Strategies to Prepare the Presentation

Creating Your Presentation

Follow The 10-20-30 Rule

It is said a presentation “should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points”. He was talking about pitching to investors but this is fairly solid advice for any presentation. You might need to over-run the 20-minute rule in some circumstances (e.g. a university lecture) but could the additional time be better used for questions and answers?

Start With A Summary

Summarising your presentation in a single slide at the beginning gives your audience a clear idea of what they’re going to learn and stimulates anticipation of the whole story. It’s also a good discipline for you as a presenter to help keep you keep the topic succinct. If you can’t summarise your presentation topic in 10-15 words, then it’s probably too long or too vague. Think of is an ‘elevator pitch’, a synopsis of a book or an abstract for a scientific paper.

Tell A Story

Human beings have used stories to impart information since the dawn of time and it’s still a great way to communicate. Even if you have to deliver a long series of facts, remember that it’s the underlying meaning or outcome of those facts that will strike home.  This doesn’t mean you should start your presentation with “Once upon a time”, just that you should build it in such a way that the chronology of the topic is clear.  Can you think of plot twists or hooks that can be shared along the way to keep them interested? You might find writing an initial ‘script’ away from PowerPoint helpful before you go diving into slides.

See It From The Audience’s Perspective

Getting the tone and content of your presentation right starts with being honest about what they really want to hear and what they can realistically absorb. If you really care about your audience, you have to be an advocate for their learning needs, not your own agenda. If that means simplifying your content or recapping previous presentations then so be it. It’s better than losing them completely or being “that presenter” who was too difficult to understand or didn’t recognize who he/she was speaking to.

Present What You Know And Care About

Most lower-quality presentations are a symptom of the presenter not really wanting to be there. A rookie presenter who knows their subject or is really passionate can be better than a pro who isn’t bothered. Just look at Elon Musk – his presentation style is notoriously haphazard but he is incredibly exciting and comes across as completely authentic. The very best presenters know their subject so well that they don’t even need notes or slides. If you don’t know or don’t care then don’t present – find someone else!

Avoid Too Much Text

Using too much text is one of the most common presentation mistakes. Presenters often feel they need to include everything in their slides. This often manifests itself in the over-use of bullet point lists, paragraphs of text, and tiny font sizes. A couple of sentences per slide and no more is the ideal and remember that the audience came to hear you speak not read. A good test on the day is to see whether the audience is mostly looking at you or the slides – if it's the latter then you’ve put too much content in!

Use Images

A picture tells a thousand words and good images are far better than tons of text. Don’t use cheesy stock imagery though – that’s a real turn-off. Choose pictures that directly illustrate or support what you’re saying or set the tone of the slide. In the right setting, a bit of humor can cheer the audience up and keep them engaged too.  Videos can work well too but it's best to keep to shorter snippet videos rather than diverting half your presentation slot to something pre-recorded.

Customize Your Template

Far too many presenters stick to the standard blank PowerPoint template. PowerPoint comes with lots of other templates and font choices to improve appearance.  It’s also really easy to create your own custom PowerPoint template with your own logo, font, etc.

Don’t Over-Use Animations

Subtle slide-ins or fade-ins of the next slide can add a bit of style to a presentation but sliding in every last bullet point becomes irritating on a longer presentation. Keep it simple!

Present Data Clearly

It can be tempting to chuck in a spreadsheet of raw data and try to explain it figure-by-figure but a chart or graph will highlight the significance of your data far better. Be sure to pick the right sort of chart for your data. Typically you would use a histogram to compare quantities, a pie chart for percentages, and a line chart to show change over time.

Use the Slide Sorter

Inspirational ideas for slide content don’t always come out in a sensible order for the presentation itself. Once you’ve written your main slides use the slide sorter (View Menu > Slide Sorter) to put the slides in an order that fits the overall story of your presentation. Audience retention is improved by having sub-topic chunks within your presentation so try to bring slides together in mini-segments.

Avoid Death By PowerPoint

Death by PowerPoint is a phrase used to describe a multitude of sins. In almost every case it’s the presenter who is at fault, not PowerPoint. The most common cause is making the slide deck the focus rather than the presenter. If you don’t want to be there and could just as easily email your slides to your audience, then do that and spare everyone.

Preparation For The Event

Practice

Practicing in front of a mirror isn’t the same as doing it in front of an audience and it might make you more self-conscious. Start your presentation training with small, friendly audiences and speak about something you’re totally familiar with. Then you can work your way up to larger audiences and more tricky topics.

On The Day

Coping With Nerves

Imagine the audience naked! If you’re new to public speaking or are speaking to a new crowd, it can be pretty nerve-wracking. Turn this on its head be imagining the front row is all naked and desperately self-conscious!

Speak Slowly

It’s tempting to think that you need to divulge as much information as possible but talking too fast is really hard for audiences to digest. Watch a TV newscaster and see how they speak slowly with lots of pauses. It’s definitely a case of “less is more” and you’ll be amazed how much better the audience absorbs stuff. The breathing space will also give you more brain ‘CPU time’ to gauge audience reactions and respond accordingly. Speaking too fast is a common trait of nervous speakers but ironically, slowing down will give you more time to relax and give your presentation more gravitas.

Keep To A Schedule

Presentations that over-run are hard work for the audience and a nightmare for event organizers. Keep an eye on the clock, try to avoid labouring points, and don’t be afraid to skim less critical slides if you are running out of time. There’s nothing wrong with ending a little earlier than expected and it can give you an opportunity for an impromptu Q&A session.

If You Get Stuck

If you get stuck halfway through a presentation or someone asks you a difficult question, don’t be afraid of taking a pause. It’s OK to buy time with “let me think about that” or “that’s a great question!”. At times like this it can help to go back to your presentation synopsis and use that to get you back on track.

Make Eye Contact

It’s very easy to end up staring at the one person in the front row who seems to be smiling at you but focusing on just one person or just staring into space makes the main audience feel like you’re not interested in them. With a small audience, be sure to move eye contact from person to person without fixating on any particular individual. If you have a larger audience, try scanning your attention from left-to-centre-to-right and back again focusing on random individuals each time. Don’t forget the people right at the back too!

Don’t Read From Your Slides

People don’t come to conferences or lectures to read stuff – they want to hear a human being (that’s you!) engage with them. It’s OK to use slide content as a cue occasionally but reading from the screen with your back to the audience is both lazy and boring to watch. If you need additional cues and are using a projector screen then use the Notes feature in PowerPoint – you can get the notes displayed only to you on your computer (Slides > User Presenter View) whilst the audience see only the main slide content on the screen.

Project Your Voice

It might sound obvious but you need to be heard! That doesn’t mean you need to shout, just that you should speak slowly using your lungs. Even if you have the benefit of amplification, you still need to make sure you’re speaking at a consistent volume near to the mic. With an informal audience, you can do your own little sound-check by asking if the people at the back can hear you.

Use Your Hands And Body

Body language is a big part of communication but you don’t have to be a trained orator to get it right (and many politicians and TV personalities use wildly unnatural and contrived gestures anyway). It’s a classic case of “be yourself” – do use your hands, gestures, and facial expressions to accentuate what you’re saying but don’t do anything that feels unnatural. If you’re a relatively reserved, non-animated person that’s OK – maybe you’re better at verbal wit or pithy comments? If you’re not into waving your hands then try gripping the outer edges of the lectern or walking around the stage as an alternative. If you’re worried about it then get a friend or colleague to sit in the audience and give you feedback after a presentation.

Ask Great Questions

Asking Socratic questions is a great way of engaging audience members' brains and getting them to think ahead. They can often make great slide headings too. If your presentation schedule and environment allow, putting these questions directly to the audience can really liven up the talk. Try asking interesting questions that the whole audience can answer.

Avoid Classroom Chicken

Don’t ask the audience questions they don’t want to answer. “Is everyone having fun?”

Hold A Q&A  

If time permits, giving your audience an opportunity to ask questions either at the end or during the presentation is always a good idea. You often end up finding out what they really wanted to hear from you and this can be fed back into any future repeat of the presentation.