Recently I was judging a university presentation competition here in Korea, and I have to say I was very impressed. The standard of Korean university students presenting in English was excellent. The way they used their slides to help tell their story and convey their message was so encouraging and the way they used images and video to express difficult concepts was just brilliant.
If I do have one criticism it would be the fact that the majority of presenters just stood there, not moving and not using hand or arm gestures. It made the presentations feel a little wooden and lacking in life.
Movement of the presenter is important because it helps to show enthusiasm and passion. If you have your slides and words right, the final part of the equation needs to be the your body language and gestures. Using your arms to help stress points and important aspects of your presentation helps to bring your presentation to life. It also helps to keep the audience’s focus on you – which as a presenter is all important.
As you can see from the images above, these TED speakers are all using some form of movement, and although these images are static, you can ‘feel’ the movement in their body language. That is something you need to do to help bring that all important ‘energy’ to your next presentation.