Presentations: They’re Not Just About the Words

By Sathvik Gujja

HOUSTON: This past weekend, on September 23, Guaranga Hall was filled with emotion. A speaker, with the knowledge extensive enough to share his wisdom with thousands and manifesting the desire to help our youth raise their levels of achievement and abilities as effective communicators, enacted his discourse. During the first of many YLDP sessions, Chuck Hinkle, a presentations coach, facilitator, trainer, and database developer for Shell, eloquently and lucidly demonstrated his knowledge and experience acquired over thirty years about how to effectively deliver presentations.

Throughout Chuck Hinkle’s presentation, the advice he offered the crowd of both young and old students and parents, was nothing short of remarkable. One of the main focuses of his presentation addressed how some of the most diminutive details, such as professional attire or transitions, can affect the entire presentation, positively or negatively. Annoying transitions or sound effects, such as the typewriter sound effect, can lead to audience members being irritated at the least, and exit the presentation entirely at most. When discussing what we learned from the presentation with my group afterwards, many of us asserted that along with a professional appearance, presenting with clear authority and a strong delivery builds credibility for the speaker, a statement I’m sure I, along with the rest of my group, will keep in mind for our future presentations to aid in our communicational development.

Another aspect of his presentation that stuck out to my entire group was his insistence on incorporating visuals into his presentations as a substitution for words. We learned that simply reading off of bullet points is one of the worst mistakes a new presenter can make as the presentation does not offer any audience engagement and is quite redundant, useful to know for our future use and proving Hinkle’s mastery of his craft.

In Chuck Hinkle’s, well-articulated presentation, he masterfully addressed the tips and tricks to deliver an effective presentation. It truly reflected the same presentation skills he shared to the audience as it was both enthralling and captivating as it offered clear, distinctive ways for anybody to become a better presenter.