Are you presentation woke?

As Presentologists we've sat through more bad presentations than we care to remember. Most presenters follow the same routine: Leave it to the last minute, throw some content together, data dump onto their slides, start off with an apology and then read their slides, thus boring the poor audience to death. Come on everyone! Get presentation woke!

We've come up with a simple rule to remember the next time you want to are asked to speak to a group. The ABCs of presenting:

A: is for the AUDIENCE:

The audience are the reason you are there. So why do we spend so little time focusing on them? Interaction is the difference between a monologue and dialogue with your audience. Here's three key factors to consider with your audience:

1. Crowd-source you content: If you begin by finding out who is coming to your presentation and what they want to hear you will then be able to develop appropriate content. Consider polling your audience beforehand and asking them what they want to learn from you and you can then develop your story. For example, you could use www.surveymonkey.com to create a simple poll or you could even use www.polleverywhere.com to poll your audience live during your presentation. Forget the typical show of hands. It's so boring.
2. Demographics like Age, Gender, Seniority and Experience are key to knowing what and how to present to your audience. For example if the oldest person in the room is 80 years old your minimum font size should be 40 point. Read more on this here.
3. Meeting Architecture: How and where will you be meeting? Will there be a screen? What is the room layout and meeting format? All these factors make a huge impact on the audience and can sway them in your favor. Find out more about Meeting Architecture here.

B: is for your Body Language

Your body speaks volumes. How you look, dress, move and speak are route one to communication. Below are our top three ways you can impact your body language and connect with your audience:

1. Handle the fear: Look, we know it's not easy. Public speaking never is. If it was easy everyone would be doing a great job and I'd not be writing this for you. Fact is, presenting is hard and takes planning, consideration and rehearsal. The simplest way to get over the fear is to consider the fear to be excitement. Fear and Excitement have the same base emotions and if you replace the thought of fear with exhilaration you'll enjoy it much more. It will be fun and you will do a great job. The audience really want you succeed. Forget dumb advice about imagining them naked.
2. Be charismatic: Sure there are people out there with more charisma and personality than others but an audience loves a presenter who's comfortable in the moment. This is born out of a deep understanding of the subject. Never present on a subject you are not an expert on. Get away from the lectern and use strong body movements to emphasize your points. Video record yourself and watch it back. Do not try to evaluate yourself in front of a mirror as it's not possible to present and evaluate yourself at the same time.
3. Have a beautiful voice: If people can't hear you or don't understand your accent - what really is the point? Get a voice coach or use an online app like UMMO or ORAI Also watch Julian Treasure to learn how to talk so that people listen.

C: is for your Content

The content of your speech or presentation is everything. It's the first thing you should work on but is very often left to the last minute. Reading bulletpoints is the number one hate of most audiences, but that's what most amateurs do. Below are three ways you make your content have real impact:

1. Tell a story: Stories connect with us humans on a basic level. We love an opening like "let me tell you a story" or "one fine day" So work on your storytelling. It could be a case study on how you delivered an excellent solution for a client or a recount of how a launch event went terribly and what you learned. Whatever make it personal and impactful and audiences will thank you for it. Here's a great TED example.
2. Use clever visuals: This is what we do. We take lifeless bulletpoints and turn them into impactful infographics which add credence and kudos to your story. If you have beautiful slides your confidence will grow tenfold and you'll find that you look forward to delivering your presentation. Stop blaming PowerPoint - We don't generally blame the vehicle in a smashup. Do something different. Here's seven slides that should be in your presentations.
3. Leave them wanting more: Steve Jobs was the master at this. He'd launch a product and not show us it. He'd discuss a feature and leave us wanting to know more. Yet most presenters try and get through every piece of information available in the hope that some of the data will stick. If you're an expert you'll know what really matters to your audience and just present the essence. The audience will then ask you for more.

If you've read this far you probably want more information. So get in touch and let us know how we can help you become a great presenter. We're all about bringing your audience alive after all!