Creating a powerful presentation is as easy as 1,2,3,4?! Actually it can be……
Create a Powerful Presentation
There are essentially 4 steps in the process of creating a presentation to be proud of and that has impact with your target audience:
Step 1 – Structure
Step 2 – Content
Step 3 – Design
Step 4 – Delivery
Structure –It’s amazing the amount of people who just throw a presentation together with no thought to the structure. Think stories and narrative. We are good at this because we are film-makers by origin. So that is how we think when creating a presentation and this ensures our presentation has a clear and logical structure that takes the audience on an interesting journey, that makes sense and results in action and desired objectives. Think of your presentation as a movie with a narrative –beginning, middle and end and know each and every point of that journey and what it means for your audience. You need to think to think about how to create a journey for your audience and what end point you are taking them to – what do you want them to feel in the end?
Content – Pull apart your content and scrutinise it in detail. Is all your content really necessary? If you had to cut out half of your content, what are the really essential points? Is it all absolutely relevant to your audience? What do they really want to know?
Design – design should enhance your message not overshadow it. People should be remembering your overall message, not just one image or transition from your presentation. Think differently about your design and visuals – try to think in images and not words and bullet points. This is why Prezi is such a powerful and effective presentation tool, in encourages visual thinking and the use of visual metaphors and the animated style and movement gives much more flow and engagement to your presentation slides.
Whether Powerpoint or Prezi, design should be consistent and less is definitely more, except when it comes to the number of slides – it is better to have more clicks than cram one slide full of messages, words, images and graphs. Better to have 20 clear, well-designed slides than 6 messy, confusing and jam packed slides!
Delivery – being an engaging presenter is a skill that doesn’t usually come naturally – it is something we aquire, build and develop over time and with experience. Like anything you cannot expect to be the worlds best presenter the first time you stand up and speak. However you also can’t afford to rest on your laurels. Every presentation opportunity should be an opportunity to learn, get feedback and develop so that you are better for next time. My best tips for delivering your presentation in an engaging and natural way? …….
1/ Know your content and be confident in your content and the structure.
2/ Be passionate about what you are talking about, enjoy yourself and be in the moment.
