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One of the key reasons many presentations or public speeches fail to hit the mark is because the presenter has spent insufficient time planning the content and structure. The tendency is to rush in to writing a script or preparing a PowerPoint presentation without first stepping back to analyse what’s needed and what’s going to work best.

This article outlines six key questions which, if carefully considered and acted upon at the planning stage, will improve the effectiveness of any presentation.

What

The first thing to clarify is what you are talking about. Whilst the subject matter is often clear from the outset, it isn’t always. Titles and expectations can be ambiguous and it’s important to clear up any ambiguity at the start.

Who

Before getting down to detailed planning, it’s important to understand your audience.

Who are you talking to? What is their level of knowledge and interest? What are their expectations? How many of them will there be?

Many people approach presentations back to front. Their starting point is ‘what do I want to tell them or want them to know?’ Effective presenters, however, put themselves in their audience’s shoes and ask themselves

• Why are they here (and are they volunteers or press-ganged)?
• How much do they know already?
• How much do they think they know? (this may be different from how much they really know and need to be addressed sensitively)
• Do they want to be informed? Persuaded? Entertained? Or is it something else? Or possibly a combination of some/all of these?
• What’s in it for them?
• Why would they be interested/what would catch their interest?
• If there’s just one message I’d like them to take home and act on, what is it?

If you spend time considering and answering these questions, you’ll have some very useful information to help you decide on the detailed content and how best to present it.

Why

Considering your audience, while vital, is only part of the equation. Ask yourself ‘why am I giving this speech or presentation?’ Note, the question here is not ‘why is this presentation happening?’ It’s why are you, rather than anyone else, giving it. Having established that, ask yourself:

• What is my objective?
• What impression do I want to leave the audience with – of me, my product, service or company?
• What action do I want them to take as result of listening to me?

Do you want to

• Inform
• Persuade
• Entertain

them? Is there another purpose? Or a mix of some or all of these? What/s most important?

Now put this alongside the information you’ve already gathered – how do the two compare? What adjustments might you need to make to ensure that you take proper account of the needs of both your audience and your own objectives?

When

You’ll also find it helpful to consider some questions about time.

For example, when and in what context is the presentation taking place? If it’s straight after lunch (often referred to as ‘the graveyard slot’), for example, you’ll want to pay even more attention than usual to how you grab and keep people’s attention.

If it’s part of a conference programme, then you’ll find it helpful to consider how it dovetails with other elements of the agenda. If it’s an after dinner speech you may wish to keep it relatively brief and upbeat though this will, of course, depend on the wider circumstances.

And, of course, you’ll want to be absolutely clear about how long you’ve got, and whether that includes time for any questions/discussions that may follow.

Where

As part of your planning, it’s important to consider where you are giving the speech or presentation – its size, facilities and how much flexibility there is with regard, for example, to seating arrangements.

If, for example, it’s a large auditorium, then you’ll almost certainly need to use a microphone and, if possible, should ideally practise with this first. You’ll also want to consider how you use the stage – or whether you’re going to stand at a lectern and use powerful visuals centre stage, to help you tell your story.

If you want to include a demonstration, then you’ll need to be satisfied that everyone will be able to see/hear easily.

Whatever the size of the venue, it’s always wise to check what facilities they have and that any planned equipment or other aids are available or can be safely accommodated.

How

Once you’ve got clarity about the five previous questions you’re be in a good position to decide how to structure your content, and how best to deliver it. Would it be helpful, for example, to include a demonstration or some ‘hands on’ practice? What, if any, audio-visual aids would enhance your overall effectiveness – or can you, as is often the case, do just as well without?

If you keep these six questions in mind when planning your presentation you’ll find it easy to decide what to leave in, what to take out and how to deliver it for maximum positive effect.

I keep six honest serving-men

(They taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When

And How and Where and Who.

From: The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling

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Useful hints and tips about preparing to present a web-cast presentation.

It has become more and more common for conference presentations to be web-cast. This increase in popularity is due to a number of factors. For example:

o The demands on people’s time, or the reality of financial constraints, can result in many people being unable to attend conferences, especially if there’s a need to travel any distance.

o Most organisations are fully aware of the environmental issues involved when their staff have to travel distances, especially by car.

o Social factors, such as young families or caring considerations, can often influence people’s decision to attend a conference or seminar.

With these in mind, web-casting is a growing option for those who can’t attend an event but who are interested in the topics being covered. However, web-casting your presentation can be quite different from presenting to your live conference audience.

So, if your conference presentation is likely to be web-cast (and the likelihood is increasing) it might be helpful to understand what factors you should consider.

Most of the hints and tips contained in this bulletin are really just common sense and, dare I say it, plain good manners.

Consider the Remote Viewer as Part of the Live Audience

It’s very easy when you are in full flow to forget that you have people joining in via your web-cast. So, when you’re developing your presentation cues and reminders, make a note about acknowledging your remote viewers, both at the beginning of your presentation and frequently during it. It is equally important to build a rapport with your external audience as it is with the live audience in the auditorium.

A Different Perspective

When your presentation is being viewed by a remote viewer their perspective is different from that of a live audience.

On the following page is a typical layout of what a viewer would see during a live or archived web-cast.

You’ll notice from this graphic that the screen is divided up into different sections and that the video of the presenter appears at the top left of the screen.

To the presenter’s left is the area showing the presenter’s PowerPoint slides. It is therefore important for continuity and clarity that you always have your PowerPoint screen to your left when delivering your presentation to your live audience. This allows the remote viewer to follow your eyes or hands when you refer directly to the PowerPoint information. There’s nothing more distracting than a presenter referring to something to their right when you are seeing it positioned to their left on the web-cast screen.

A word about PowerPoint slides.

We’ve all suffered “death by PowerPoint” at some time or another. Why? Because too many PowerPoint users forget that their audience can read and they make the classic error of displaying long pieces of text on all but a few of their slides. Don’t do it.

The other common error in presentation is to read out what is up on the screen for all to see. Don’t do this either.

If you do decide to make these types of errors, we can just about guarantee that your audiences (live and web-cast) will lose interest. And that means your presentation will lose impact and the messages you’ve prepared may be lost.

Wherever possible, try to use graphics instead of text – but avoid the mistake of using Clip Art – if only because everyone else has already used it over the past 20 years and audiences have already seen all the clip art they can be expected to cope with in a life time. It’s also very unoriginal.

Probably the best book on creating PowerPoint presentations is Nick Oulton’s Killer Presentations. If you follow his basic rules you’ll be able to create truly memorable presentations to engage your audience and significantly enhance your presentation.

Incidentally, from a technical point of view, it’s always best to use a font size that’s no smaller than 12 points (bigger if you can) and try not to make the slide too busy.

Preparation

If your conference organizer asks you for your PowerPoint slides 48 hours before the event they are doing this for a very good reason. It’s because they need to get your presentation over to the web-cast company so they can upload it to their server and, if necessary, make any changes to the format if it’s not compatible with the web-cast.

If the organizers can’t access your slides until the morning of the conference, or you decide to make last minute changes, you create huge problems for the web-caster, the possibility of additional charges to the organizers and the potential for disaster when the cameras roll and 5000 people tune in to see your performance.

Again, it’s simply good manners, not to mention professionalism, to have everything prepared prior to the actual event.

Another little technical point is a microphone. If your conference organizer can provide a tie-clip microphone you’ll be in a much stronger position, since your audience will hear you clearly, especially those who are viewing via web-cast. And remember, unless the lectern has two microphones, one on either side, you run the risk of losing volume when you turn to address the screen.

Finally, a word about presentation style. Some people love to wander all over the stage. Because of lighting conditions and light-spill from the screen, this can cause headaches for the web-cast camera operator and, during your presentation, you may suddenly disappear into silhouette. If you must go for a walk, do it an hour or so before going on stage.

Questions from the Audience

If you are taking questions from the audience, it’s always helpful if you can either repeat them or rephrase them for the remote audience, especially if the organizer did not provide remote microphones for audience questions. Also make sure that you look over to the web-cast moderator who’ll indicate if there are any questions from the remote audience. The moderator will tell you who is asking the question and what the question is. When you reply, it’s nice to repeat the questioner’s name in your response.

If you stick to these simple suggestions it will help your organizer deliver a more effective and engaging conference to their remote viewers.