Week 10 – Art of the Pitch
During week 10, Kyle ran us through some top tips on how to present a pitch. He recapped on some of the things Daniel ran over, when we were preparing to present our digital products. We discussed everything you need to know about selling your ideas, how to design a slick slide deck and how to successfully present it. We spoke about the importance of creating a story, ways which you can calm the nerves and how to sort the design, to fit in with our own personal brands. This information came in super useful to me, as within the space of a few weeks I experienced 4 presentations, including ones for university, as well as some for placement interviews. I have realised that with practice comes confidence. Here are some things I learned from the presentations…
- Preparation is key – The presentations where I went in well rehearsed, were the ones that turned out the best.
- Successful slide design is simple – less is more, when you overfill your slides you can distract your listeners from what you have to say.
- Ditch the cue cards – this is something that I will be doing from now on. Two of the presentations, I had prepared cue cards for, one with just buzz words and the other, a lot of written content, which I basically read off. This really distracted me and if I were to go back, I would just speak of the slides, because when you’re in the moment and get into the flow of it and the environment, it’s easier to give a more convincing presentation, without looking up and down at cue cards.
- Keep going – Even if I made a mistake, I had the ability to keep going. Like I have previously stated, staying calm and getting into the flow of speaking is the best way to give an enjoyable presentation.
- Confidence comes with time – Something I have always struggled with is my self-confidence. I know I have the ability but always doubt myself and think something is going to go wrong, or I’m not doing the right thing. With the positive feedbacks and honesty from the people I was presenting too, I now know that I am capable of standing infront of a room full of people and presenting my ideas. With practice, I know that in future jobs I will be able to go forth with more confidence and presenting will become second nature to me. It’s a great way to grow confidence and showcase your abilities.
Below you can see my final presentation for my work in IxD301. I presented this to Kyle just before our christmas break. I think I done a really good job.
- I spoke with confidence
- My presentation was simple and to the point
To Improve…
- I would make the presentation a little shorter as it went over the time limit
- I would not use cue cards, as I feel I would have gave a more natural performance if I hadn’t been glancing up and down at the cards