Countdown to outstanding presentations
Posted by David Evans on Tue, Feb 22, 2011 @ 06:28 AM
There are many lists of different numbers of top tips for presentations around. To save you searching, here’s a countdown of a few of the best, with key points highlighted. Some are from books, most are from web sites. I wouldn't endorse them all - and in any case, some are mutually exclusive (reduce, or increase the number of slides per minute?). Some work better online than on a platform. Some will work for you, some won't.
But at the end, you'll find the three tips that occur most frequently in all the lists - start with these, and you won't go far wrong!
Ten Top Tips
Gary Reynolds ("high quality graphics and fonts") - Wendy Russell (layout and design) - Sykes Group ("nail your ending") – Neil Patel ("don't over-prepare") – MakeUseOf ("use consistency / use contrast") – Joshua Johnson ("use quality photography") – Marjorie Brody ("push emotional buttons") – Thomas Murrell ("short words, plain language") - Nancy Duarte (preparing for a short TED format talk - "have two natural ending points") - and not forgetting Rexi Media ("strong beginnings, strong endings")
Nine Top Tips
Olivia Mitchell ("make you key points Tweetable") – Bob Gabrielle ("invite questions within 5 minutes") – Miquel Lesy ("make a good first impression") – Andreas Zwinkau ("don't apologise") – Nancy Duarte ("audience interest is in direct proportion to the presenter's preparation" - a list from her recent book, Resonate)
Eight Top Tips
Darrell Zahorsky ("minimise you") – Don Cooper (I nearly wrote Don Draper … "get peer feedback") – University of Buffalo ("stand on the left") – T J Walker ("the bigger your audience, the bigger your gestures") – Shawn Ellis ("don't try too hard")
Seven Top Tips
Debbie Bailey ("the mirror is your friend") – Joy Montgomery ("use their names") – PowerPoint Ninja ("is there loose wiring in your analogy?") – Anita Bruzzese ("avoid white / avoid dark blue") – Arun Basil Lal ("skipping points is ok")
Six Top Tips
Olivia Mitchell (quoting Scott Berkun - "good public speaking is based on good private thinking") - Bruce Gabrielle ("use one less visual ornament") – Marketing Magic ("vary your content")– Ex-Cel Solutions ("don't use clip art") – All About Presentations ("make every presentation unique") – Jeff Cobb ("stories make it real")
Five Top Tips
Seamus Brown ("jump up and down" - but be careful in heels) – Brien Posey ("do the unexpected") – Dave Roos ("no-one ever complains about a short PowerPoint") – Chuck Dietrich ("use interactive polling") – Jan Thomas ("avoid bullet points!") – Rob Cameron ("stick to the time limit")
Four Top Tips
Dave Johnson ("less is more") – S E Slack (tips from Microsoft) – Roger Seip ("have fun, be yourself") – White Smoke ("avoid errors")
And finally, the top three tips across all these lists are
Number 3 – make them laugh - humour works wonders!
Number 2 – keep it simple - reduce visual clutter!
Number 1 – practice, practice, practice!
So, what are your top tips? Any great lists missing?