There are many presentation tips floating around the internet today. Some are great. Some are terrible. They commonly have only 5 or 1o, so I decided to wrack my brain to come up with as many tips as I could to help you start rethinking how you're currently presenting.
I commonly break my effective presenting training sessions down to three sections - Preparation, Design, and Delivery. Preparation isn't just limited to "before you start anything." It includes preparation before the design and also before the delivery. Design isn't limited to just PowerPoint or Keynote either.
Some tips are linked to other posts that explain the concepts further. This should help, since I tried to keep the tips short and easily consumable.
It's not exhaustive, nor is it meant to be. If you have more to add, just let me know in the comments section!
Preparation
- Take time to plan
- Find out who your audience is
- Learn what your audience's needs/concerns are
- Respect the time necessary to prepare properly - it's always longer than you think
- Always start with the story
- Read Resonate (Nancy Duarte)
- Go analog before digital
- Get off the grid, away from distractions
- Use post-it notes to sketch designs and quickly/easily organize
- Divorce your handouts from your slides - they're not the same thing
- Create with your audience in mind FIRST - What's in it for them?
- Practice, practice, practice
- Get honest feedback from peers
- Know your content inside and out
- You don't NEED PowerPoint (but an effective PPT can help)
- Always ask "Why?" If you have no reason, remove it
- Educate yourself in effective presentation design
- Create an experience, not just a presentation
- Don't try to tell them everything you know
- Go deeper instead of wider with your content
- Watch Steve Jobs present
- Prepare a proper outfit - appearances matter
- Be remarkable or be ignored
- Keep organized
- Use mindmaps to lay out your content
Design
- Keep it simple
- Use effective and relevant images
- Use full bleed (all the way to the edge) images when you can
- Find creative commons images on Flickr at Compfight - I love that site
- Understand the rule of thirds
- Use black slides
- Break the mold - being different is okay!
- Understand the cognitive load theory
- Break your ideas onto multiple slides
- Use original fonts
- There is no minimum font size
- Avoid serif fonts
- Don't go overboard with the amount of fonts you use
- There is no optimal number of slides
- Read Presentation Zen (Garr Reynolds)
- Read Slide:ology (Nancy Duarte)
- Logos aren't necessary on every slide
- Templates aren't necessary either
- Design appropriate leave-behinds (not just your slides)
- Stimulate multiple senses
- Remember, YOU are the presentation, not your slides
- Use color contrast (Kuler helps)
- Be willing to change and do something nobody else is doing
- Make no excuses - you don't have to be an artist to design slides
- Design with your big idea in mind
- Don't split the design work between multiple people
- QUALITY over quantity
- Design for the medium (Projector, SlideShare, Webinar, etc.)
- Include multimedia (but TEST it!)
- Data doesn't have to be dull - accentuate the positive
- When posting to SlideShare, save your presentation as a PDF for best quality
- If your slides are boring, you will be boring
- Keep the final presentation in mind (you may not be using your own equipment)
- Learn to love your hotkeys - they save immense amounts of time
- Use images with proper resolution (grainy is not okay)
Delivery
- Arrive EARLY
- Purchase your own equipment if possible
- Bring an extra extension cord
- Test your equipment, then test it again
- Bring your presentation on multiple mediums (computer, USB, etc)
- Use extra time to meet, greet, and create allies
- Place your monitor in between you and the audience
- Keep your introduction focused
- Encourage conversations and involve your audience
- Answer and encourage questions whenever possible
- Ask your own questions
- Be aware of your time, and respectful of your audience's time
- When in doubt, shorter is better
- Love your audience
- Remember, we all make mistakes...ALL of us
- Use a wireless presentation remote - I use the Kensington 33374
- Use the B key to blank the slide
- Make eye contact
- Be passionate or don't be there period
- Be confident
- Remove barriers between you and your audience
- Enter the audience's space if you can (but not too often)
- Always be honest - a lie can be a disaster
- Fear is natural - accept it and move on
- NEVER read your slides
- Actually conclude your presentation with a summary
- Don't be timid - You won't be rewarded for it
- Don't underestimate yourself
- Videotape yourself and watch later
- Bring your emotion (but don't get too emotional)
- Use a laser instead of your arm (remotes have them)
- Don't blame it on your PowerPoint - good or bad, you designed it
- When virtually presenting, shut off all other programs
- When virtually presenting, have a partner run the technical portion
- Use visual aids other than PowerPoint, like easels, props, and skits
- Use humor, but be careful! A bad joke can ruin everything
- Remember, you are ALWAYS presenting
- Never sell - if you don't know what I mean, then you're doing it wrong
- Always give them what they paid for, even if they didn't pay anything
- Stay afterward to have personal conversations. These can be very valuable
There you go - 100 Presentation Tips. I'm sure we could fill this post with 100 more, so start adding them in the comments!