[toogoodfortv]

I have to do a presentation at uni - It's a bit of a boring subject....management!

I'm trying to think of fun quirky ideas to include! - really need to emphasise discussion points (about management of council run centres)

Any Ideas on what I could do to make it bit fun and less boring.

I was thinking to introduce the case study - to maybe have a 2min video about the place the study is based on!

[mr.ian]

A scream mask and a pointy bra.

[tony13579]

A quick ice braker is to teach a handfull of people to do chicken impressions

make them say buck, buck erk flap thier wings. slip jackets down thier sholders and thery will be off,

Management is enabling them to do things they didnt know they could do.

[burton07]

Do the presentation nude.

[TheMask]

Stand up and say and introduce yourself

so

God morning my name is *********** and Im a Alcohol.............pause for a second and say...whoops sorry wrong meeting..

[CTUaholic]

Firstly...PLEASE don't use any form of powerpoint!!

A video is good but kinda of a cop out..as people just sit there and watch it instead of listen to you...

Can you think of any physical objects that may be related to what you are talking about? If people can get"tactile" with stuff during a presentation it always goes down well..

A great presentation is one that involves your audience rather than you just talking AT them..

Maybe some Qs and As? Anything that lets you interact!!

[CoffeeLover]

Can you enlist the help of some others and have a sort of "Breakfast Tv" discussion with "experts" ensuring that this covers the main points that you want to get across?

Good luck, hope it goes well!

[Dissonance]

I once had to do a presentation back at college on Cubism... I managed to get a fair bit of it done so it would fit to the tune of Bohemian Rhapsody...

OK, it wasn't as good as I wished it were, but it still was an interesting idea

(as an aside, and the only thing I remember about that presentation - did you know that pidgeons have been trained to correctly identify between cubist and non-cubist paintings?)

[toogoodfortv]

Thanks for the ideas guys - i'm trying to think of ways to get the audience involved..

I was going to open with a question/group discussion type exercise - trying to get them thinking about the topic area before I have even introduced it.

I want wee quirky things to be able to do throughout.....

Although - I'm not confident enough to do some things....maybe more fun, hands on with the group rather than me doing the quirky things myself lol

[Mallaha]

Originally Posted by toogoodfortv

Although - I'm not confident enough to do some things....maybe more fun, hands on with the group rather than me doing the quirky things myself lol

Don't try to do a quirky presentation. You will be self-conscious and your tutor will probably not appreciate it.
Having some sort of interactive discussion element is probably a good idea, but steer clear of gimmicks, and, above all, wackiness. It will make you look like a tool.

[toogoodfortv]

Originally Posted by Mallaha

Don't try to do a quirky presentation. You will be self-conscious and your tutor will probably not appreciate it.
Having some sort of interactive discussion element is probably a good idea, but steer clear of gimmicks, and, above all, wackiness. It will make you look like a tool.

Gawd I won't have a problem there - think i'm too shy to pull off things like that - I should really reword it all..... I mean fun ideas, that will set me apart from the rest of the group - through small exercises/activities/discussion and another thing i'm going to do is make a wee video about the presentation on locations and play it in my slides

[Mallaha]

If it's a short presentation, stick to one or two ideas. Go with the video, or the discussion, but don't try to do too much in a short time. You need to cover all your points as well as present well.

[toogoodfortv]

It's to be 45 mins :-S Scary!! I'm sitting organising my structure of it righnt now

[KnowAll27]

Just be careful that you don't end up sacrificing content for gimmicks in a bid to be entertaining. You'll lose more marks for leaving stuff out/not covering it adequately than you'll gain for being entertaining.

I'd suggest trying to interact with your audience (you may need to 'plant' a few people ie have a few people agree beforehand to interact when the time comes, whether that means agreeing to take part in a demonstration, or arming them with questions).

You could also do something like inform them at the start that there'll be a quiz at the end; with a prize for the winner? Prepare a short quiz based on what you cover, photocopy it, distribute it towards the end, and have something not too expensive ready as a prize? Forcing people to pay attention?

[CoCoKathy]

Originally Posted by TheMask

Stand up and say and introduce yourself

so

God morning my name is *********** and Im a Alcohol.............pause for a second and say...whoops sorry wrong meeting..

That just had me in fits of laughter

I'd perhaps address a certain members of your audience at various points throughout the presentation. Randomly select someone and ask them their opinion on a certain aspect of the topic, and then say "I completely agree" or "Good point but..." and go onto the next slide? Keeping them involved and ensuring they pay attention?

[Beagle2]

Whenever I did presentations at uni I just made some really bad jokes or puns to try to either get the audience on my side or at least get them listening.

Make sure you do something like this at the start so they're immediately engaged.

For example when I was doing the first part of a group presentation I said

"Hi everyone – I’m Ross and I will be introducing Group C’s presentation. If you’re wondering what the C stands for, it’s Cool…"

It's a pretty unfunny thing to say but I got a few chuckles. And whether they're laughing with you or at you is irrelevant - at least they're listening now.

A couple of minutes later I introduced the topic and explained that there were quite a few things that the next people were going to discuss, so I said (the accounting students here might recognise the names...) -

"There are several main criticisms that we will be talking about over the next few hours… sorry, minutes… and we will also critically evaluate Watts and Zimmerman’s responses."

After a said the word 'minutes' everyone was laughing, including myself, and I could hardly finish the sentence (or the next one ). Again, it's not funny on paper, but when you're in front of your peers and they know they have to do the same thing, it breaks the ice and possibly gets them on your side. And most importantly, you start to get their full attention.

I tried to do things like that in all of my presentations. Possibly because I was trying to shield my shyness/nervousness behind laughter. But the thing is, nobody else really did stuff like that, so it was memorable.

I'm not saying this is a sure-fire way of engaging the audience but it helped me because I have a bit of a deadpan sense of humour and I could deliver that kind of stuff well. My advice is really just to find your niche. The presentation I described above was in my 4th year of uni, so I knew what to do by then. But I still tried things out in 1st year to try to get people on my side. And for the record, I was pretty damn shy and unconfident in 1st year. I'm still not the best at presentations in general (no good with eye contact), but my confidence has grown so much because of what I did in presentations.

I wouldn't go all out and make it majorly quirky - you just need a few things thrown in to make sure people are listening. And laughter is the best medicine.

[cultureman]

Originally Posted by toogoodfortv

".... and another thing i'm going to do is make a wee video ...."

Yep, that should gain their attention.