|
Available
on this page:
On-Site
Oral Presentation
Final
Oral Presentation
Common
Pitfalls
Making
Presentations:
To
learn how to prepare good presentations, you can review:
Effective
Presentations
(PowerPoint)
Effective Presentations (PDF)
by Harry S. Wildblood
Department of General Engineering
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
ON-SITE PRESENTATION AT SPONSOR
During Week 11, all project teams are required to give an
on-site presentation at the Sponsor's facility. This is
intended to bring all parties up to speed with the progress
of the project and clarify any unanswered questions or ambiguities
in the project. Make preparations with your Sponsor at
least 3 weeks before your presentation to allow for scheduling
of necessary personnel to attend the meeting. You should
help decide who should attend the meeting. Think about all
the features of your project and how far reaching your results
may be. You must eliminate any technical or other unknown
obstacles to acceptance of your project solution by the
sponsor. Consider inviting personnel such as:
- CEO
- CFO
- CIO
- Engineering
- Manufacturing
- Quality
Control
- Maintenance
- Information
Technology
- Environmental
- Marketing
- Sales
|
- Warranty
claims
- Field
Service
- Distribution
- Shipping
- Receiving
- Line
Supervisors
- Setup
Personnel
- Tool
Room
- Machine
Operators
- Human
Resources
|
Because
this presentation will immediately follow the 2nd Subgroup
presentation, you should have all of your presentation materials
prepared in MS PowerPoint. Check with your Sponsor about
the presentation equipment at their facility. You may need
to prepare transparencies for their overhead projector.
Plan for the meeting to last about an hour or so, including
your presentation, questions, discussion, etc.
You
may decrease the amount of introductory material in your
presentation, for obvious reasons, but be clear about the
problem statement, objectives, and the remainder of the
talk. Feel free to put much more technical detail into your
talk than you had time for in your subgroup presentation.
Your sponsor will be interested in every bit of detail because
they will be the ones implementing your ideas. Keep in mind
that the Sponsor wants emphasis on project results, conclusions,
prototypes, drawings, and recommendations. Give special
emphasis to the economic analysis and clearly show how your
recommendations will improve profitability.
Keep
in mind that this presentation is scheduled about 4-5 weeks
before the end of the semester to give you time to incorporate
company feedback into your project.
Make
sure you are well rehearsed for your presentation. You should
be able to present with no notes or other prompts. Make
sure you have a good understanding of the jargon used in
your Sponsor's operation.
Remember
there is no 15 minute time limit on this presentation, so
don't rush through your presentation materials. The sponsor
may ask highly detailed questions about project specifics.
Allow your sponsor to interact with you during the presentation
if they wish, and be prepared to think on your feet. Also,
make sure that all of the ideas you present are clearly
understood by the sponsor. Because the timing of this presentation
is open ended, you will have plenty of time for additional
questions and answers. Have several additional slides prepared
in your "war-chest" for answering questions. (see
Chapter 6)
Ask
for complete and candid feedback from the sponsor. Make
sure you understand any and all concerns that the sponsor
has for the remainder of the project to bring it to completion.
Review
"Some Presentation Guidelines" in Chapter 6 and
"Common Pitfalls"
in Chapter 11 of your handbook.
FINAL ORAL PRESENTATION
The final oral presentation will be held on the
date specified on the course calendar. You should plan to
devote the entire morning and early afternoon to
attending the presentations and the luncheon meeting with
your sponsor. Make sure that you invite your sponsor to
the presentations and find out how many sponsor personnel
will be attending, so we can plan the luncheon properly.
Know their arrival time so that you can greet them at the
Transportation Building. Remember that your sponsor is
your guest for the day; be available to have coffee
with them and discuss their interests. Besides giving your
own presentation, you are expected to attend and evaluate
your colleagues' presentations as well. The only exception
is when your sponsor needs to meet you while other presentations
are ongoing.
The
Final Oral Presentation should be at a level commensurate
with that expected of a practicing engineer in industry.
This includes high quality visual aids, exhibits, demonstrations,
well-rehearsed delivery and proper business dress.
Each
team will have 20 minutes to present, followed by 8 minutes
of audience questions. The time limit will be adhered to
strictly since sponsors want to move from room to room to
see other presentations of interest. The oral presentations
will be evaluated by all in attendance; this will assist
in the determination of your final 494 grade.
Note:
a Subgroup Meeting Brief is NOT required for the Final Presentation
Any
visual or demonstrative aids may be used. The bulk of your
presentation should be prepared through MS PowerPoint. Videotapes
of experiments or processes may be used as well. There is
also visualization software available to enable graphical
depiction from mounds of data. If your presentation has
special needs that are not available in the scheduled room,
advise GE 494 Chairman in writing as far in advance as possible
and then follow up with him to make arrangements for the
equipment you need. Check with personnel in 104 TB to obtain
additional projectors, extension cords and screens. You
may need to speak to Kevin Carmody (301 TB) for other computer
needs.
Review
"Some Presentation Guidelines" in Chapter 6. Also
review the recordings of your earlier subgroup presentations.
COMMON
PITFALLS
-
Not practicing your presentation sufficiently so that
you do not use your time budget effectively.
-
Reading from a card or page instead of speaking to the
audience.
-
Playing or fumbling with a pointer instead of using it
effectively to direct audience attention.
-
Failing to give a thorough but brief problem introduction
for those in the audience who are completely unfamiliar
with your project.
-
Passing samples around the room during the presentation.
This causes loss of audience attention.
-
Trying to show a small or medium-sized object to the audience
by holding it up for them to see. Instead, take close-up
photos and project your photos on the screen where all
can see easily. Use videos if action or movement is important.
-
Showing demonstrations that fail due to inadequate preparation.
-
Using slides that are too wordy and make the presenter
redundant as the audience tries to read every word on
the slide.
-
Using diagrams that are too busy or fonts that are too
small.
-
Introducing material to the audience with several slides
without integrating that material into the logical flow
of the presentation. In other words, wasting time with
extraneous information that goes nowhere.
-
Showing a critical graph without explaining the axes,
legend, and the overall meaning of the graph.
- "Pulling
an all-nighter" to prepare the presentation and then
attempting to present material and answer questions when
in an exhausted, sleep-deprived, brain-dead state. Plan
ahead and use your other two subgroup presentations to
build your final presentation over a period of time.
-
Not speaking loudly or clearly enough for all to hear.
This demonstrates a lack of concern for the audience.
-
Lacking enthusiasm in your presentation. The audience
will have no more enthusiasm about your project than you
do. So, fill the room with energy and enthusiasm as you
present. Keep in mind that this is your last chance to
make a splash as a GE undergraduate. Make your presentation
memorable to your sponsor and show that you are excited
about the work you have done and the recommendations you
are making.
-
Trying to make answers to questions long and complex.
If the answer is simple, state it. If you don't know the
answer, just say so. Don't try to "tap dance"
to hide the fact that you don't know.
-
Being defensive during the Q&A sessions. The common
goal of all should be to bring out concepts that are useful
in the solution to the problem. Do not be defensive if
a weakness is shown in your arguments. Use this insight
to make your solution better.
|
