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How do I achieve the perfect presentation?
For the sake of alliteration if nothing else, avoid predictable Powerpoint presentations. Animations, jazzy designs and sound effects won’t hide a lack of content or liven up dull subjects.
But I can’t live, let alone give a presentation, without Powerpoint. What can I do?
Buffalo 7, which bills itself as “the UK’s leading Powerpoint presentation design agency” recommends you stop using bullet points – yes stop altogether – and use less text. One unit of information accompanied by a key ‘visual’ should be enough. Avoid cheesy stock images and clip art. Instead, try to make the imagery stand out as a feature of the slide.
Any tips on speaking?
You need to talk through the information in your slides. Any presentation expert will tell you that repeated rehearsals are vital. Some people find visiting the venue beforehand calms the nerves. Also keep it short – there’s nothing like an endless stream of slides to lull a room full of executives to sleep.
Can’t technology come to my rescue to help engage my audience?
One of the latest innovations is multi-screen presenting. Everyone in a meeting will have a smartphone in their pocket. There is software available, like Lintelus, able to simultaneously broadcast your presentation to your audience’s smartphone screens. Some add functionality such as voting and comments. At least when people are staring at their phones you can pretend they are interested.
All of this is well and good, but my presentations are too technical for any of this
Christopher Witt, author of the book Real Leaders Don’t Do Powerpoint, has various tips for technical presentations. They include ensuring that your presentation prompts for actions and doesn’t just aim for education. You can start with the conclusion up front – methodically building to a conclusion with layers of data and methodology will often dull its impact. He also says the Q&A session should be the focus of a technical presentation, and that an engineer should treat their presentations as problems to solve to help reduce nerves.