5 tips for designing an impactful presentation in just 30 minutes
Presentations are a common means of communicating with colleagues and your boss, but designing a meaningful presentation in the midst of your many other tasks can be a tall order.
Here are a few simple tips for designing an impactful presentation, in just a half hour.
Have you ever attended a class or conference under the agreement that you would come back and teach everyone everything you learned? Talk about pressure! We'll help you train your colleagues with the tips you learn in Train the Trainer.
Break it into pieces first
Creating a broad outline of your presentation gives you a visual understanding of the many pieces and parts of information you'll want to address, which can be edited or omitted due to redundancy, and reveals the most efficient way to present facts and findings so you're equipped to craft a streamlined presentation that flows like a story.
The start of the presentation should include the information that frames what you're going to address, while the middle addresses detailed information. The end will define your recommendations to influence your audience.
If your presentation includes several different pieces of content or topics that aren't necessarily related, serial entrepreneur Dan Martell recommends breaking each concept into separate "stories" that are not longer than 10 minutes each. Not only will this help you make sense of how to edit what you'll say and share, it also gives the audience small "breathers" that allow them to re-engage, as you shift topics.
Draw them in
Headlines draw readers into a story just as titles draw listeners to your presentation. When you're too time-pressed to think of a clever title, Martell offers this clever tip: Google the title of a magazine appropriate to your industry or topic and add the words "magazine cover" after it.
The results will generate hundreds of past cover images that may spark some creativity you can add into your presentation as an underlying theme.
For example, the Fast Company magazine cover headline "How Jason Kilar of Hulu Defied the Critics" could inspire ways to approach an otherwise bland topic. Which presentation would you rather attend: Results of the Q4 Market Research for Product X, or How Our Product X Defied the Naysayers in Q4?
Melissa Esquibel, national conference speaker and Microsoft® Certified Trainer, will share her secrets to choosing content, breaking it down into "trainable bites" and presenting it in a way that preserves your enthusiasm. Join us Thursday, December 1, for Train the Trainer.
Use contrast
Your job as a presenter is to structure your ideas in a way that captures your audience.
Presentation expert Nancy Duarte suggests introducing content in a way that explains today's "reality," and then moving the audience to consider or envision what "could be."
Even if the reality and the vision are at odds (for example, we missed our Q2 sales projection, but will raise the bar even higher in Q4 with a new approach), Duarte explains that the dichotomy moves your audience to engage, and potentially, shift their thinking. If the "sell" is tough, she recommends continually flip-flopping between scenarios to gradually acclimate them to the new idea, recommendation or approach.
Show, don't tell
Don't disrespect an audience's intelligence by telling them what you're showing them. If information is detailed and will take a moment for the audience to absorb, pause and let them read over information on a slide or distributed via a handout.
Give them a brief but contextually appropriate amount of time to absorb the material, pointing out only the meaningful data that they might not otherwise know to focus on, or "translate." Otherwise, limit your commentary to the takeaways they can't quickly deduce for themselves.
Mind your ending
Give your audience a resolution to your story at the end of your presentation. For example, "Our Q4 Market Research results were positive, and we're poised to grow the product launch further so we can have a much different conversation a year from now if we do X, Y, Z."
If there are attendees in the room who may not know you, or what you do at your company, add your name, title and email, inviting attendees to contact you offline if there are further questions, or they need more information.
During this 75-minute interactive presentation, we'll cover: - Matching up content with the audience
- Designing slides and handouts that bring
value to the experience for both speaker and attendees - Fitting the presentation to venue: online, conference room, boss's office
- Pro tips for prepping
- Handling the unexpected
- Measuring success
Impress your colleagues—and boss—when you return to the office after a conference by presenting the information you've learned in a clear and concise manner.
Train the Trainer will show you how to keep your audience engaged and teach them the tips and strategies you've gained, so they can benefit from them as well. Register now!
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