Our graduating students are preparing for their end-of-semester Capstone presentation to a panel of HR, Finance and Customer Experience executives. They were privileged this week to receive expert coaching from Cheryl Dixon, an accomplished global communication and brand strategy executive with more than 25 years of experience and a lecturer in Columbia's M.S. in Strategic Communication program.
Some takeaways:
1. Prepare for presentations by learning about your audience, what they care about, and how familiar they are with the topic you are addressing.
2. Justify your recommendations with reference to best practices, competitive intelligence and cost/benefit analysis.
3. Develop a name/heading for your presentation deck to promote key messaging, to serve as a guide for your own thought processes and to keep you on track .
4. Close your presentation with a quick summary and key takeaways.
5. Anticipate what will be asked in Q&A based on your what your audience cares about.
Happily, the students left the class with more confidence to present their ideas effectively!
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of any other person or entity.
