To begin planning a presentation, you need to consider many things:

• Why are you making the presentation? Are you trying to inform your audience, persuade them to see your point of view, or motivate them to get involved?

• What information do you want to communicate?

• Who is your audience?

• How long will you have to make the presentation?

• Will you need to hand out supplemental materials or use audiovisual aids?

• What specific methods of reinforcing your message (transparencies, panels, role-playing) would be helpful?

• What outcomes do you want to see?

• What special needs, concerns, or situations are relevant?

The following six steps will help you focus your answers to these questions and begin planning your presentation.

Step 1: Consider the Outcome You Want

The specific outcome that you want from your presentation is a critical consideration when planning. For example, assume that you've been given 15 minutes during a town council meeting to make the case for a teen lounge at the new youth center. Your task is to persuade the council that an extra $9,000 in construction costs and an added $5,000 per year in staffing costs are worthwhile investments.

Your presentation in this example might include descriptions of what's wrong with the places where youth are now hanging out and how there are no acceptable alternatives. You might want to show the audience a petition signed by youth at schools in the community supporting your position or distribute copies of news articles showing that a teen lounge in a nearby town has reduced loitering, crime, or vandalism. You might even invite some of the youth who would use the lounge to speak at your presentation. All of your presentation's content and organization should support the result you want: approval of funds for the lounge.

Step 2: Address Special Concerns

When planning your presentation, it is very important to focus on special concerns. In the example above, special concerns might include council members' worries that teens wouldn't actually use the lounge, fears that furniture and equipment would be damaged, concern that too many youth "hanging around" would scare off younger children, or a sense that the $9,000 cost would be too high.

Your presentation should address these concerns. Note, for instance, that youth could coach and mentor younger children and use the lounge for rest breaks and that teens could put any "profits" from soda and snack machines into a furniture fund. Also mention that more than 300 teens in just 1 week had signed petitions asking for the lounge, indicating their strong support.

Step 3: Develop a Presentation Outline

In order to help organize your presentation, it is important to construct a presentation outline. First, identify your topic and explain why it is important. Next, outline causes and effects of the problem you are discussing and introduce solutions to the problem. Finally, outline your conclusion, which should tie everything together. You may want to repeat three main points of your presentation in your conclusion or consider ending with a story that the audience will remember.

Step 4: Be Familiar With the Physical Setting

An important part of planning is knowing exactly where you will be delivering your presentation and how the setting will affect your presentation.

• Will you be in a classroom or an auditorium?

• Will you be standing at a podium onstage or walking up and down an aisle on the same level as your audience?

• Will the audience be sitting at tables or desks or on the floor?

• Are you allowed to rearrange the desks and chairs in the room?

• What equipment is available onsite, and what will you need to bring with you?

• If you use a prop or display a diagram, chart, transparency, or other visual aid, will everyone be able to see it clearly?

• If you show a video clip, will everyone be able to see and hear it well?

On the day of your presentation, arrive early to check that all necessary furniture and equipment are in place. You also may want to consider visiting the presentation site in advance if you haven't seen or used it before. Find out if you could use the space to rehearse your presentation.

Step 5: Understand Timing and Other Requirements

Know the actual length of your presentation, and make sure that it is acceptable to the people who invited you. How long does a presentation for this audience usually last? Has any specific length or format been more productive or successful than others with this audience? Answering these questions will let you plan your presentation to best meet your audience's needs. Also find out whether the maximum time for your presentation includes a question-and-answer session or if more time should be added to your total presentation time for questions. How will questions from the audience be handled? Will a moderator help you field questions, or do you need to call on audience members yourself?

Step 6: Present Information in a Focused, Concise Way

An adult's attention wanders after about 12 minutes; a child's attention span is even shorter. The key to an engaging presentation, therefore, is focusing on a single objective (or a relatively small set of objectives) and making sure that every statement in your presentation relates to your objective. Organize your facts, use logic, and draw conclusions to support and clarify your objective. Varying how you present information and actively involving the audience are two excellent ways of driving home information without being repetitive or boring. Examples will enliven the presentation and help keep your audience focused.

Youth in Action Bulletin

March 2000     Number 15