TIPS FOR CREATING GREAT PRESENTATIONS
The ability to give presentations has become one of the fundamental skills for professionals. From internal presentations to addressing stakeholders (customers, clients, shareholders),
from pitching a startup for funding to political campaigns, all rely heavily on the skill of delivering clear, precise, impactful, and engaging presentations to the audience. There are numerous tips for enhancing presentation skills, and here are three key tips that can help you improve your presentation abilities:
1. KISS (Keep-It-Simple-Sweetheart)
One of the biggest mistakes a presenter can make is creating too many slides (hundreds of slides for a 30-60 minute presentation) with massive amounts of information on each slide.
Remember, you are the presenter, not your slides. Your slides serve as tools to ensure the presentation flows in a structured manner. If you're using Microsoft PowerPoint to create your presentation slides, remember that the abbreviation for PPT is Power Points, which means slides should contain only key points.
I once attended a three-day seminar with a sole speaker. The total number of slides shown during the entire three-day seminar was just five: one title slide, three slides with key points, and one closing slide that simply said 'Thank You'. Due to the simplicity and lack of visual distraction from the slides, the audience's attention was focused solely on the speaker.
Valuable presentation time should indeed be spent interacting with the audience. Too many detailed slides will only make the audience feel they don't need the presenter.
2. Pictorial (Pictures Are More Sticky)
Avoid filling your slides with text; instead, replace them with relevant images and minimal keywords. Bombarding your audience with dense text on a slide (especially in paragraph form with numerous typos/errors) can be overwhelming.
However, when your slides contain images that represent the content you're discussing, the audience will pay more attention and appreciate it. For instance, when presenting about the human heart, it's more engaging and understandable to show a picture of the heart rather than a slide full of text.
People tend to remember images more easily than text. Remember the saying, "A picture speaks a thousand words." Place relevant and high-resolution images on your slides for comfortable viewing by the audience.
3. Grabber (Hook the Audience)
A truly memorable and engaging presentation often involves something 'different' and 'unique' beyond just speaking and showing slides. For example, when speaking on the topic of vision, I would ask some members of the audience to fold paper airplanes and freely throw them around.
Then, I'd instruct them to pick up the paper planes and direct them towards a predetermined point. This activity helps the audience remember that having a vision leads to better direction and focus. Another example: when discussing change, I might ask the audience to fold their arms and determine whether the arm on top is their right or left arm.
Then, I'd have them switch arm positions, challenging their comfort zones. Initially uncomfortable, repeated practice makes it familiar. Similarly, change might feel odd at first, but humans are adaptable creatures, capable of adjusting.
Author: Edysen Shin. A professional speaker who has presented in dozens of countries and
hundreds of institutions over the past decade.