Presentations

As a student still completing my undergrad, presentations are relevant to my present place in the Nutrition field. I will be presenting a poster in my fourth year, and perhaps a few more presentations will come up along the way to graduating. I have always been a fan of presenting in front of an audience, with the new techniques I have learned in ALES 204, I look forward to applying these skills as the next opportunity presents itself.

It is during my fourth year capstone course that I will produce my first, professional research poster. Posters are an effective way of presenting information to a large conference of people. They must captivate the eye, and summarize your objective and findings in an attractive, direct and complete manner. This requires that you have subjectively summarized your work, leaving only the main points on the poster, while including enough for the reader to have a thorough understanding of what exactly it is that you did. Information must then be organized, and presented in an appealing manner so to catch the eye of every passerby. What's excellent about this lengthy, precise process is that by the end of it you will know every inch of your work that when asked, you shouldn't hesitate an instant before engaging your audience in a more detailed conversation of your research!

Powerpoint or computer-mediated presentations are a very common way of presenting information. Here, presenters must be careful to avoid making their presentations too chalk-full of text, irrelevant data or hard to interpret data. If the wrong colors are chosen for text and background, this could also lead to a disastrous, ineffective presentation. Little factors, such as font type and slide backgrounds are just as important to the presentation as the factual texts on each slide. If you can master the art of both, you are on your way to being the deliverer of a great presentation.

The field of nutrition is a very dynamic industry. With ongoing scientific research, new realizations and proposed hypotheses, people involved in the industry need effective ways of relaying information amongst themselves and with others of different fields. Whether it be via powerpoint, Slideshare or a poster, professionals in my field need to be coherent and successful when it comes to delivering a presentation.

Speeches and the Nutrition Industry

Speeches and presentations are a great means of communicating an individual's knowledge with an audience. For this to be an effective exchange, the presenter must have a well formulated, organized speech, as well as be conscious of how she physically composes herself throughout the delivery. 

Speech is useful in the field of Nutrition when it comes to presenting research and translating nutrition jargon to a language that the public can understand. The public may not care much about nutrition, or feel no need to understand it. It is in my greatest intention to become a great presenter, in order to influence others to be interested in their own nutrition and health. This is my ultimate career goal, it is why I want to become a Registered Dietitian. Spreading the essential knowledge that is nutrition, showing others why it is important for them to incorporate it into their lives in order to become healthy individuals with an increased quality of life is my inspiration. 

It takes a lot of consideration to create a great speech. Organizing thoughts into a logical flow, while keeping it interesting, exciting and educational are what a good speech comes down to. After the speech is created, it is up to the presenter to carry the words into a motivational presentation that engages the audience and moves them. My classmate Naomi has done a blog post explaining the Pecha Kucha presentation method. This is a newer approach to presentations, each slide in a slideshow remains fairly simple and is only posted for 20 seconds. The aim of Pecha Kucha is to keep the presentation moving forward and only with the most important details being presented. The presenter must consider so many details before even uttering their first words in front of an audience. What they are wearing from top to bottom, how nice their hair is, and whether they have anything on that will allow them to fidget with is all taken into account before stepping in front of the audience. Aside from this, the presenter must take deep breathes to regulate their breathing, and be aware of a strong posture and a projecting voice. A great way to become relaxed in front of the audience is to introduce yourself and perhaps extract a few laughs from the audience while doing so, this may help take some unwanted pressure off.

Once these essentials are figured out, information may be conveyed excellently to the audience. It is so important for professionals in my field to be great when it comes to these basics of communication. The Nutrition industry exists because it affects everyone, in return everyone should be knowledgeable in this area. For this to persist, the knowledge from Dietitians and Nutritionists must be conveyed to the public. It is important that this conveying be persuasive and informative to engage all into our realm of nutrition. To leave on some final words, I will pass you on to Steve Jobs' speech to Stanford graduates. I was shown it in one of my business classes at the University of Alberta and it is one of the speeches that I will always remember: