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Jun
2
Why are so many presentations boring? Sleep-inducing?
Why do so many presentations have too many slides, too much text, too many bullets, speakers reading out from their slides, running overtime?
Here are a few things to keep in mind while preparing your presentation. With this presentation philosophy, you’ll move the focus from your presentation to the audience - which is what matters.
Prepare
- Prepare your talk without PowerPoint. Assume it’s just you and the audience, and no projector, no PowerPoint. This is KEY. Here’s where you place yourself above your presentation.
- Break this talk into sections.
- For each section, think hard about what the audience will find difficult to understand. Put that on a slide. Graphs (very sparingly!) need to be only One Per Slide, and the only item on that slide.
- Deliver the talk with the presentation at least once. Stay 5 - 7 minutes inside your alloted time. Always. The audience loves it if you finish ahead of time. Even when you’re a rock star tomorrow, remember this.
- Appearance: Use dark backgrounds and white text. Stick to the corporate template. If you aren’t using one, don’t use a template at all. Plain black background is perfect.
- Ask yourself these questions:
- Do I have to read out anything from the slide? If so, remove it from the slide immediately.
- At any point of time, is the audience’s attention going to be drawn to the slide, when I’m speaking? If so, remove. Again.
Learn
Watch good Presentations. Keynotes. Welcome addresses. Speeches. See how the world’s best showman, Steve Jobs, talks on stage. His Macworld addresses are available on Apple’s site. Watch how little there is on his slides. Observe how he synchronises his talk with his slides. The slides follow him, not the other way round.