How to Deliver a Great Presentation

The Purpose of a Presentation

Unlike a meeting where all in attendance are expected to contribute and participate, a presentation involves a speaker who is trying to communicate with an audience.  There are two common reasons why a person might want to address an audience:

An old saw on speaking states that there are three steps involved in a presentation, 1) tell them what you’re going to tell them, 2) tell them, 3) tell them what you told them.  The effective speaker understands that he or she must provide the audience with a compelling reason for attending the presentation.  Thus, the focus of preparation should be the audience, not the speaker.  The beginning of the presentation should summarize the content of the presentation and explain why the audience should be interested.  The body of the presentation should present the information in a way that is clear, entertaining, and concise.  The ending should review the major points of the presentation and solicit the desired audience response (e.g., ask the audience to provide resources for a project).

Preparing the Presentation

Many speakers find it difficult to organize their presentations.  Here are a few guidelines that the author has found helpful.

Visual Aids

A visual aid in a speech is a pictorial used by a speaker to convey an idea.  Well designed visual aids add power to a presentation by showing the idea more clearly and easily than words alone.  Whereas only 10% of presented material is retained from a verbal presentation after 3 days, 65% is retained when the verbal presentation is accompanied by a visual aid. ASQ reports that poor quality visuals generate more negative comment from conference attendees than any other item.  The visual aid must be easy for everyone to see.  Small type which cannot be read from the back row of the room defeats the purpose of the visual aid.  There should be good contrast between the text and the background color.  Visuals should have text that is large enough to see easily from the worst seat in the house.  The speaker must also reevaluate the visuals when the room size changes.  A presentation that is perfectly acceptable to a group of 30 may be completely inadequate for a group of 300.

Color plays an important role in the design of effective visuals, if used properly.  However, the improper use of color can make visuals ugly.  Most computer software for preparing presentations comes with preset color schemes.  Unless you have some skill and training in designing visuals, it is recommended that you use one of the schemes or contact a graphic artist.

Here are a few rules recommended by ASQ for effective visual aids:

Position and Movement

When using visual aids it is sometimes necessary to darken the room.  However, the speaker should never be in the dark  The visual presentation supports the speaker, it should not be allowed to replace him.  The speaker must always be the most important object in the room.  If the lights must be lowered, arrange to have a small light on yourself, such as a podium light. When using visual aids a right-handed speaker usually stands to the left of the visual and directs the attention of the audience to the material.  If using a pointer the speaker may stand to either side.  Never stand in front of the material you are presenting to the audience.  Direct the eye of the viewer to the particular portion of the visual that you are emphasizing, don’t just wave at the visual in a random manner.  Layout the visual so that the viewer’s eye moves in a natural flow from topic to topic. Speak to the audience, not to the screen.  Always face the audience.  A microphone may make your speech audible when you face away from the audience, but it is still bad form to turn your back on the audience.

Charts, Graphs and Data Presentation

Line and bar graphs are an effective way to convey numerical data at a glance.  People understand things they see more quickly than things they hear.  The eye is more effective in gathering and storing information than the ear.  Auditory stimuli is presented and processed sequentially, one word at a time.  Visual information is presented simultaneously.  This is part of the reason why visuals are so effective at displaying patterns. Business and industry are number-driven entities.   Much of the information presented in meetings is numerical.  Many, perhaps most decisions rely on numbers.  The effective use of graphs makes numbers easier to assimilate and understand.  In most cases, one of three types of graph can be used: line graph, bar graph, and scatter plot.  There are endless refinements on these basic three, e.g., multiple lines, grouped or stacked bars, stratified scatter plots.  Line graphs are most often used to display time-series data (care must be taken to standardize time-series data, e.g., using constant dollars to correct for inflation).  Bar charts are used most often to compare different items or classifications to one another.   Scatter plots examine the association between two variables. Regardless of the type of graph being used, it is important that the graphic have integrity, i.e., it must accurately portray the data.  In his book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information Tufte lists six principles that enhance graphical integrity:

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