Presentation skills

Formal presentations are often lecture-style talks of a specific length. After the presentation, there can potentially be a question and answer session at the end but they may also end when the speaker has finished. The talk will most likely use formal language although it may incorporate humour and stories. It could potentially be supported by slides with images, brief information and links to multi-media but also could simply be spoken work. This type of presentation is suited to situations where a lot of information needs to be delivered. 

Examples of formal presentations could be a lecture, an entertainment talk, a political speech, an educational lecture, an interview, a wedding speech, or a media presentation to clients. 

An informal presentation might be an initial presentation with a discussion with people, an improvised talk, or a discussion with impromptu questions. This style would suit a seminar, impromptu presentations like an elevator pitch, a classroom, and informal discussions about designs to get feedback. 

Formal (structured) - A talk with a question and answer at the end. 3 x examples of each

In an educational setting, mainly higher education, we could expect to see lectures where a large amount of information is delivered to students. It could be via a purely spoken talk or supported by writing notes on an interactive screen or pre-prepared slides on screen and multimedia presentations. The students would be expected to listen and possibly take notes. The aim would be to disseminate information to the learners and to direct people to further reading and research informing subsequent coursework or exams. 

A formal presentation would be suitable for pitching a new project to clients in a design studio environment. There could be a formal presentation of previous work completed by the studio, details of what the studio can offer the client and proposals for the project being pitched. This would most likely be a richly presented pitch with well-designed slides, multimedia and samples shown. Everything presented would contribute to the likelihood of the studio winning the pitch. It's likely that there would be a Q&A afterwards. 

A wedding speech is another formal presentation. The audience would be watching and listening to the speaker and the speech would have been prepared in advance thoroughly (hopefully). There could be elements of humour in this and might not use as informal language as a lecture. It's unlikely that there would be a Q&A afterwards. 

Different styles of presentation 

There are many forms of styles of presentations. This could include visual, freeform, storytelling,  elevator pitch, persuasive and motivational. 

A visual style would use visual aids and possibly charts which support your talk and will keep you on track. They provide another way for people to take in information and engage with your talk. 

Freeform talks are impromptu, not pre-planned, therefore they are more informal. The style is suitable if feeling familiar with your content and this style tends to be shorter. It would depend on the audience you're presenting to. 

An elevator pitch is perfect for spontaneous presentations, they are short and try to get information across in a succinct and engaging manner. People selling items at exhibitions will have a short talk about their work to help people understand what they do and engage with the product, making it more likely to purchase something the person is selling. 

Within visual presentations, there are some specific types of presentation such as Pecha Kucha which used slides and is based on 20 slides with 20 seconds of speech per slide. These need to be carefully rehearsed to keep to the time. There are pecha kucha nights which tend to be theme based. This style originated in Japan. Lessig and Takahashi presentations are quite similar to this concept. 

Skills 

Delivering successful presentations needs a wide variety of skills. Some of these skills are nonverbal, body language is very important to help engage the audience. Examples of this are making eye contact with participants, being receptive in manner, the way we stand, our arm movements and more. It is a vital skill to thoroughly prepare a presentation and organise it well. Time management and pace are also important. Keeping an eye on the audience and seeing what their body language is telling you is also key. Preparation in advance with technical equipment and ensuring it will work before the session begins, doing a trial run is very useful. How we dress really impacts how people respond to us and how seriously they take us. Design skills are also key as we need to put together well-designed resources to support our talk. 

In terms of verbal communication, our tone of voice and how we project our voice affects how people respond. A steady, calm delivery with pauses helps engage people, however, a shouty aggressive style may disengage people and too slow a delivery with no eye contact will have a similar outcome and may lead to the audience being bored. The way we speak, our expressions, language and dialogue all need to be of a high standard to be able to communicate effectively