How to present
I get really bored in most presentations. They’re too salesy, it’s some guy just droning on through a big slide of text, I’m reading the text and stop listening, I lose the point of what they’re telling me etc.
A friend of mine who’d never presented before asked me for some pointers on the fundamentals. I ended up writing quite a bit, so thought I’d re-post it here.
I’ve done a lot of presentations over the years, and watched even more (I was chairman of the Facebook Developer Garage London for 2+ years, meeting monthly often with 6 or more people presenting each night). I’ve also spoken a lot at conferences and for clients. I’m not a pro but do have developed some basic principles for doing a good presentation.
Style
The basic rule is to keep a presentation really simple. You’re there to talk, the slides are just a visual guide. So don’t, whatever you do, put up a slide full of text. Keep each slide to just one point, ideally with a big image and maybe a header. If you don’t have an image that fits, keep it to a simple big one line. Use size 30 font - if you need smaller then you’ve got too much text. Keep it really visually simple and clear, choose a nice font, probably just on a plain white background or similar.
Content
To plan the presentation, I sketch out a mind map plan on paper first, then get this plan into keynote in a very rough way, then start adding images, and gradually refine.
The basic structure should be:
1. Tell them upfront what you’re going to tell them
2. Go into the detail and tell them
3. Summarise by telling them what you’ve just told them.
Whatever your content, don’t do a salespitch. It sucks. Always deliver real value, even if you’re in a sponsored slot or whatever. Give people something interesting they can take away and they’ll remember you, and you’ll get much more value out of it. As long as it’s relevant then they’ll come up and talk to you about your business after, they’ll be warm to follow ups etc.
How to be relevant and non-salesy at a conference = present new research/insights. Props to @conversocial at #CSMCS
— Rohit Bhargava (@rohitbhargava) October 27, 2011
Presentation
When you’re actually doing the presentation, main thing is to talk slowly, and pause between points. It’s really easy to talk very fast, but actually it should feel almost uncomfortably slow to you. Give people time to listen and understand. Pause between points, give it time to sink in. Keep your head up, and after making a point look around the room - make eye contact.
Remember people won’t remember much of what you say, so you need to keep it to key points, strong visuals that will make people remember, and repeat key things you want to get across.
