Presenting your best: types, styles and skills for every audience

Types

Formal

Presenting to the board 

Presenting to the board of directors of a company is a formal occasion, even if that company is the hippest start up in Silicone Valley.  Directors are busy people will full agendas who will not want to sit through any waffle or storytelling, so presentations will need to be well researched with accurate facts and stats delivered in a way that will be of interest to business leaders. Generally speaking, they will be thinking in a strategic rather than tactical way and therefore require high-level overviews rather than a lot of detail; that's what they pay their subordinates to deal with. Humour is probably not appropriate in this setting but could be used with discretion and if you know your audience in order to lighten the atmosphere and help deliver a difficult or complicated message if done in the right way. 

Pitching

A pitch might include presenting an idea for an advertising campaign to a client or a product you manufacturer or supply to an investor or company who might stock the product. The main purpose of a pitch is to persuade the audience to buy what it is your are selling, be it a physical product or an idea.  A pitch therefore needs to be well prepared and presented in a formal and professional way so that features and benefits can be described in an optimum amount of time and illustrated with the appropriate materials such as mock ups of advertising materials or packaging or models and samples of products.  A formal presentation stye will also help sell the presenter as a serious professional business person who is trust worthy and worth doing business with.

University lecture

A lecture at a university is formal in style as it delivers complex information, often to a large audience of students that forms part of an agreed of curriculum of learning. Although there is a lot of leeway for personal style in university lecturing, given that it is being delivered to higher level students, the presentation must be extremely well researched and based on a substantial amount of learning on the lecturer's behalf. 

Informal 

Wedding speech 

A wedding speech is an informal of presentation as the audience will be known to the speaker and the subject matter will be of a personal nature. Although the speech may well be prepared in advance, there is no expectation of professionalism. The celebratory nature of the event means the audience will be sympathetic to the speaker and the atmosphere will be relaxed and receptive to humour. 

Cookery demo

Although a cookery demonstration will need to be well prepared for and follow the steps required to complete the dish being demonstrated and done in a professional manner, a cookery demo is often presented as a form of entertainment at a food festival or may form part of a chef's touring stage show. Humour and off the cuff comments as well as reacting in the moment if things go wrong (cooking can be an unpredictable activity) are all integral to making the demonstration enjoyable as well as informative. Cooking demonstrations can also form part of a formal curriculum at a culinary school and under those circumstances would therefore fall under the heading of a formal presentation. 

Internal team talk

A manager might schedule a regular meeting for their tea. While the setting is a professional one, the style of presentation would be more informal than a presentation to a board of directors for example as the presenter and the audience, which is more likely to be a small one, would be known to each other and therefore a formal style would be inappropriate. It is likely that the presenter would need to react to input from the team which would give the prevention a more unstructured form and therefore a more informal feel. 

Styles

Pecha Kucha

Pecha Kucha is a specific type of storytelling presentation style which constricts the presenter to 20 chosen images displayed for 20 seconds each, allowing a total of 400 seconds or just under seven minutes to tell a story. The style is appropriate for informal gatherings as well as more educative situations. 

Freeform style 

A presentation that doesn't rely on slides but on strong anecdotal story telling and a familiarity with the subject matter. The style is suitable for impromptu situations such as a networking event. In the entertainment world, performers such as Henry Rollins use a free form style of presentation for their spoken word events. 

Instructor style

This is a more formal style if presentation used by presenters who are less comfortable in front of an audience or are less familiar with their subject matter. The style is content heavy and employs figures of speech and metaphors to deliver complex information.  

Skills

A good presenter needs a number of skills in order to engage an audience and get their point across. Communication skills including voice projection, using the full range of the voice and avoiding a monotone delivery, positive, confident body language and a good command of their native language are essential too good presentation. The content of a presentation must be concise and impactful which demands excellent research, writing and editing skills. IT skills including a command of presentation software to ensure an eye-catching and engaging presentation and the ability to ensure the presentation will work on the day (e.g. the computer is connected to the projector) are also essential for good presentation. The ability to think on one's feet is also an essential skill, allowing a presenter to adapt to questions or requests from an audience.