Free Tips for Corporate Presenters

On any given weekday, thousands of people across the country gather in conference rooms to hear people make important presentations on a variety of subjects. Those that are well-delivered are informative, entertaining, and useful, and you walk away knowing exactly what they wanted you to know. Others however, are ineffective and can turn out to be just plain grueling to sit through.

What's the difference between the two, and how can you keep from having your presentation go down the wrong path?

In many cases, a lackluster presentation comes down to inadvertently letting your slide deck take over the show. To get your message across effectively, your deck should enhance your presentation, not become your presentation.

When putting together your next presentation, think of your slides as a lean, mean messaging tool that reinforces the key points you are making with your talk. It may be tempting to fill up your slides with a lot of important text or exciting special effects, but remember that these can be very distracting to someone in your audience. Do you want them wondering how you made that pink box slide across the screen, or how many new widgets they should buy from your company next week?

The following tips should help you avoid the "glazed audience effect":

• No Bedtime Stories - Never read your slides to your audience verbatim; it's the fastest way to lose their attention
• Keep it Clean – Don't make your slides overwhelming due to the amount of verbiage on them; include no more than 3-5 key points on each, and move the rest of the important prose to the speaker's notes
• Don't Put on a Show – Loading up your slides with too many complex animation effects takes the focus off the information you are delivering and undermines your role as a subject matter expert
• Give 'Em a Hand(out) – If the material you are covering is very deep and detailed, don't try to cover everything in your slides; keep your presentation high-level, but be sure to provide a print or electronic “takeaway” that your audience can reference later.

By keeping the focus on your message rather than your slides, you'll never again have to worry about your audience sneaking a catnap and missing your point!