Spice up those Presentations!

Hands up all those who are fed up being forced to sit through hours and hours of bad presentations?

Having seen one too many bad powerpointing and presenting skills, I've compiled a small list of tips which I've picked up from a couple of sites which I'm trying to pick up and thought may be useful to everyone else too:

1) Never just read off the slides - Your audience can read the text fine so unless you used to be a racecourse commentator, don't even try to speak faster than they can read. Instead, put only key points or ideas in the slides and add value by explaining those points in detail or provide examples. I would think that this is the No. 1 killer of a lot of presentations I see in school.

2) On number and size of the text - A sure case where more is not better. Do not force words into your slides till you have to put them down into font 6 to squeeze all of them in. Ensure that there are just enough words per slide to bring out your point and that they are clear enough to be seen by the guy right at the back.

3) Using Visuals - A picture is worth a thousand words, so pick the right pictures that can help you bring your point across. Using graphical representation of data (pies, charts, etc) will also give a clearer picture of the numbers you are presenting as opposed to a table choke full of numbers. However, overdoing visuals is also not advisable.

4) Using Handouts - By all means, supply handouts if they do aid the audience in memory retention. These could be different versions of the slides with more details in them but give them out after your presentation as audiences have the tendency to read ahead and ignore you during the presentation. I know I breeze though these handouts in a jiffy and would be doodling on them in no time.

5) Assume the worst for the Technical Setup - Always backup your presentation in all means possible. Put copies of it in your laptop, thumbdrive, email and CD if possible. In the worst case scenario where Murphy's Law kicks in, be prepared to deliver your gig using the whiteboard or whatever else is available.

6) Practice practice practice - This cannot be overstated but the more you practice, the better you get. Like good peanut butter, consistency is the name of the game and people take an average of 20+ practices to achieve it. Even Steve Jobs takes a full day off before major keynote addresses to work on his presentation on site.


Try some of these out for your next presentation!


(PS : Not a topic expert on presentations so I highly recommend Presentation Zen )