Deck 11: Oral Presentations

Question 1

Prepare presentation notes.
Prepare a three-minute oral presentation on a business topic of your choice. First, write out the complete presentation. Next, select several excerpts of the complete script to be used as notes for your presentation. Then, prepare an outline of notes for your presentation. Submit all three versions of the presentation to your instructor for evaluation.

Answer 1

The business topic of choice is the construction of a housing complex in an upcoming district Detroit, United States. The presentation includes the following:
• Slide 1-this is the title slide and will contain the name of the presentation and the presenter.
• Slide 2- this is the agenda slide and will concisely outline the coverage of the presentation
• Slide 3- this is content slide 1. It deals with the details of the housing complex. These details contain data regarding the increase in demand for houses in the area and the rising property value in the recent years. This helps to establish the profitability of the venture.
• Slide 4- this is content slide 2. This deals with the specific aspects of the housing plan venture. Details contain the expected cost of the venture, the expected time frame of completion etc.
• Slide 5- this is content slide 3. It includes specific aspects of the venture like hiring employee's assignment of duties etc.
• Slide 6- this is the end slide. It contains the summary of the entire presentation.
The excerpts from the presentation are the following:
• First -opening containing title.
• Second- Aspects to be covered in the entire presentation.
• Third- details of the housing complex
• Fourth-economical aspects like expected cost, duration of the project.
• Fifth-details of the project like hiring details
• Sixth-a recapitulation of the presentation
Important points from the presentation are the following:
• Opening of the presentation
• Coverage of the presentation
• Details of the presentation (includes details of the project, cost details, time frams, hiring processes, etc)• Summary of the entire presentation

Question 2

Integrate a video into a presentation.
Create a presentation to convince your classmates to donate to or volunteer for your favorite not-for-profit organization. Create a title slide, main point slide, agenda slide, a few content slides, and a summary slide.
Find a short (2- to 3-minute) video to complement your message and provide emotional appeal. Embed the video into your presentation, and deliver the presentation, integrating the video seamlessly. For a smooth delivery, introduce your video, and then transition back to the rest of your presentation when the video ends.

Answer 2

Not Answer

Question 3

What visuals will you useTry to avoid traditional presentation slides with heavy text in favor of a simpler, more graphical style.

Answer 3

Visuals aids are quite essential in making the presentation style more effective for the audience.
Apart from the traditional heavy bombarded slides with information, the presenter could use charts, maps. Black Boards with chalk and duster/marker to share the information. OHP sheets could also be a medium to make a difference and avoid passé slide presentations.
The presentation could also use a method of skit, role playing to share the information to the audience. One to one interaction with the audience in the form of question and answer round can also make effective presentation style. The use of charts, pie charts, tables and figures could also be applied for this purpose.
Thus to avoid traditional way of presentation with slides, the above visual aids could grab the attention of the audience and can also make it more graphical and easy to relate and understand.

Question 4

Analyze how a video is managed in a presentation. Watch Kai Tan's video segment, provided in the instructor's PowerPoint. What does Kai do well in managing the video, and what could he improveDiscuss how he introduces the video, positions himself, and transitions back to his presentation.

Question 5

Adapt a presentation for different audiences.
Imagine that you work for a university as the head of transportation. You want to encourage people to take the bus, rather than park on campus, because spots are limited. Prepare agenda slides for two different audiences: faculty and students.
Your presentation may include the challenges of parking on campus, the bus schedule, a cost comparison between driving and taking the bus, and any other information you believe may be relevant to persuade each of your audiences.

Question 6

Develop an opening for a presentation.
This chapter listed six types of effective openings for an oral presentation-quotation, question, hypothetical situation, story, startling fact, and visual aid. Select two of these methods, and develop effective openings for the same oral presentation. First, plan your presentation by describing your purpose; second, perform an audience analysis by identifying the demographics, the knowledge level, and the psychological needs of a potential audience; third, prepare two effective openings for your presentation, and explain why you selected these types.

Question 7

Discuss whether to use a handout.
Revisit a presentation you delivered recently. In small groups, discuss whether you used a handout, and your rationale. If you had to deliver the presentation again today, would you distribute a handoutExplain your response to your teammates.

Question 8

What is the purpose of your presentation

Question 9

Deliver a response to the interview question "Tell me about yourself."
First impressions happen particularly quickly during a job interview. Some recruiters will begin your interview with a general question: "Tell me about yourself." Sometimes called "elevator speeches," these presentations can be stressful and awkward if you're unprepared. But once you've developed and practiced a script, you can use parts of it in everyday situations, feeling more natural and confident each time.
Prepare a brief response (30-45 seconds) to the question, and deliver it to the rest of the class. To prepare your notes, you might include the following:
• Year and major or special interests in school
• Work or internship experience
• Skills and abilities
• Anything else you believe is relevant or significant about you (e.g., sports or other interests, hometown)
• What you're looking for (e.g., a summer job in a high-end restaurant)
Also consider these questions:
• What about you will be most relevant and interesting to this person
• What do you think is this person's attitude toward you
• What do you want him or her to remember most about you
After your presentation, write a self-assessment memo that addresses the following questions:
• What did you do that you feel most proud ofWhat parts of your presentation were most powerful
• What parts of the presentation do you feel least confident about
• If you had the opportunity to prepare and deliver this message again, what would you do differently to improve your presentation

Question 10

Create a handout. For your second-round job interview, a prospective employer has asked you to deliver a presentation on any topic (see Exercise 6). To make the best impression-and to leave something for the audience to remember you-create a handout. Include a summary of your main points and your contact information.

Question 11

Prepare a presentation to a Brazilian audience.
The manager of a Brazilian bank has approached your school about the possibility of sending 30 of its managers to your institution to pursue a three-month intensive course in written and oral business communication. The purpose of the course is to make the Brazilian managers better able to interact with their American counterparts.
As the assistant provost at your institution, you have been asked to give a six- to eight-minute presentation to the four Brazilian executives who will decide whether to fund this program at your institution. The purpose of your presentation is to convince them to select your school.
Prepare a title and outline for your presentation.

Question 12

Deliver a speech as part of a team panel.
Prepare a two-minute speech (using note cards) on the business topic of your choice. Then form into groups of six or seven to make up the head table. A few minutes before starting, randomly select roles to be played: host, head table guests (with professional titles), and a guest speaker. The rest of the class will serve as the audience.
The person selected to be the host should quickly obtain the professional titles and names of the people at the head table. Then the host should seat the members of the head table in their chairs. The host should then introduce the people at the head table-including the speaker. The speaker should then give his or her two-minute speech. After the speech is finished, the host should present the speaker with a token of appreciation.
Next, a member of the audience should be selected for an award, such as employee of the year, and the host should invite him or her to the podium to receive the award and to make a short impromptu acceptance speech.
Roles can be changed to allow others to be host, guest at the head table, speaker, or employee of the year. Have everyone submit his or her notes for the two-minute speech whether or not he or she actually spoke.

Question 13

Research speech anxiety.
Working in groups of three or four, develop at least three slides for a presentation on how to overcome speech anxiety. The presentation would be to ten people in a small boardroom. Use the Internet and other sources as well as information from this chapter for your slides. Remember to use an appropriate background color and to keep the special effects simple. Submit the slides to your instructor for evaluation.

Question 14

Describe your audience.

Question 15

Divide speaking responsibilities for a team presentation.
In teams of three or four, plan how to divide parts of a presentation. Your topic is international copyright laws, and your audience consists of an international group of businesspeople who are concerned about using others' intellectual property. Follow these steps to plan your team presentation:
a. Brainstorm a list of topics for your presentation. Consider what would be valuable to your audience.
b. Create an outline of topics for your presentation. Plan on a logical sequence.
c. Identify how much time you would dedicate to each topic.
d. Select topics to cover in your presentation according to knowledge level and interests. Also select someone to open and close the presentation.
After you have finished your plan, discuss your team process. Is everyone happy with how responsibilities were shared and how the team worked togetherWhy or why not

Question 16

Practice a presentation and track your progress.
Practice an upcoming presentation several times-at least once in the room where you will deliver it. Each time you practice, write notes about your observations and plans for improvements. You might use a simple format such as the following:

Question 17

Prepare a presentation to a South Korean audience.
Imagine that you invented a new product that you would like to sell to the South Korean market. The product can be anything consumers might find useful. The audience consists of wealthy individuals from South Korea.
Plan the presentation and determine the timing and method of delivery (the purpose and audience have already been determined). Prepare an outline and submit this to your instructor. In addition to the outline, write a cover memo explaining why you made certain decisions regarding cultural differences.

Question 18

Prepare and deliver a team presentation.
Divide into teams of four or five students. Your instructor will assign you to either the pro or the con side of one of the following topics:
• Drug testing should be mandatory for all employees.
• All forms of smoking should be banned from all public spaces.
• Employers should provide flextime (flexible working hours) for all office employees.
• Employers should provide on-site child care facilities for the preschool children of their employees.
• Employees who work with the public should be required to wear a company uniform.
Assume that your employee group has been asked to present its views to a management committee that will make the final decision regarding your topic. The presentations will be given as follows:
a. Each side (beginning with the pro side) will have eight minutes to present its views.
b. Each side will then have three minutes to confer.
c. Each side (beginning with the con side) will deliver a two-minute rebuttal-to refute the arguments and answer the issues raised by the other side.
d. Each side (beginning with the pro side) will give a one-minute summary.
e. The management committee (the rest of the class) will then vote by secret ballot regarding which side (pro or con) presented its case more effectively.
Gather whatever data you think will be helpful to your case, organize it, divide up the speaking roles, and prepare speaker notes. ( Hint: It might be helpful to gather information on both the pro and the con sides of the issue in preparation for the rebuttal session, which will be given impromptu.)

Question 19

Anticipate and respond to questions about textbook content.
Prepare a three-minute presentation, using an outline, on any section of any chapter in this text. Before making the presentation, write a list of the questions you anticipate being asked and possible answers to those questions. Then, in groups of four or five, take turns delivering your presentation.
After each presentation, the audience should ask the presenter questions about his or her topic. Did the presenter anticipate the questions the group askedIf so, did he or she have effective answersIf not, how did he or she handle the questions that were asked
Submit a memo to your instructor. The memo should include your outline, a list of the questions you anticipated, your answers to those questions, the actual questions asked (if different from the ones anticipated), and your answers to those questions. Also give your instructor a short post-presentation evaluation of what you did well and what changes you would make to improve your presentation.

Question 20

What level of knowledge is your audience likely to have about your topic

Question 21

Prepare for an online presentation with remote offices.
Imagine that you work as the purchasing manager who is planning a presentation about a new process for ordering equipment costing over $100,000. Your audience will be the office managers in four locations: the United States (where you are based), Toronto, Geneva, and London. To save travel expenses, you decide to deliver the presentation online through Skype, Google Voice and Video Chat, or another web program.
List the steps you will take to prepare for the presentation. Include everything you would do, up to the point of starting the presentation.

Question 22

Analyze how a question is handled in a presentation.
Watch Michael Lieberman's video segment, provided in the instructor's PowerPoint. What does Michael do well in addressing the question, and what suggestions do you have for him to improve

Question 23

Identify methods of delivery.
For each of the following situations, which delivery method-impromptu, extemporaneous, scripted, or memorized-would be best

Question 24

Practice delivering and participating in an online presentation.
Working in groups of three or four, have one person deliver a short presentation over the web to the rest of the team. At least two of you (one will be the presenter) will have to sign up for a free account on Skype, Google Voice and Video Chat, or another web program.
Select a presenter, who will be in a separate room from the rest of the team. The presenter can choose any topic relevant to the rest of the team, and this can be an informal presentation.
During the presentation, the rest of the team takes notes on the following. After the presentation, the audience gives feedback to the presenter.

Question 25

Prepare a presentation and respond to questions from prospective employees.
Ken Shwartz wants you, the new director of human resources, to recruit more production workers for his hat embroidery company, Ahead Headgear. Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Ahead creates caps and visors for golf courses, resorts, and tournaments. Founder and CEO Shwartz has turned Ahead into one of the fastest growing small businesses in the United States.
In just a few years, the company has gone from a start-up operation to a firm that earns more than $18 million in annual sales. However, filling open production jobs can be a struggle. "We have a very high-tech company, but younger workers don't seem to want our production jobs," he tells you. "They equate us with the old, dirty sewing factories."
You decide to make a presentation about Ahead at the next Southern Massachusetts Job Fair, which typically attracts 1,000 high school graduates. You are allotted five minutes to speak to the audience and another five minutes for a question-and-answer period. What kinds of questions do you anticipateList at least six questions you expect to be asked. Using the Internet or other sources, research Ahead Headgear to find the answers to these questions.

Question 26

How will you capture your audience's attention in the first minute of your presentation Draft your opening section.

Question 27

Prepare for an online presentation to fail.
As you did for the previous exercise, plan for one person in another room to present to two or three team members over the web. But this time, imagine that the technology fails. When you begin the presentation, you can see each other, but the audience can't hear you. (Turns out, people on the receiving end had their speakers off-but you don't know that.)
Plan for this to happen, and arrange an alternative (e.g., a speakerphone or a cell phone that has a good speaker). Role-play this situation as realistically as possible. How will the presenter smoothly transition to the alternative
After the presentation, discuss how well the speaker handled the situation. Discuss lessons you learned for the future.

Question 28

Provide feedback.
Using this presentation feedback form, evaluate your own and a peer's presentation. In your comments for each category, be sure to focus on both strengths and areas for development.

Question 29

Practice different delivery styles.
In small groups, practice each of the four delivery styles. First, each of you chooses a topic that interests you; this can be a hobby, volunteer work, or an aspect of business. Second, prepare to deliver two or three sentences of a presentation about the topic, using the three delivery styles for which you can prepare: extemporaneous, scripted, and memorized. Of course, you'll have to change what you say for each method.
Taking turns, have each person present the four styles using this approach:
1. Deliver your memorized speech.
2. Deliver your scripted presentation.
3. Deliver your extemporaneous presentation.
4. Wait until a team member asks you a related question, and then deliver your response using the impromptu style.
After your presentations, discuss what you learned. Which methods were easiest and most natural for you to deliverWhich were most difficultHow can you adjust to different styles, even though you may be more comfortable with one than the others

Question 30

Convert a report to slides for an oral presentation.
If you wrote a report using presentation software (discussed in Chapter 10), this is your chance to change it so that you can use it for an oral presentation. Convert heavy text to graphics, convert tables to charts, and edit text until it's concise and readable.
You may find the Dunkin' Donuts slides for an oral presentation (in the Reference Manual) helpful for a comparison.

Question 31

Practice using the backchannel. In class, have one student deliver a three-minute presentation on any topic. During the presentation, five students in the audience sign onto Twitter and, using the same hashtag (e.g., #BusComm402), tweet one encouraging comment and one question. After the presentation, show the Twitter feed, and discuss the benefits and challenges of using the backchannel in this way. Then, have the speaker continue the presentation by debriefing comments and answering questions from the Twitter feed. Try to do this within three minutes (you won't be able to address everything) to summarize the presentation.

Question 32

What points will you cover in the body of your presentation and in what order

Question 33

Reduce text on a slide.
If a colleague showed you this slide, how would you help him or her change itIn pairs, work together to reduce the text on this slide to make it easier to read, more logically organized, and more graphical.

Question 34

Plan a presentation for a job interview.
Imagine that you made it through first-round interviews with your favorite company. For the second round, they ask you to prepare a three-minute presentation on any topic. You'll deliver this to the hiring manager, three people who work on her team, and two representatives from HR. To prepare for your presentation, answer the following questions.
a. What topic will you choose for your presentation
b. What is the purpose of your presentation
c. What do you know about your audience that might help you prepare a more effective presentation
d. What points will you include in your presentation
e. What method of delivery should you use

Question 35

Convert paragraph text to graphics.
Imagine that you want to present the ideas for using video in presentations from this chapter to a group of people. Convert the Using Video section of this chapter to one slide. Use only a few words, and arrange them in a graphical way.

Question 36

Write a closing section that summarizes your points and reinforces the purpose of your presentation.

Question 37

Create a customized slide template.
You are the owner of a mid-sized insurance company. You have 25 agents who travel throughout the country, making presentations to small groups of people (10 to 20) regarding retirement programs.
You want to create a template that all agents can use for their presentations. Your agents have been making their own slides or using no visuals at all, but you want consistency across all regions.
Invent a company name and logo, and then create a template that all agents can use. Choose a design, colors, and a few standard graphics. Include five or six slides in your sample deck-title slide, agenda slide, two or three examples of graphical slides (for example, with SmartArt in PowerPoint), and a closing slide.

Question 38

Prepare an outline for a report presentation.
Review an analytical or recommendation report you prepared in Chapter 10. Assume that you have been given 15 minutes to present the most important information from your written report to a committee of your managers who will not have an opportunity to read the report. What sequencing will you use for your presentationPrepare an outline for your instructor's feedback.

Question 39

Evaluate visuals used for a presentation.
Attend a business meeting, a city council meeting, a student council meeting, a business conference, an executive lecture presentation, or some other event where oral presentations will be taking place.
Evaluate the visuals that were used in the presentation. What, if any, visuals were usedDid the presenter have handoutsWhen were the handouts distributedHow effective were the visualsWhat changes could have improved the visualsWrite a one-page memo to your instructor, addressing these and other aspects of how the presentation was delivered.

Question 40

What delivery techniques will you use to make your presentation dynamic

Question 41

Embed a video into a presentation.
If you don't have experience embedding a video into a presentation, research how to embed one into your favorite presentation program (PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi, or another program). Search YouTube videos and other sources to find step-by-step instructions.
Select any YouTube video or other video that gives you embedding code. Practice inserting it into a new presentation.
For the class, demonstrate how you embedded the video.