Do not show 'Thank you' on your last slide

"We have come to the end of my presentation. Thank you for your time. I will take questions from the audience if there are any." ... And the final slide displayed was 'Thank you'.

Is this the best message for the final slide? How does that create value as the takeaway message?

Most of us make this very mistake by showing 'Thank you' on the final slide. At the end of the presentation, we would mostly spend some time for a Q&A session, usually about five to fifteen minutes. During the duration of the Q&A session, our final slide stays on the screen. That is a long time for a slide to be on the screen.

You will also notice that this final slide is also the longest exposed slide and your audience will be staring at this final slide as you go about answering questions from the audience. Imagine buying a 5-minute advertising slot on television. How much would it cost you? Really expensive, isn't it? The final slide is actually a really expensive slide. As such, we should put something valuable on the final slide as a takeaway message. Something that we would like our audience to remember.

In your final slide, show your mission statement, summarize the action plan, highlight key content from the presentation, or if you can't think of anything, show your company logo. Make good use of your final slide in every presentation.

Do not show 'Thank you', 'Q&A', or 'The End' on your final slide.

The author, ANG Tian Teck is a coach, trainer, and speaker, specializing in inspiring organizations and business leaders to deliver high impact presentations. He has coached, trained, and infected over 10,000 individuals across the region with his Amazing Sticky Presentations? approach. Tian Teck is also the author of two books, Sticky Presentations?, and Spinning I.D.E.A.S.