Presentation Advisors Blog

3 Tips to Create the Perfect Presentation Atmosphere

Presentations happen in a multitude of different settings.  You see them on stages, in conference rooms, in restaurants, and over web-conferencing platforms, just to name a few.  Unfortunately, little attention is paid to the audience's experience.  Where will you be standing?  Can all your audience members see you?  Can you see them?  Can they see your slides (the screen)?  Will you be mic'd?  Wireless or behind a podium?  Is the audience accessible to you before you present? 

Nothing is worse than spending weeks (or even months) to prepare for a presentation that is less-than-perfect because your audience's experience was poor, especially if it could have been avoided.  Your presentation isn't just your slides and what you say.  Much depends on the audience's ability to interact, their comfort level, and their own satisfaction (Another reason your slides do NOT equal your presentation).  Here are some things you may want to think about to ensure the entire presentation experience is an enjoyable one.

1. Remove the Barriers - Often times you'll see people presenting from behind podiums, lecterns, and tables placed on soaring stages.  If we think about one of the fundamental principles of presentations, we know that a presentation is a two-way street of communication, or a conversation if you will.  When we're conversing with friends, we tend to form a group (think back to your 8th grade dances and the packs of friends).  When we present, we want it to be as similar to this "group" setting as possible.  Barriers separate you, the presenter, from the group, the audience, creating a disconnect.  How many times have you conversed with friends from behind a podium or on a stage?  Removing these barriers will make the audience feel more comfortable, while giving you the ability to roam (not aimlessly though).  Get out from behind that podium, walk from side to side and connect with your audience.  Try to limit the barriers as much as possible.


2. Go Wireless - Once you're out from behind that podium, you still need to be heard.  Make sure you utilize a wireless mic.  Make sure it's not too close to your face to avoid any scratching from beards, chins, or collars.  Make sure you test it before you begin to present, and know how to turn it on/off if necessary.  Once you have a wireless mic, you won't want to stay behind that podium anyways.  Also, utlize a wireless presentation remote to control your slides.  Make sure it has forward, reverse, a blackout button and a laser.  If you haven't built in black slides to your presentation, you can use the blackout button to darken the screen and put all eyes back on you.  Going wireless will give you the freedom you need to create that conversational, interactive atmosphere necessary for an effective presentation. 


3. Get there early, VERY EARLY - In Tim Koegel's book, The Exceptional Presenter, Tim mentions the 60/20 rule: Arrive 60 minutes early, leaving 40 minutes to set up and 20 minutes to mingle with the audience.  This is so important, and I would almost say you should arrive even EARLIER than that.  I worked for years setting up the technical side of presentations, and the one thing I learned is that if it can go wrong, it will go wrong.  Give yourself at least an hour to get the technical side of your presentation set up.  It adds too much stress and you don't want that immediately preceding your presentation.  The time after setting up is spent to mingle with the audience members.  Get to know them.  Find out why they want to hear you speak.  What do they want to get out of your presentation.  Maybe you can find an ally or a funny anecdote from an audience member.  You can utilize that during you're presentation.  Just make sure you remember their name!

There are plenty more.  You're simply trying to create the best experience from the audience's perspective.  What are some ways you prepare your setting for a presentation?

Bringing it Back to the Presentation Basics

One of the keys to presenting is to make sure you’re taking time to stop and connect the dots of information in your presentation.  Without connecting the dots with your audience, they won’t be able to see how the big picture comes together. 

For the last six months I’ve had the joy of writing this blog, allowing me to have some great conversations.  Some readers are presentation experts, but many are presentation novices, simply trying to learn a few tricks to help them present more effectively.  What I wanted to do is stop and take a moment to connect the dots.  I wanted to get back to the basics of presenting and give a brief synopsis of what we’ve been talking about.

So if you are to only read one of my posts, I hope it’s this one.  You can call them commandments, tricks, tips, or best practices.  Here are my five basics of effective presenting and PowerPoint design.

#1 – YOU are the Presentation (not your slides)
This originally wasn’t #1 (not to say that these are in any particular order), but I realized that everything stems back to the fact that the words “presentation” and “PowerPoint” are NOT synonymous.  Your presentation is the show, and YOU are the star.  Your slides are simply a visual backdrop, there to emphasize your key points.  Your audience’s eyes should be on YOU as much as possible, because that’s where the valuable information is coming from. 

#2 - Bullet Points Suck
Filling your slides with bullet points is an absolute no-no.  Most presenters rely on their bullet points to act as a script.  Bad idea.  Send us an email and save us all an hour of our time.  Even if you don’t use it as a script, they’re not accomplishing anything on the screen.  Your audience will either read the bullet points or listen to you.  Science has proven that they can’t do both. 

Solution – Take your current presentation and move ALL of your bullet points to the “Notes” section.  Both Keynote and PowerPoint have this.  Now, take a look at your bullet points and figure out how many key ideas you have.  Separate each key idea on a single slide.  We’ll work on the design later.

#3 – Less Words, More Images
Since we know that we are the “stars” and our slides are just there to support our ideas, let’s stop filling them with words and start adding some images!  Now we’re not adding images for the heck of it – there’s a reason behind it.  Science has shown that the most effective way to teach is to stimulate as many senses and possible, and vision trumps ALL the other senses.  So why not leverage that?  Use images (full screen whenever possible) that support your ideas (which are now in the Notes section, right?!).

#4 – Presentations are a Conversation
One mistake many presenters make is that they present AT their audience.  Unless you’re giving a presidential address, always remember that a presentation is a two-way conversation (is there any other kind?).  You’re not speaking at them; you’re speaking with them.  Get them involved. Ask questions.  Allow them to ask you questions during your presentations (not just at the end).  Learn about them beforehand.  What are their needs?  What are their pains?  What compelled them to listen to you?  When you have a conversation, you keep the audience engaged.  It gives a more personal feel and keeps their minds focused on what you’re talking about and how it relates to them.

#5 – Keep it SIMPLE
If each presentation expert were to create a top 5 list, I bet this point wouldn’t be in most, but it’s in mine.  Simplicity is the cornerstone to my presentation style, especially when it comes to PowerPoint design.  Actually, simplicity defines the way I live my life.  I constantly clean out my closet and fill bags of clothes to give to Goodwill.  Too many clothes result in too many decisions.  The same goes for your presentations.  Too much noise on your slide results in confusion for your audience.  What is the point?  What am I supposed to be looking at?  What do all those numbers mean?

Focus on simplicity in your presentations.  Don’t overwhelm your audience with information or they simply can’t digest it all.  Create slides with one image, or one word.  Make it easy for the audience to know what they should be paying attention to and what your point is!

I know there are many more I could list, but I wanted to limit this post to the five that I felt were most important.  I'd love to hear some more presentation basics/commandments that you live by!

Book Review - Brain Rules by Dr. John Medina

I recently finished reading "Brain Rules" by Dr. John Medina.  It was a fantastic read and many of the rules were directly applicable to presenting and presentation design.  Regardless of your occupation, I think every reader will take a lot of important information that can help them in their careers.  It is written in a way that keeps your brain engaged, combining technical information with funny anecdotes and real world examples.  If nothing else, it will certainly change the way you look at cubicles, classrooms, and the way we all learn.  I highly recommend it.

Of the 12 Brain Rules Dr. Medina outlined, three rules struck at the core of presenting.  I couldn't stop highlighting and earmarking pages in these chapters.  These rules are rules #4, #9 and #10.  I'll break each one of them down a little further.

If you want your audience to learn something new, you have to keep them engaged.  The more attention the brain gives to a given stimulus, like your presentation, the more likely they are to retain the given information.  If you can hit some sort of emotional nerve, even better.  "Emotionally arousing events tend to be better remembered than neutral events" says Dr. Medina.  Unfortunately, science tells us that after about ten minutes our brains will "check-out" and start thinking about something else unless you can regain our attention.  This means that the given stimulus must change after about 10 minutes.  How can you do that?   There are plenty of ways.  Tell a personal story.  Show a video.  Engaged your audience in conversation.  Ask a question.  Start a group activity.  This constant change in stimulus will reengage your audience and keep them from "checking out." 

The most efficient way to ensure that your audience retains information, whether your teaching Chemistry or selling steak knives, is to present in a way that stimulates multiple senses.  According to Dr. Medina, "Extra information given at the moment of learning makes learning better."  This is where visuals can be so effective when used properly.  Instead of just repeating your words on the screen in the form of bullet points, stimulate another one of their senses.  Let them hear the information and support it by seeing a vibrant image. Combining two senses vs. just one will increase recall by more than 75%.  (Please note, a slide full of bullet points is NOT a visual stimulus.  Seeing the word "despair" and seeing an image of a starving child are two different things.)  Inherently, PowerPoint doesn't cater to smell or touch.  But by all means, if you can incorporate these things into your presentation, do it.  The more senses you can stimulate, the better.

 
Want to improve the ability of your audience to recall a message by 55%?  Add an image.  According to Dr. Medina, vision is by FAR our most dominant sense, taking up half of our brain’s resources.  The dominance of images has been called the Pictoral Superiority Effect, where the more visual the input becomes, the more likely it is to be recognized and recalled.  If you want someone to remember your idea, your product, your value proposition, support it with imagery.

The problem with PowerPoint is that the templates all contain places for bullet and sub-bullet points.  In my perfect world, the default template would be a white slide with one big box entitled "IMAGE."  If you insist on putting bullet points, you'll have to go through a few clicks to get there.  Maybe I'd even password protect it somehow!

Those are just three of the twelve Brain Rules, all of which are extremely interesting to learn about.  Go out and pick up Brain Rules and I know you won't be disappointed.  Check out some of Dr. Medina's videos on YouTube as well.  Some were made specifically for the book, and others are clips of his own live presentations.  If nothing else, read this book to find out why you should NEVER drive while talking on the cell phone!

Additional Information:

Brain Rules Website
Brain Rules YouTube Page
Garr Reynolds' take on Brain Rules, including a 131 slide presentation

Why Aren't Colleges Embracing the Art of Effective Presenting?

Presentations, especially those utilizing PowerPoint, are used thousands, if not millions, of times each day in corporations and schools around the world.  We present ourselves every day, in a million different ways.  Present well, sell your product.  Present well, get hired.  Present well, win an election.  Present well, win over that girl you just met at the bar. 

I've come to the troubling conclusion that while presenting plays such a HUGE role in our lives, I've never seen a course offered in any manner that teach the art and skill of presenting.  Not to mention, I've never seen a class that teaches effective presentation design.  This is obvious, since the state of presentations today is dismal to say the least.  How many C-level executives do you know that have trouble changing the font size in PowerPoint?  I could name a few...

Graduates are being pumped out of colleges every year.  They are expected to just know how to present.  Actually, once they got into college they were already expected to know, since many professors require a "final presentation" worth upwards of 50% of your grade.  Students must stand in front of a classroom of their peers, hearts pounding, palms sweating, and present their conclusions.  Good luck buddy, you're going to need it.

Don't blame it on the kids though.  They learned it from their professors!  Many teachers today are just as clueless about effective presentation design as their students are.  Same goes for upper management.  After sitting through a semester of terrible slide design, I asked my professor why he chose to use a mustard yellow background for every single bullet-point ridden slide.  (I asked it nicely)  His reply, "The yellow background is unexpected and startling, thus, it keeps my students' attention."  I was dying to know where he learned that gem.  I refrained. 

So I'll ask the obvious question...

Why isn't anyone teaching our youth how to present effectively?

The skill of presenting effectively can be an incredible weapon.  Without it, you're being dropped in the warzone with just your bare hands.  I tell people all the time that with just a little bit of training in effective presenting, you'll be the one with the gun while everyone else is just using their hands.  I like your odds in that battle.

But alas, our schools have failed to embrace the necessity for teaching effective presentations.  Our youth are destined to fill their slides with bullet points, fail to create a story around their message, rehearse once (an hour before the presentation), and bore their audience to sleep as they read verbatim while staring at the screen.  Maybe their low price will be enough to convince their audience to buy.  Maybe their connections will be enough to get them hired.  Maybe their blue eyes will woo that girl in the bar.  Don't bet on it though. 

Do you agree?  Disagree?  I mean, I can't be the only one who has noticed this.  I'd love to hear your thoughts.

PowerPoint Before and After - A New Spin on the Old Agenda Slide

Recently I attended a workshop in New York City.  As most workshops go, it was a 2 hour presentation where the presenters offer you information and then hawk their services at the end.  The hawking was kept to a minimum though, so I was impressed.

Whenever I know I'm about to sit in on a presentation that will utilize PowerPoint, I get nervous.  Not for myself, but for the presenter.  I pray that they will wow me with a PowerPoint deck so amazing that I can't stop talking about it for days.  Of course, the odds are against me.  I'd say about 100-1 at best.  Wouldn't you agree?

The presentation started with an Agenda slide, like most do.  This is an important part of the presentation because you're framing what you'll be speaking about for the next however many minutes/hours.  It's a GREAT opportunity to set the tone for your presentation and to grab their attention by showing them something they may not have seen before.  The Agenda slide for said presentation, though, was the norm - a numbered list.  I was so saddened that I had to take a picture to post on Twitter.  You can see a picture of the slide here.

To help others learn how to create a memorable/original Agenda slide, I thought I'd show you a before/after of a deck I worked on with the guys at StayClassy.org (used with permission).

Before

Here are a few immediate takeaways.

1. Like most slides, this one is bland and absent of color.  A numbered list makes sense, in theory, but not when you're trying to be memorable.
2. The topics are not succinct enough and will most definitely be forgotten.  Keep it short and to the point. 
3. Although the mistake wasn't made on this particular slide, bullet points are bad enough - don't use a sub-bullet point either.  Keep the points at a broad level and let the presentation itself fill in the details.

In order to grab the audience, I wanted to make an Agenda that I was pretty sure they hadn't seen before (remember those 100-1 odds?).  Here is the final product:

After

1. Think Visually - Instead of the same old bulleted list, I tried to think of a visually engaging way to show a progression.  Here you still see the numbers from the bulleted list, but instead they're in a horizontal line of circles. 
2. Be Vibrant - Many presentations are totally void of color.  Using colors, especially vibrant ones, excite the senses.  The colors were simply chosen from the presentation's color pallette (there are a bunch to choose from by default).
3. Keep it SIMPLE - Each numbered item has been shortened from its original version.  The shortened version gives the audience just enough information to create a framework, but still gives the presenter enough room to build.  Also, the slide itself remains simple.  I chose to utilize the white background so the colors contrasted even more. 

This slide was created to build, so each point shows up when the presenter is ready to introduce it.  I'm a fan of builds to keep the audience engaged and to avoid any read-ahead. 

Do you have any examples of interesting Agenda slides?