How to Make Presentations Sparkling and Scintillating
Posted by David Evans on Sat, Oct 01, 2011 @ 05:05 AM
Comparing the keynote speakers at the recent Presentation Summit in her blog, Olivia Mitchell wrote, “Words such as sparkling and scintillating were created to describe speakers like Carmen Taran. Everybody I spoke to loved her as a speaker.” Everyone also remembered what she was wearing, and several of the most impactful and striking slides – but as for what Carmen had said, Olivia found, as with other keynote speakers that everyone remembered something different. However, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Geetesh Bajaj also covered Carmen’s presentation in his blog. This is a summary of some of what they learned.
It's important to be clear about what you want your audiences to remember, because they can only act on what they recollect.
If you cover many points of equal importance and all at the same hierarchical level, your audience will have difficulty remembering them all. "Pay attention to everything - everything is important" is not a very clear message.
If you don’t present a clear overarching message, your audience will choose their own message – which may not be what you want to happen.
Your message, your slides and your delivery need to be balanced - you don’t want your presentation to be like a movie where people only remember the special effects.
When you use a powerful metaphor as your theme, be aware of any baggage your metaphor may carry for some in the audience.
Emotions can be both positive and negative. Generally, pictures and words associated with positive emotions are appropriate – but sometimes, invoking negative emotions in a presentation will lead to more detailed recollection.
Audiences often remember the opening or closing slides in a presentation the most - and they always remember something that is out of the ordinary.
A long self-introduction by the speaker, giving out handouts or really boring opening slides are the best way to kill a presentation
Unusual questions make great presentation titles.
Include a memorable message and image at the end and you increase the longevity of your audience's remembrance.
Repetition does not lead to memory - but people do remember something that is not a cliché, or is unusual and different.
Audiences also remember dramatic shifts - aim for occasional sharp contrasts between slides.
The more bizarre the images you use (within reason!), the more likely people are to remember them.
The familiar in unfamilar circumstances
Even though you want bizarreness, the images you use must be original and familiar. This is important to the brain since original and familiar stuff gets encoded easily within the brain. It also has a quicker retrieval rate. The artist Rene Magritte wrote, "to be a surrealist ... means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been."
And finally, you don’t have a second chance to make a good first impression – but you usually have plenty of opportunity to correct a first impression. A bad start isn’t necessarily the end of the world !