10 Tips for an Impactful Presentation

Whatever language you are presenting in, it’s important to make your presentation impactful.

If your presentation has impact, the audience will inevitably pay more attention and your message will reach them loud and clear.

Here are 10 things you can do to engage the audience and make them remember you!

1. Just before you speak,?be quiet for a couple of seconds ?and look at the audience. This really commands their attention and creates a great impression of confidence.
2. Start your presentation with a personal anecdote. This shows openness and vulnerability to the audience and endears you to them as a real human being.
3. If you use PowerPoint slides,?try to show only images and photos, really limit the bullet points. Find images which might not be the predictable choice to your subject with the intention of surprising your audience. Look for images that provoke an emotional reaction.
4. When speaking?use analogies and/or metaphors?to connect people’s minds to the concept.
5. Make sure your ending is very powerful . Create a conclusion that addresses both the needs and emotions of your audience.
6. Use the word ‘you’?as much as possible to refer to the audience and their concerns. This creates great rapport and shows you’ve really considered the audience when preparing your presentation content.
7. Share the ‘stage’?especially if you are speaking for more than 40 minutes. Plan to? incorporate other speakers especially if they can offer extra expertise or a unique angle on the topic.
8. Use what?Nancy Duare?calls ‘STAR’ moments?– Something They’ll Always Remember’. For example:

• Look for surprising statistics that frame your topic from an unusual perspective.
• Use evocative visuals.
• Tell an emotive personal anecdote in which you struggled with a challenge and later triumphed.
• If you’re presenting face to face, can you do a physical demonstrations that has impact? An example of this is the TED talk where Bill Gates released a jar of mosquitos into the air making the audience think (for a few seconds) that they carried disease.

9. Have only?ONE idea, ONE slide. The audience should be able to glance at the slide, absorb the message, then turn their attention back to you to hear what you have to say.

10.?Project your voice well and vary the tone and rhythm. Decide at what points in your presentation you want to speed up and?be particularly energetic and which points you want to speak slowly with pauses to create suspense.

So, there you have 10 ways to get more impact into your presentation. Even if you only incorporate one or two of them in your next presentation, it could make a big difference to where your message is remembered or not.