In this article, I share 6 tips to make your next presentation a great experience for yourself and your audience. While this article covers 6 tips, do bear in mind that there are many more ways to make your presentation impactful and memorable.
First, here is the summary of the 6 tips:
1 - Know your audience - who, what they expect, what you want out of it
2 - How your presentation will be consumed
3 - How much text on the slides
4 - Get comfortable with the tools you are using
5 - Review your presentation theme on a projector - colour scheme, fonts, aspect ratios, etc
6 - Do a dry run with timing
1 - Know your audience
The first tip is the most important and has the biggest bearing on how you proceed with your presentation. It is absolutely critical to think about your audience. You should think about this from a multiple perspectives: a) what each member of the audience is expecting from the presentation; b) where in the organisation each member of the audience sits; c) what (if anything) you need from each member of the audience.
Once you think through these layers of understanding your audience, you can start to build a story and the format of the presentation you wish to use. For example: if you were presenting to a group of technical resources, you would use different language than if you were presenting to senior leadership.
2 - How your presentation will be consumed
This has an important bearing on the format of the presentation and the content that you would include in it. Presentations are most often consumed in person, where you get an opportunity to talk through the story and also answer questions raised during the presentation. Often, however, your presentation could be circulated on email from person to person. This does not give you an opportunity to present the story.
So, when preparing your next presentation think about this aspect. You want to add enough information on the slides so that it answers questions that might be raised by an audience that would consume the presentation via email and yet you do not want to overburden those that attend in person with too much information. Maybe you could think of adding in the detailed information in appendix slides.
3 - How much text on the slides
This is a perennial discussion. Should you add tons on text on each slide so that you don't have to answer any questions? Or, should you just add 2 word bullet points so that your storytelling is a critical component of the presentation? How about a balance between the two options?
Too much text on the slides could make it monotonous and difficult to read through - especially if you are presenting in person. You don't want those awkward moments when it's not clear whether it is better to read the long sentences off the slide or ask your audience to read it themself! What is the point of the presentation then?
Too little text on the slides could make it extremely difficult to comprehend, especially if you are not there to present. You don't want to lose an audience member who is finding it difficult to comprehend your presentation without you to tell the story. Thinking about tip #1 and tip #2 helps you in this tip.
4 - Get comfortable with the tools you are using
In any presentation, we tend to use a number of tools - presentation tool, graphics tool, clicker, laptop, convertor, projector, screen, poll tool, etc. There are many such tools that you would end up using, whether presenting in person or virtually.
When preparing for your next presentation, give enough time to get comfortable with all the tools that you are going to use and have a backup plan in place for each. For example: what will you do if the clicker does not work? Or what if the client you are presenting to does not have WiFi for you to connect to your slides online?
Another important aspect when thinking of the tools that you will use is to explore the feature set of each tool to ensure that you get the best out of it.
5 - Review your presentation theme
Think very carefully about the presentation theme that you will use for your presentation. If you are representing your organisation at the presentation, you will want to consider using the corporate theme that your organisation has in place. If none exists, think about the theme, including the font sizes, font styles, colour schemes, etc for your slides.
While doing so ensure that you maintain consistency across your slides. An inconsistent slide deck makes you look lazy so give this special attention. Very often, your might have some text that appears on a background colour - so ensure that the contrast between the two works well. One final thing to do - is to check how your theme looks when presented through a projector, as this often changes the colour nuances. This leads us to the final tip.
6 - Do a dry run with timing
You have by now, put in a lot of effort in getting your story and presentation just right. Hours of your effort have gone into this so that you and your audience can get the right outcomes. You don't want all that effort to go waste because of something that could go wrong on the day, or because your overshot the time allocated.
Enter trip #6. Make sure that while planning your presentation you make time to do a dry run of your presentation with timing, preferably in the same room as the final presentation. This helps you build your confidence and also cater for things that make derail your presentation. Doing the dry run ensures that your get comfortable with your material and build a backup plan for the clicker that might not work or for the WiFi that might not be available at a client location.
Doing it in the same room as the final presentation helps you think about where and how your audience will be seated. Is it a classroom style seating or a boardroom style seating? Your approach and style will vary based on that. By including timing in your dry run, you are ensuring that you are sticking within the time limit for your presentation - but remember to cater for questions and answers. No one likes a presentation that goes over, or does not give the opportunity to clarify questions.
So, in summary:
1 - Know your audience - who, what they expect, what you want out of it
2 - How your presentation will be consumed
3 - How much text on the slides
4 - Get comfortable with the tools you are using
5 - Review your presentation theme on a projector - colour scheme, fonts, aspect ratios, etc
6 - Do a dry run with timing
