It is time!

 “Boy, what a relief it is to finish presenting!” That is the first thought that always go through my head after I’m done with my part. However, after each and every time, looking back, I always feel that I could have done better and many things could have indeed been improved on.

I recall reading from somewhere that even experienced presenters still feel the same racing pulse, butterflies and anxiety as everyone else, but they are more experienced only at conquering it. This is probably one of the obstacles that I feel, is something I could do better in. Perhaps this is something that can only be trained through experience, as even during rehearsals and practice, the feel is just different.

Moving more towards the presentation, I felt that one of the hardest things to do is to actually speak with confidence and to present with an impact. “Speak from the heart and with passion” was one of the advices I was given before, but somehow during the presentation this advice seems to fade away to the back of my mind. This is something that I feel I can work on, to make the presentation more impactful and to leave behind a positive impression.

This brings about the next point, on that my presentation could have had a better flow. There were a few parts in which my sentences got jumbled up and the nervousness and anxiety did nothing to help me formulate my thoughts. Even after a few rehearsals, the real presentation was more daunting than it seems. Probably the only way to resolve this issue is to practice the speech over and over again until every point presented on each slide is crystal clear in my head. I should probably make it clear that this should not be a memorization of speech, but rather a memorization of the points to be presented.

The last thing to improve on would probably be what to do when a video is being shown. During the presentation, when the video was shown to the audience, it suddenly struck my mind about what I should be doing. Should I be observing the audience or turn my attention to the screen as well. Thus I felt a little lost up there during those 40 seconds! Also, the video shown was not expanded to full screen and I tried to signal to my team mates but failed nonetheless, thus deciding to give up.

All in all, every presentation presents me with a little bit more knowledge in how to improve myself and this presentation was definitely helpful in showing me the areas in which I could improve more.