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BAN bullet points. Use photos
Never use slides as cue cards
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Use Plain English not jargon
- Open with a clear statement of intent
An effective, compelling presentation is visually interesting with plenty of story telling. A poor presentation is usually dominated by PowerPoint's tedious bullet points; forgettable graphs, and endless unreadable text.
People remember stories and photos. They forget bullet points and data.
Inject life and interest into your PowerPoint slides by using full frame images and only occasional charts. Highlight your key points through story-telling with anecdotes and examples.
The one thing people hate most is a presenter who displays and reads lists of bullet points. Your audience is there to hear from you, not to read your slides. (If your slides are text heavy, cancel the presentation and circulate your material by email.)
The best way to open your presentation is a single sentence clearly stating what will follow e.g. "Today I'm going to take you through the four key changes in publishing and how these changes will affect you."
Involve your audience by regularly inviting comment or feedback. If it's all one-way traffic, your audience will soon tune out. But keep you answers brief.
Engage with your audience by maintaining brief eye contact with one person at a time. You can look directly at someone in the front row as you highlight one point or phrase. Then move to someone nearby for the next comment. Your audience will feel they are involved in conversations, rather than attending a lecture.
Finally, the single most important factor in a good presentation is the one thing few people pay attention to: practise. By practising alone before the presentation, you will see and hear your mistakes before others do. And you'll have time to remedy them.
*Deliver your next presentation like a professional with executive on-camera training. Contact Greg now for a training quote. Phone 021 899 532
