| The company Westwood Brewery, based in London, is a traditional company. It has recently created the post of Public Relations (PR) Manager in order to improve the company’s image in the market | The presenter Joanna Brookes is Westwood’s new PR Manager. One of the first things she does is to organize a meeting to discuss the brewery’s corporate image – in particular whether it needs to be changed. | The audience Joanna has invited the senior managers of the brewery and some outside consultants. They are expecting to participate in a meeting about the corporate image of the brewery | The presentation Unfortunately, Joanna gets the date wrong. She only realizes her mistake when her secretary tells her that the audience is waiting in the conference room. She starts the meeting with a short presentation. The presentation should introduce the main topics for discussion |
Tips for Presentations.
Overall
Awareness of your audience (Who are they? What are their needs or interests? What do they expect from you?)
Clear objectives (to inform, persuade, welcome, train)
System
Planning- have clear structure and sense of timing.
Organization – have clear connections between the different parts or ideas.
Information – make sure what you say is interesting and relevant to your audience.
Impact – make sure you have a strong introduction and conclusion.
Delivery
Clear simple and fluent, use of natural spoken language, use of pauses for emphasis.
Body language
Good eye contact with the audience.
Positive, confident and relaxed manner.
Visual aids
Clear and simple messages. Efficient, professional use of equipment.
Design
Don’t use visuals to repeat what you say with words.
Don’t overcrowd visuals with too much information.
Use visuals to support or summarize what you say.
Only use key words, not lines of text.
Think about which kind of visual is right for you (graph, table, picture, words, etc.)
Use colour (but not too much).
Use
Don’t use too many visuals.
Don’t read from the visual.
Make sure the audience understands the visual.
Face the audience as much as possible.
Don’t block the audiences view.
Remember that your visuals should help you communicate your message.
They should not distract your audiences attention from what you say.
Language Focus: Introducing yourself and your talk
Greeting, name, position
Good morning. My name’s (…). I’m the new Finance Manager.
Ladies and gentlemen. It’s an honour to have the opportunity to address such a distinguished audience.
Good morning. Let me start by saying just a few words about my own background. I started out in …
Welcome to Standard Electronics. I know I’ve met some of you. But just for the benefit of those I haven’t, my name’s (…).
Title/Subject
I’d like to talk (to you) today about…
| I’m going to | present the recent … | |||
| explain our position on … | ||||
| brief you on … | ||||
| inform you about … | ||||
| describe … | ||||
| The | subject of my | talk | ||
| focus | presentation | |||
| topic | paper (academic) | |||
| speech(usually to public audience) | ||||
Purpose/Objective
| We are here today to | decide… |
| agree… | |
| learn about… | |
| The purpose of this talk is to | update you on… |
| put you in the picture about… | |
| give you the background to… | |
| The talk is designed to | act as a springboard for discussion. |
| start the ball rolling. |
Length
I shall only take (…) minutes of your time.
I plan to be brief.
This should only last (…) minutes.
Outline/Main parts
I’ve divided my presentation into four parts/sections. They are …
The subject can be looked at under the following fields:
Firstly/first of all …
Secondly/then/next …
Thirdly/and then we come to …
Finally/lastly/last of all …
Questions
I’d be glad to answer any questions at the end of my talk.
If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt.
Please interrupt me if there’s something which needs clarifying. Otherwise, there’ll be time for discussion at the end.
Reference to audience
I can see many of you are …
I know you’ve travelled a long way.
You all look as though you’ve heard this before.
Exercises
1. Introductions can become repetitive. It’s important to have a choice of words and expressions at your fingertips. Use the following expressions to replace each of the expressions in italics in the introduction.
don’t hesitate a chance I take care
I’m delighted sections go through
in more depth my purpose is divide
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a pleasure to be with you today. My name’s Gordon Matthews and I’m in charge of corporate finance at our headquarters here in Brussels. We are here today to review some key figures and to outline financial strategy over the next five years. So what I intend to do is to break down this presentation into three parts: first, the financial review, second, the options facing us; and finally, the strategy I propose. If you have any questions, please feel free to interrupt me, but I should also say there’ll be an opportunity to discuss issues at greater length after my talk
2.Match a sentence or phrase on the left with one from the right.
| 1 Please help yourselves | a. describe the new proposal. |
| 2 If we're all here, | b. Thank you Geoff. It's good to be here. |
| 3 I'd like to start by | c. to the brochures at the back. |
| 4 I have a handout with the statistics on. | d. let's make a start. |
| 5 I'd like to welcome Geoff Maxwell. | e. Please take one as I pass them around. |
| 6 After that I'd like to | f. please feel free to ask me. |
| 7. Today, I'd like to talk about | g. outlining the plan for the day. |
| 8 If you have any questions | h. the success we've had with after-sales |
3. Choose a verb from the box to complete each of the sentences below.
 |
Example: If we're all here, I'll begin
a. It's good to.......................... Mr Maxwell here from the Head Office.
b. I have the figures for the last three months to............. to you.
c. Would you like to........................ a handout?
d. I'd.............................. to talk today about last year's sales figures.
e. I plan to ………………….about twenty minutes for questions at the end.
f. I'd like to........................... our speaker today.
4. The following sentences are mixed up. Put the words into the correct order.
example: for / to / thank / like / all / you/ coming
I’ d like to thank you all for coming........................................................
1 points / handout / of / have / with / my / the / a / main / presentation
I.......................................................................................................
2 customer/care/here/explain/to
I'm......................................................................................................
3 Malaysian / I'm / office / the / Mohammed / from
Good morning....................................................................................
4 the / read / interesting / day / something / other
I........................................................................................................
5 outline / begin / I'd / proposal / to / with / like / the
To.......................................................................................................
6 leader/you /sure/ I'm / I'm/ know/ project/the
As.......................................................................................................
5. Complete the sentences with the correct word.
| example: It's good to................... meet you. | have / take / meet |
| a Did everyone....................... a handout? | give/ get/ go |
| b Don't.......................... about taking notes. | worry/forget/think |
| с Please.......................... yourselves. | meet/ have/help |
| d Please feel......................... to stop me. | expensive/free/open |
| e I'd like to......................... the past. | let/ happen / describe |
| f I want to.......................... on the results first. | look / worry / focus |
6. Complete the following introduction with appropriate words from the unit.
Well, If everyone's......................................... start. It's great to have Liu Wei here the office in Beijing. As you ……………., he is the Director of Marketing and has achieved excellent results.
Good afternoon. Thank you, Sam. I'm....... to be here today. OK, today I'd ………………..to talk about the developments in the Beijing office. We've had to develop quickly to meet the demands of the market and it's been hard work but very rewarding. In my presentation this afternoon I'd like to ……………three main points. ……………, I'll briefly outline our small beginnings two years ago; …………………I'll explain how we adapted the RB409 range to suit the local market and …….……I'll show our success. If you have any questions, there'll be ………… at the end.
Before I start, I ………………..a handout for you. It has the graphs and main notes on it. Would you like to.............................................. one? Here you are.
7 Make a presentation on one of the topics studied in the module.
APPENDIX
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USEFUL PHRASES
