Five Great TED Talks to Help You Improve Your Presentations

By Graham Skerritt

Delivering effective presentations is an essential skill for the modern businessperson, but not everyone feels confident in standing up to deliver a talk. Fortunately, giving presentations is a skill that can be learned. In fact, at Global Bridge, we have successfully taught hundreds of students how to plan and deliver presentations in English – and we often recommend watching TED talks to see examples of the skills we teach in action.

Here are five of my personal favourite talks that demonstrate different aspects of how to deliver a good presentation. Watch them to see five great speakers in action and pick up some tips for giving your own presentations.

1. How to plan and structure your talk

In this talk, Stanford University lecturer Matt Abrahams provides some essential advice for planning presentations – thinking about our approach, the needs and expectations of our audience, the context, and the structure of our presentation. He also uses several anecdotes about his life to make his points in an entertaining and personable way.

Matt Abrahams: Think fast. Talk smart.

2. How to introduce your talk

At the start of a presentation, the presenter typically:

• thanks the audience for coming
• introduces themself and establishes their credibility
• uses a hook to get the audience’s attention
• establishes why the audience should listen
• gives an overview of the structure of the presentation

In her presentation about lying, Pamela Myer has a great hook to get the audience’s attention, a clear establishment of her credibility, and a strong reason why people should listen to her.?

(Read a more in-depth analysis of this introduction?here)

Pamela Meyer: How to spot a liar

3. How to make better slides

Bad slides can ruin a good presentation. Sadly, many people still produce slides that are poorly designed or contain too much text or data. Slides like this end up distracting the audience and prevent the presenter from getting their message across.?

Good slides should:

• use a limited number of colours and an easy-to-read design
• focus on one idea at a time
• contain very little text
• use images to make an impact
• gradually reveal information to keep the audience’s focus in the right place

(In fact, TED offers some good tips on making slides?here)

Del Harvey, Head of Twitter’s Trust and Safety team, uses some simple and effective slides in her presentation about keeping Twitter users safe:

Del Harvey: Protecting Twitter users (sometimes from themselves)

4. How to deliver your talk

When you deliver your presentation, you can use your voice to get people’s attention and make your point. You can:

• vary the pace of your voice
• use stress or pitch for emphasis
• speak loudly or quietly
• use silence

In his engaging presentation, Julian Treasure talks about the importance of positive communication habits, highlights some of the different delivery options available to presenters, and demonstrates some exercises to help you warm up before you give a presentation.

Julian?Treasure: How to speak so that people want to listen

5. How to conclude a presentation

At the end of a presentation, a presenter should:

• signal it is the end of the presentation
• summarise the key points they made
• leave the audience with a call to action or with something to think about
• thank the audience
• invite questions (where appropriate)

At the end of his inspiring presentation on motivation, Dan Pink provides a clear summary that pulls together the arguments he has been making and ends with a powerful call to action. (He also uses a great anecdote to get people’s attention at the start of his talk, great slides to accompany his presentation, and great variety in his delivery to get his message across.)

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation

These are just five examples of particularly effective TED talks. There are, of course, many, many more! Please let us know your favourites and what they taught you about delivering presentations.

If you would like to learn more about?Global Bridge, please contact?[email protected]?or call 03-3518-2620.?