Giving Presentations
The Art of the Business Presentation
By Robyn Logan
Director of Strategy
ICA
What makes a good business presentation? Is it the content, the ways its delivered? We all certainly know how to pick a bad business presentation. Hands up everyone who has sat bored listless while some poor misguided soul flipped through a never ending power point show. I certainly have. My favourite is when the aforementioned misguided soul then actually reads every single word on the screen verbatim. But enough torture - lets move onto how to pull together a great presentation.
I have spent most of today putting together a presentation to deliver in China next week to potential business partners. The process has been an interesting one. Not only has it required me to succinctly distill my business processes and thoughts into 2 - 3 bullet points, it has also required me to think very carefully about what makes a good presentation.
Here are my top 10 Do’s and Dont’s
Don’ts
- Dont read the slides to your audience
- Dont use full sentences or put too much information on each slide
- Dont use too many varying colours
- Dont use more than 2 or 3 font styles
- Dont use too many images
- Dont use too many different effects (moving text or flying graphics etc)
- Dont use overly complex charts or diagrams
- Dont use the slides to block your connection with your audience
- Don’t flick through too fast
- Dont mess up the technology then blame the technology
Do’s
- Do identify the purpose for your presentation
- Do identify and know the listening/learning style of your audience
- Do make sure your content is coming from your purpose and speaks to your audience
- Do use bullet points and short phrases
- Do use active verbs and present tense
- Do create a logical structure and even flow
- Do include an index of slides at the beginning
- Do include a summary slide at the end
- Do use fonts, colours and images that support your message
- Do practice, both using the technology and presenting the show
Most of these are pretty straight forward. However one point I would like to highlight is flow. Making a power point show is a bit like making an animation movie - you need to create each screen independently, but it only works when you see it as a whole. Make sure you watch your slide show right through and focus on consistent flow - both with format and content.
So there you go - the world of powerpoint. My presentation is finished now, and I think it looks great. But the proof is in the pudding as they say - so I will update you all when we return from our trip.