Keep It Short, Sweet and Sexy STEP presentation training in ...

Keep It Short, Sweet and Sexy
STEP presentation training in Sindelfingen
“The only reason to give a presentation is to change the world of your audience.” This is how Dan
Boswell started the workshop titled “Effective Presentations” on the 24 th of May.
After the workshops at the University of Tübingen in April, the STEP program took us to Sindelfingen.
This time, again, with a very significant topic which is “How to make an effective presentation.”
During these two days full of emotion, we found out about new ways to make presentations.
As the STEPpers are all future professionals and managers in their fields, it is essential to know how
to make a presentation properly, how to attract the audience and how to persuade them. The first
thing to remember when presenting is “be
yourself” and “be creative”. Actually, being
yourself makes presentations easier to
understand because you will act naturally as you
talk to people. That will lower your stress level.
Being creative, on the other hand, makes you
more comfortable because you share something
of yourself. You will then be more enthusiastic
and more convincing.
Personally I find it very hard to stand in front of
an audience and to make a good speech… But
then Dan Boswell knew all the ingredients to make a very successful presentation! His workshop was
focused on the concepts of “WIIFY”, “WWR” and the presentation itself.
The WIIFY relates to “What’s In It For You”. This summarizes the perceptions of the audience.
According to Dan Boswell, the audience is very selfish, which is according to the human nature. For
each presentation, everyone ask themselves “Why am I here?”, “How is this going to change my
life!?” The answers depend on us: If we want our audience to listen to us, understand, remember,
and transfer our presentation message, we must make sure it's a KISSS
presentation:
Keep It Short, Sweet and Sexy
(Short = Keep it short and to the point
Sweet = Sell your message better with positive language
Sexy = Grab their attention with an attractive opening)
Built on the WIIFY principle, the WWR (What, Why, Result) is very important. It should be clear for
the audience what the presentation is about, why the audience should give attention to it and how
the audience can make something out of it.
Coming to the presentation, the body language plays an important role. Actually, the first impression
of the audience is always based on your “body language”. Indeed, it is essential to smile, to be in

good mood as it then will raise your level of confidence and as Dan Boswell said “Everybody looks
better when smiling”.
Eye contact also is very important. It is a means of trust building which helps you to share your
thoughts more easily. And last but not least;
hands are a tool which support your words.
Natural gestures can be used to illustrate what
the presenter wants to say.
The STEPpers found this workshop very
efficient and directly applicable. Combining the
theory and making real presentations three
times in front of the camera was a great
experience as we could find out where our
weaknesses and strengths lie when presenting.
This will be vital for us in future.
To conclude, the recipe for a good presentation is preparation, which leads to higher confidence,
which will then lead to better credibility and of course, practice, practice and PRACTICE!