Ready for some presentation advice? When giving a presentation don’t bore your audience with endless amounts of information. Endless screens of PowerPoint slides could result in sending your audience to sleep.
Engage Your Audience
Instead think of other ways to present to your audience. Think of ways you can get your audience more involved and engaged. How can you connect and entertain your audience? Think of things that will wow, shock, impress, motivate, excite or amaze them. Use emotions to make your presentation more memorable.
(Photo Credit: Matt Cornock)
Present Data Graphically
If you have data to present how can you make it more meaningful and understandable? Try using the many graphical charting tools in PowerPoint to assist you with this. If all you have is very basic information then consider not presenting at all. That information might be better distributed with a simple email or communication of a link to a wiki or blog page.
Make it Interesting
Keep the mundane and boring out of presentations. Use presentations to impress and make an impact. What is the reason for your presentation? What is the main point you want to make?
If you’re finding it difficult to make your subject material interesting then consider using an analogy. For example I once remember a senior manager in a large corporate organization that I used to work for make a presentation about how well his team were doing in nine core areas of the department he was in charge of. This could have been a very dull presentation however he made an analogy to a nine hole golf course and presented each core area as a hole on the course. Each core area was presented as either a Par (on track), a Birdie (exceeding expectations) or a Bogie (not meeting expectations).
Another excellent way to make presentations more interesting and engaging is to get your point across by telling a story that fits in with your presentations goals and objectives. Stories are often more memorable for your audience.