Why are you holding a banana?

This is a question I’ve been asked a few times when delivering a presentation or training course. And there are 2 key reasons: It’s related to the topic I’m talking about; and it makes the session more memorable!

Using different props during your presentation, workshop or training course can help your audience identify with the topic you’re presenting and remember it better afterwards. Don’t go overboard, or they’ll only remember the props and not your message! 

Props are particularly useful when presenting a topic that is perhaps to others a little dry, even though you find it fascinating.

So, what can you use to give your presentations a bigger impact?

Below are some examples that I’ve seen used in presentations to great effect and remember to this day. These presentations also used photographs and/or video and powerpoint as visual aids.

• A health and safety presentation on the need for wearing ear defenders on oil rigs used 2 props: a set of ear defenders for everyone and audio recording of the noises they would hear, getting increasingly louder until at the level where they might expect to experience it in their workplace. Everyone could understand the need for ear defenders and understood the importance of the message of presentation.
• A presentation to staff members on the benefits of eating healthy snacks as opposed to chocolate and crisps from the machine used a selection of healthy snacks, ready prepared for audience to snack on during the presentation. Everyone enjoyed snacking and tried foods they'd previously thought were too much effort or not tasty.
• A presentation from a floor sanding company on what they can do, used their floor sanding machine (and called her by name – Roxanne) and examples of the sanding belts to pass round for the audience to feel the different grades of paper. We all felt his passion for his company and the satisfaction in completing a beautiful floor!
• A training session on presentation skills used a banana to re-engage an audience who were lost in the theory of the course and not thinking about how to apply it. By getting them to stand up and present how to "sell the banana" there was greater interaction, humour and relating the task back to their jobs.

Using a little creativity and imagination can make the difference between a happy, receptive and engaged audience and a group of people checking their phone and waiting for you to stop!

What props have you used? And what effect did they have?

P.S. Thank you to Simon Wallace of The Whole Thing for reminding me of the banana while working a presentation skills course in Dubai & to Darren Carter of DHC Flooring for his very memorable presentation on his business.