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SierraNevadaAirstreams.org -> owner's guide -> touring
My grandfather carried a slide projector and screen in his trailer to show his trip slides to any audience that expressed an interest. He had a lot of pictures of interesting things and sites as well as a good log of his experiences. However, he couldn't bear the trauma of trying to select samples and his presentations only story was that of a travelogue. So, if you didn't enjoy the pictures, his presentations could be rather boring and tedious.
Nowadays we have the web as a place to post pictures for others to view at their leisure. And there are still times when we might be asked to make a presentation to a club or other group about our travels. The novelty of seeing other parts of the world or others' experience has somewhat worn off over the last fifty years of TV science, travel, and nature shows so we need to do more that just dump a set of pictures and travel log on our audience.
The secret is to tell a story that your audience can understand and enjoy. Everything you say or show should help to tell this story. Keep in mind Filhaber's six P's (augmented) - "Prior planning (and preparation) prevents piss poor performance."
Here are the themes you will find necessary to accommodate in presenting your memories as an enjoyable experience for both you and your audience.
Know your audience: their reason for wanting to see your presentation, their interests, education, values, and common opinions.
Know your story: be able to describe your 'theme' in a single sentence and have an outline of sequence for your story so that it is coherent and focused.
Be ruthless in selecting materials: keep the quality high for each individual piece of the presentation and make sure that each piece clearly contributes to the story you are trying to tell.
Avoid extemporaneous comment and keep to your script - maybe not word for word but don't get distracted. Tell your story, stick to your timeline, and don't overrun your welcome.
Have an opening or introduction, a body, and a close or summary. (This is the 'tell them what you are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them' concept)
Keep in mind the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) - each piece of your presentation needs to focus on one concept and not be cluttered with excess detail. Keep sentences short. Build on small simple blocks (think of each block as a paragraph). One clue to this is that you should spend about the same amount of time on each picture or illustration in your presentation and that time should not exceed a half a minute.
Practice makes perfect!
KU Mdical Center Effective Presentations http://www.kumc.edu/SAH/OTEd/jradel/effective.html (tutorial for graduate teaching assistants and has many good links for follow-up)
Effective Meetings.com Presenting http://www.effectivemeetings.com/presenting/index.asp (this site is a good resource for your club, too)
University of Newcastle upon Tyne Chemical and Process Engineering: "Communication Skills - making oral presentations: http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/Dept/Tips/present/comms.htm (good 1 page summary)
Engineering Green Tips: http://www.americanforests.org/conference/spGuidelines.php (these tips can also serve as a good check off list for your preparation)
Dartmouth How to give a talk: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~brd/Teaching/Giving-a-talk/giving-a-talk.html (this one is about style - good rationale for not using a pointer, too)
Making the Most of Presentations http://www.bradford.ac.uk/admin/studev/pres.html (book summary - Enthusiasm is essential!)
CMU Rules for Making a Presentation http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~mihaib/presentation-rules.html ("Human attention is very limited. Don't cram too much information, either in each slide, or in the whole talk. Avoid details: they won't be remembered anyway.")
Innovations in Health Education http://www.iihe.org/education/Powerpoint_tutor/Quality.htm (checklist for slide content and style)
University of Texas hints http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/students/presentation.htm (Make sure that your talk is of a reasonable length. Remember that adrenlin makes you talk more/longer, not less)
Science and Engineering Laboratory Designing Effective Poster Presentations http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/bio/posters.html (good resources for telling a story on one sheet)
Institute of Transportation Engineers http://www.ite.org/meetcon/speech.asp (Who is the audience? Be careful with humor.)
Leveragint the Magic of Information and Technology Speaker Guidelines http://www.cumrec.org/cumrec2003/cfp/speaker_guidelines.asp (good rundown on methods)
If you find any of these have ceased to become useful or if you have other sites to recommend, please let us know - email photographer@SierraNevadaAirstreams.org
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