High-Impact Presentations

Learn how to execute important presentations, then practice your delivery with interactive online exercises.

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Course overview

Online

CPD Accredited

AI feedback

Digital certificate

5 practice exercises

4 hours of learning

Course outcomes

Discover ways to project confidence and enthusiasm while building credibility

Learn to present with clarity and certainty

Interact with a natural and composed demeanor towards the audience

How to leave your audience with a message that really resonates

Convey complex presentation content directly and simply

Explore techniques to overcome any fear you may have of presenting

Learn to deliver effective presentations

High-stakes presentations require more than just basic presentation skills. They require professional-level delivery techniques and the confidence to deliver at the highest level in any business setting.

In this practical course, you'll learn key topics including how to build confidence when presenting, open and close presentations convincingly, interact with a natural and composed demeanor, and how to leave your audience with a message that really resonates.

Who should take this course?

If you're preparing for high-stakes presentations, such as presenting to senior executives, updating important clients on a project, pitching for a large contract, or speaking at high-profile engagements, then this is the course for you.

Level up your presentation skills

The course combines online learning with practice exercises for a unique learning approach. At certain points throughout this presentation skills course, you'll be prompted to practice what you've learned.

Learn online courses

Learn online, anytime

Complete a series of videos, quizzes, and case studies at your own pace.

Practice in exercises

Practice with exercises

Build your skills and confidence by putting them to the test in realistic online exercises.

Improve with feedback

Improve with feedback

Receive instant feedback from the exercise on your presentation skills to help identify your strengths and weaknesses.

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Course content


  • Overview of the high-stakes presentations course and the exercises. We explain how the exercises work and how they can help you practice your presentations.
  • Course guide and resources
  • Welcome to the course
  • About the online exercises
  • Many of us feel anxious when giving important presentations. This section provides anxiety management techniques and methods to reduce your nerves before the big presentation.
  • Anxiety management techniques
  • Example: Nervous presenters
  • Preparation: Prepare a conference presentation
  • Practice: Presenting in a TEDx styled theatre
  • Cognitive reframing techniques
  • Audience based anxiety
  • Quiz: Anxiety management
  • A clear presentation structure helps your audience follow along more easily. Learn how to prepare your structure, start and end a presentation, include statistics, and more.
  • Why structure is important
  • Monroe’s motivated sequence
  • Analyzing your audience
  • Be in service of your audience
  • How to start a presentation
  • Preparation: Presenting to senior executives
  • Practice: Practice your presentation intro
  • Example: Good and bad introductions
  • Exercise: List the goals for your next presentation
  • How to end a presentation
  • When used effectively, nonverbal presence helps keep your audience interested in your presentation. This section covers tips for improving your body language and eye contact, which you can then practice in VR.
  • 8 elements of confident body language
  • Importance of eye contact
  • Example: Poor body language
  • Quiz: Body language
  • Speaking rate, pauses, volume, and pitch have a great impact on your presentation. This section covers how you should deliver your content, with examples from well-known speakers.
  • Average speaking rate for a presentation
  • Example: Good speaking pace
  • Exercises to warm up your voice
  • Your vocal toolbox
  • Example: Vocal range
  • Using pauses in your presentation
  • Are you telling a story? Giving an elevator pitch? Presenting while seated? This section explains important delivery techniques, including best practices for designing slides and using transitions.
  • First impressions and credibility
  • Tell a story with your presentation
  • Example: Great storytelling from Jack Ma
  • The art of the graceful recovery
  • Presenting while seated
  • Practice: Lecture hall presentation
  • Best practices for designing slides
  • Transitions: words and phrases to use
  • High-impact product demonstration
  • The Q&A session at the end of your presentation plays an important role in delivering your message. Learn how to handle difficult questions and then practice thinking on your feet with our VR scenario.
  • Guide for handling questions after a presentation
  • Handling difficult or hostile questions
  • Example: Answering tough questions at a press conference
  • Practice: Impromptu presentations
  • Exercise: Write down possible audience questions

Practice exercises

Throughout the course, you'll be prompted to practice your presentation skills in one of the following exercises.

370,000+

Learners enrolled in a VirtualSpeech course

4x

Faster than classroom training

6

Learning awards

Features in the practice exercises

The online exercises are full of features to give you the most realistic practice and help you improve quickly.

Presentation Slides icon

Presentation slides

Upload your own presentation slides into the exercise so you can practice with the slide deck you’ll have on the day.

Voice Analysis icon

Speech analysis

Receive instant feedback on your pace, volume, confidence, use of hesitation words, and more.

AI-powered questions icon

AI-powered questions

Practice answering AI-powered questions from the audience on your speech.