Presentation Tips

Follow these simple tips to make your conference session more engaging for your audience and more enjoyable for you.

Keep Your Session Focused

• Have a learning objective. Why are you speaking? What do you want to share? What will the audience learn from you? Know exactly what you want your audience to walk away with. Focus on only a few crucial themes to support your objective.
• Know the needs of your audience. Design your session to match their needs and expectations. Know your material thoroughly, and deliver what you have to say in a logical sequence. Ensure your speech will be worth their time and attention.
• Know the weak and strong points of your argument. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation, and be prepared to answer questions about the other side.
• Simplify your speech. The fact is people simply can’t absorb more than 5 to 7 key points, so most of the content of an ordinary 30-minute talk may leave the audience overloaded.

Adhere to Schedules and Times

• Begin and end on time. Plan on about two minutes per slide and definitely practice your presentation. End your presentation about 5 to 10 minutes earlier than the allotted time to allow time for questions during and after your talk.
• Panelists should have equal time. If you’re sharing the stage with other speakers, be considerate and watch your time.
• Break it into segments. If your session is 45 to 75 minutes, you may want to break it into two or three 15-minute sections and include structured interaction with your audience between key sections.

Provide Opportunities for Interaction

• Have a process for structured interaction. Q&A is fine, but it tends to be unsatisfying because a few audience members may dominate the conversation. Consider providing a structured process for gathering information systematically.
• Create small group discussions. Small groups can work beautifully, especially if they report the results to the rest of the group.
• Encourage input from larger audiences. Consider a simple poll with a show of hands.
• Have attendees work in pairs. You can ask your audience to turn to a neighbor to promote interaction, keep them engaged and encourage networking with their peers. You could ask a question and give the audience two minutes to brainstorm, then use polls or have a few people contribute their thoughts.

Use Handouts to Provide Details

• Have handouts ready. Distribute them at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.
• Avoid sales-oriented presentations. You can damage the relationship with your audience if you include statements designed to "sell," claim superiority over competitors or are misleading. Your attendees are there to learn, and you’ll earn their respect if you provide them with strong, company-neutral information.
• Engage your audience with key points. Offer high-level details in a handout or outline for your audience to follow along. This is especially useful if the handout is distributed before the talk so people can think about it and be more receptive to hearing your live comments. To keep the audience focused on you, limit the text in the handout (don’t type out everything).
• Send them away with useful information. Your presentation slides in printed form don’t convey the complete message. Create a helpful reference from your session with additional resources, a more detailed narrative of your presentation and other supporting information.

Be Professional

• Practice. Rehearse your speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable: in front of a mirror, in the car, in an empty room. Repetition helps you become even more knowledgeable and allows you to continuously improve the content.
• Make sure everything is set up before the presentation. Be sure all necessary equipment is set up and in good working order prior to the presentation. If possible, have an emergency backup system readily available. Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc., are suitable for your presentation.
• Watch others do it. The best way to learn how to present, chair or discuss is to watch others and see how the audience responds. Do people seem engaged? Are you engaged? Go to panels and see the different styles people use, then imitate the ones that feel right to you. Write down the polite phrases people use to deal with nasty questions, to cut off long-winded presenters or to present their own ideas. Experienced presenters may have some nice tricks.

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