Do you think that business presentations should be entertaining?
Or do you prefer to sit through a boring presentation?
Nobody wants to be bored and it benefits both sides if the presentation is entertaining, the presenter gets better responses and the audience remembers more.
These are my tips for more entertaining presentations:
1: Remember that the presenter is YOU, not the slide deck. Use the slide deck to help you share information that needs visual aids to clarify, but when you’re talking about anything else turn your slides off. The easiest way to do this is to hit the B key on your laptop (or good remotes have a blank option). The B key turns the screen black (and the W key turns it white, but then you’re backlit and look like a shadow puppet!).
Also remember that people don’t want to see your back. In some situations it’s tempting to turn towards the screen and talk about what’s on the slide. To avoid this try and have a monitor with the presentation somewhere in front of you where you can see it.
2: Tell stories. People remember stories, much longer than a bunch of facts.
Even in serious business presentations there are opportunities to tell stories – they’re called case studies. Alternatively, you might share an experience that gave you enlightenment. There is always a story or two related to your subject.
It’s OK to tell amusing stories, if they’re relevant, but don’t tell jokes – and definitely not smutty jokes. The only exception to this is some after dinner speeches – but this is a specialist type of presentation and, if it’s not your strength, politely decline!
3: Avoid death by PowerPoint. Endless slides stuffed with charts and text are not the way to entertain. Of course, there are times when it’s important to share data, but keep the information on slides top level and provide a link to the detailed version (or offer handouts, but let’s try and save the planet).
4: Practice in real time. The more comfortable you are with your material, the better you’ll come across and you’ll relax and be more natural. Good presenters aren’t made by accident, they work at it.
5: Be yourself. Smile, make eye contact, and engage your audience. This is easy in a boardroom set up, where you can see everyone, but harder on a stage where the auditorium is dark so you probably can’t see your audience very well.
Try using a W/M scan of the audience area to make people feel you’re connecting with them. Start at the front left and take your eyes towards the back, then back to centre front, up to the rear and back to front right in an M shape, then reverse this and use a W, so you are scanning as much of the audience as possible.
This technique needs practice, and should be done slowly or you’ll confuse your audience and make yourself dizzy!
