical and has green credentials?
6 What example does he give of a basic change in the office?
7 How much energy does Macy's save because they use LED lighting?
8 What three things does he say the policy should be?
\ZE1 The expert view
4 While you watch Andrew talk how to bring a presentation alive, complete the lists of the techniques and strategies you can use under each of the three categories.
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For a summary of how to bring your presentation alive, read the article on page 58.
;D Analysis
5 Watch the presentation again. As you watch, tick the techniques that Richard uses in the list above and make notes of any particular language in each case.
%XH The expert feedback
6 How does Andrew's analysis of the presentation compare with yours?
8   Bringing it alive!
Language focus
•JH Telling stories and reporting past events
1 In the video, Richard stimulates the audience's imagination by telling a story about a sales pitch. Notice how he uses the past simple (e.g. He worked) and past perfect tenses (e.g. She had worked) in order to tell his story. For example:
Three months ago, a team of us, including some of
you in this room, were at an important business
pitch for Endo & Kline. We'd done our homework,
the proposal was good, Undo & Kline seemed
happy.'
Complete the rest of Richard's story below by writing the verbs in brackets in either the past simple or past perfect. Remember that the past perfect is used to show that one event finished or was completed before another event happened in the past. We'd done our homework, the proposal was good, Endo & Kline seemed happy. We
1_(rehearse) responses to all the trickiest questions and it2_(seem), it
was the third meeting, as though the business deal was almost complete.That is, until their
managing director3_(ask) a question which none of us had been prepared for...
There *_(be) an awkward silence. I _(not / know) what to say...
Luckily, Sylvia here came to the rescue, she 6_
8   Bringing it alive!
49
sustainability and, thanks to her quick thinking, we 7_
_ (come) up with some great ideas about
_(win) the pitch...
So, we'd won but I think all of us involved were aware what a lucky escape B_(have).
We9_(nearly / lose) a major business deal because of a statement on our
own website which none of us10_(pay) too much attention to.
2 Now watch the DVD to check your answers.
Making comparisons and analogies
3 When you present information with large figures, it's interesting to compare them with something else. Look at this example from the video:
'LED uses 75% less energy. That's a saving forMacy's of 16,200 megawatts per hour throughout the year It's the equivalent of planting 65,500 trees'
Practise using language for making comparisons and analogies. Join the first statement with the comparison in the third column by using any of the expressions in the middle.
1 The potential market for this product is eight million people.
2 Our company produces one tonne of plastic waste each month.
3 One wind turbine produces about five million units of electricity a year.
That is equivalent to That is equal to That is the same as That is similar to That is comparable with
the energy needed for one thousand households per year.
the plastic found in 20,000 two-litre drinks bottles.
the population of London.
4 Now make comparisons about the topics below, using the expressions in 2.
• the number of people who have already used your company's product or services
• the amount of paper your company uses each month
• the amount of time you spend travelling or commuting each year
• the amount of money you have spent on ... in your lifetime
Rhetorical questions
5 Presenters can interact with the audience by asking rhetorical questions. Complete the sentences below by matching the phrases (1-5) to the rhetorical questions (a-e).
a ... there any drawbacks? How much will it cost,
for example? b ... do I think this? Well, let me tell you. c ... do we have the will? It will require serious dedication.
■ d ... it work in practice? That is always the question that must be asked, e ... can we do this? We need a major rethink of our strategy.
1 fhe theory sounds fine but will...--
2 We've looked at some of the benefits. Now let's ask ourselves are ...
3 We have both the resources and the technical know-how to do this but ...
4 This company must change to stay competitive so how...
5 Personally, I think this is the best choice available to us. Why ...
Making words'bigger'
6 A presenter can make us feel that what they are saying is important by using'big'or expressive words. Compare the pairs of sentences below which have the same meaning. The second sentence is from the presentation in the video. Notice how the presenter uses the stronger word to make his presentation more effective:
What I have to talk about today is...     -» What I have lo announce today is...
...anew policy of great importance.     -» ... a new policy of crucial importance.
It will have a big influence... -» It will have a major influence...
Replace the words in italics in this presentation with the synonyms below to make it more expressive.
depressing shocked
excellent incredibly
absolutely unacceptable
brilliant dreadful
Many of you will have now read this review of spending across our organization. First of all, I'd like to thank Jenny and her team for the good
' brilliant work they did in putting it together. This report is very7_---
useful. However, if you have read it, you'll have been as surprised1_
as I was to read some of the poor* _spending decisions it highlights.
Take the two thousand dollars spent on entertainment or the staff irip which cost over three thousand! It's totally unsatisfactory5
This is especially true when profits in last two years have been so5_
terrible.! find it sod'_that staff have behaved in such a way. The only
exception to all this were the good8_results from Oriel's office in
Barcelona. Other managers could all learn something from him.
Stressing key words
Stressing key words is a good way to bring key information alive. Before you present, decide which words have important content. Make sure you stress them during your presentations so your audience notices their importance.
5C
8   Bringing it alive!
Presentation task
Choose a presentation that you have previously given or one that you are going to give. Think about the different parts of the presentation and how you could improve the presentation using techniques to bring it alive. Make notes about your changes in the table below.
Which part of the presentation will you improve?
Which techniques for bringing it alive will you use to do this?
8   Bringing it alive!
Analysis and self-assessment
Use this form to analyse your presentation. If you are working with other people on a course, ask someone to complete it for you while they watch your presentation.
Area of presenting
Introduction to presentation
The parts of your presentation    The areas that you still need to that worked well with examples  work on with suggestions on how of what you did well. to improve.
Body language
Interaction with audience
Now give the presentation with your changes.
	
Interacting with your audience	Making comparisons and analogies
How many people here like ...?	It's the equivalent of ...
How many of you know ... ?	That's about the same as ...
Can you raise your hand if you ...?	That is equivalent / equal / similar to ...
Have your ever considered/thought about/	That is comparable with ...
wondered why ...? Ask the person next to you if they ...?	Using big language Good -> astonishing, brilliant, excellent,
Telling a story	fantastic, incredible
I'd like to tel! you about something that	Bad -> awful, disastrous, dreadful, horrendous,
happened ...	terrible
Imagine the following scene/scenario...	Very good -> absolutely amazing / brilliant /
Picture if you can the following scene ...	fantastic
A few months ago ...	Personalizing
I remember when I was ...	Personally, ... My own personal view is that ... In my experience, ... I have always found that ...
Transition from one message to the next	
Use of visual aids	
Conclusion of the presentation	
Ability to deal with audience's questions and comments	
Range of skills and techniques for presenting	
Comments and final suggestions: