What are the best practices for delivering a presentation in person?

1 Know your purpose

Before you start designing your presentation, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve. What is the main goal of your presentation? What do you want your audience to learn, feel, or do after listening to you? Having a clear purpose will help you structure your content, choose your tone, and tailor your delivery to your audience.

2 Design your slides

Your slides are not your script, they are your visual aids. They should complement your verbal delivery, not distract from it. Therefore, you should follow some basic design principles to make your slides clear, simple, and engaging. Use a consistent and readable font, color, and layout. Avoid too much text, clutter, or irrelevant images. Use charts, graphs, or icons to illustrate your data or concepts. And most importantly, use your slides to emphasize your key points, not to repeat everything you say.

3 Practice your delivery

Once you have your slides ready, you need to practice your delivery. This will help you improve your timing, fluency, and confidence. You can practice by yourself, in front of a mirror, or with a friend or colleague. You can also record yourself and watch your performance. Pay attention to your voice, body language, and eye contact. You want to sound clear, expressive, and enthusiastic. You want to use gestures, facial expressions, and movement to support your message. And you want to look at your audience, not at your slides or notes, to establish rapport and credibility.

4 Prepare for questions

One of the most challenging aspects of delivering a presentation in person is handling questions from the audience. You need to be ready to answer them in a polite, concise, and relevant way. To prepare for questions, you can anticipate some of the common or possible ones and rehearse your answers. You can also have some backup slides or resources to refer to if you need more information. And you can use some techniques to buy yourself some time, such as repeating or rephrasing the question, asking for clarification, or acknowledging the difficulty of the question.

5 Manage your nerves

It is normal to feel nervous before or during a presentation in person. However, you don't want your nerves to affect your performance or your audience's perception of you. To manage your nerves, you can do some physical and mental exercises to calm yourself down. You can breathe deeply, stretch your muscles, or drink some water. You can also visualize yourself delivering a successful presentation, use positive affirmations, or focus on your purpose and audience.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?