Last week we kicked off the Spring 2022 Craft Your Future professional development series with one of our favorite guest presenters: Juli Dunn, Senior Associate Dean of Students. Juli led an engaging, interactive workshop about honing your presentation skills. A presentation on presentations – pretty meta!
Juli’s work on presentations is inspired by Nancy Duarte (you can check out Duarte’s books and website here). Design thinking and IDEO also influence Juli’s approach to creating visually engaging presentations and beautiful slide decks! (More about IDEO can be found here)
Here are some tips Juli shared with us:
1) Who is your audience?
Make sure you know who your audience is and tailor your presentation’s content and medium accordingly. Are you presenting to your peers? to fellow academics? Is your audience already familiar with the content or is this new information for them?
2) Is a presentation the right medium?
Presentations are meant to be heard and presenter-led. If your slide deck can live without you, then you really just have the makings of a handout versus a presentation.
3) What’s your POINT?
Presence – be fully present in the space and be completely tuned into your work.
Originality – be original, what is your unique story to share? How can you use a story to frame your presentation?
Inclusion – be inclusive — what can you do through your slides or your interactions to draw your audience.
Narrative – choose a story arc that will support your call to action. At the end of your presentation, what do you want people to do?
Transformative – transformation through presentation requires three things –> resistance, tension, and a call to action.
4) Do your slides support your point?
Fit – if they do not reinforce your POINT, they should not be included.
Information – they need to include critical info only.
Visual – can you represent your point visually for increased impact and reinforcement
Engagement – design your slides so that you control the movement and message. Be unpredictable to keep your audience engaged.
Seal the deal – your slides should be designed to support your call to action.
5) If your audience only took away five points, what would they be?
Build your entire presentation around these five points and consider using an acronym and/or visuals that support them.
Happy presenting!
The Craft Your Future: A Professional Development Series is designed to offer all students the opportunity to learn more about the holistic vital skills that will boost their career & life readiness. These webinars, workshops, and speakers share the narratives that offer insight and guidance into professional networks, teach lessons of crucial skills that help students put their best foot forward when pursuing an internship/job/community role, and create space for reflections that provide ways to give meaning to all experiences as students transition into the professional world.
If you have an idea or any questions about the series, email us at ccec_info@whitman.edu.
Victoria Wolff ’12, M.Ed.
Assistant Director for Career Education
Career and Community Engagement Center