Death-by-PowerPoint, we've all been there. Sitting in a stuffy conference room or suffering eye fatigue in a fluorescent torture chamber, yes, we've all been there. More often than not, you've absorbed next to nothing during the presentation and came away with a negative connotation of the subject at hand. This is all too common and I feel comfortable making the assertion that most professionals have sat through presentations that made you contemplate career changes or early retirement. There may be many reasons for this, from poor subject matter to poor presenters. Here I am going to discuss two variables: presenter and presentation material. For the following consider the terms "public speaker" and "presenter" to be interchangeable.
First we have the presenter. A poor sap of an individual drafted into delivering meeting notes or market research to a group of disinterested listeners that may or not control the career of said presenter. This poor fellow (he's going to be male..hey it's my blog) is often untrained in the art of public speaking and may not be able to control the content of his presentation, he is just expected to deliver. It's a nightmare scenario for anyone that is terrified of public speaking. In this scenario the presenter is not likely to deliver information in a way that allows the audience to process and retain information. Even skilled presenters struggle when being forced to deliver material that is dry or uninteresting.
However, skilled presenters leave an entirely different feeling with their audience. I am going to be blunt and say that not everyone is good at public speaking. Some folks have a phobia and we can discount those right off the bat. I am talking about people that do not have this phobia but are not able to deliver clear and concise presentations. This is not unusual and is more a lack of training an practice, although I think it is fair to say that some people are more naturally inclined to speak publicly. I am not cut out to play in the NBA but I know what a basketball is designed to do. A skilled and practiced presenter can engage an audience and allow them to be part of the information transfer. That's all public speaking is; transferring information. Using open-ended questions and employing techniques such as asking what the expectations of the audience are before starting (and writing these on a whiteboard for all to see) are ways that presenters engage audiences. Right away the audience is part of things, keeping this going is not nearly as difficult as getting it started. Much like a car rolling downhill, presentations have a momentum that is easier to sustain rather than start.
The presenter usually has presentation material. One of the most common forms of presentation media is PowerPoint, and we all know the lethal side-effects of this program. However, PowerPoint's evil can be harnessed for the greater good. When properly utilized PowerPoint slides can be just as engaging as the speaker. Techniques such as contrasting images and concepts are ways that presentation material engages audiences. The eye notices differences. The eye also notices movement, it can be beneficial to have graphs that are interactive. Rather than a static display, a graph that fills as the speaker transfers information is much more engaging than a static pie chart. Also, you can use layers to give slides depth. It is perfectly fine to be creative however always remember the focus needs to be on the information and not the cute cartoons in your slides. Stay professional but don't be afraid to have a bit of fun.
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