SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/30215
With enough preparation and practice you can at least get by with a modest number of note cards or points in an outline. PowerPoint can help you get your point across, but sometimes PowerPoint just gets in the way of getting your point across. Pow- erPoint offers an advantage of visualization of your ideas. So if you are offering visual ideas, then PowerPoint works well. PowerPoint also offers some distinct disadvantages. You can’t adjust the pres- entation during the presentation. Think of the times you’ve seen a presenter fly through the final three slides as time started to run out. PowerPoint users also have a tendency to put too many words on a slide. That leads to reading the slide, which is the visual, but equally annoying, equivalent of reading a script. The use of stan- dard PowerPoint templates suggests a lack of creativity if not a lack of preparation. Click on the template called “Dad’s tie.” Tell me you can live without ever seeing it again. PRACTICE Nothing special about the advice here: practice, practice, prac- tice. PRESENT In the 1979 movie “All That Jazz,” Roy Scheider plays a booz- ing, drug-addicted, sleepless Broadway choreographer/dancer. In several scenes you see him rise from the dressing room couch looking like the boozing, drug-addicted, sleepless dancer he was. He walks up to the mirror, opens his bloodshot eyes, squirts in a few eye drops, blinks and loudly proclaims, “It’s Showtime.” He then proceeds on stage and does his magic. Perhaps you can close your eyes for a moment and think, “It’s Showtime,” before you take the podium. Listen to your introduction. If the person doing the intro does- n’t establish your credibility, make sure you blend that into the early part of the speech. If that intro does establish your expertise, don’t repeat it in your speech. Part of “Showtime” is being enthusiastic. If you can’t show in- terest in your topic, how can you expect your audience to show interest? Use your voice. Most often you will be using a microphone. That allows for easy changes in volume. A very soft voice can get additional attention. So can a louder voice. Vary your pace. The “pause” and the resulting silence can be a most effective device. Other times talking fast can deliver a dramatic effect. If you are using a podium microphone you will be tied to the podium, but if you are equipped with a lavaliere mic feel free to move around. It can help you maintain eye contact with different parts of the room. Use gestures to help communicate key points, but avoid constant movement that resembles a sapling flapping in the wind. Above all, be yourself. That’s really tough to do when you’re nervous, but perhaps that practice we talked about earlier can make that easier to accomplish. That way when it’s “showtime” you’ll be ready for the show. ■ Dr. Max Utsler teaches journalism at the University of Kansas. www.stma.org SportsTurf 29