Welcome to the sixth part of this new “42 things” series entitled ‘Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective’ – you can catch up from previous posts, starting at the first part Giving Presentations, From An Audience Perspective, Part 1.

We have reached the half-way point in this article so lets get going with a few things about the slides themselves, then consider how to grab and maintain the attention of the audience.

Slide Design

Be careful with your choice of colours. Not everyone sees colours in the same way and certain colours mean different things to different people. Keep a good contrast between the background and foreground colours. Flashing imagery does not help nor do colours that are close together on the colour spectrum. Those of use who like to sit at the front may be dazed by the colour and those at the back may just see a wash of blended colours. Do not get too carried away with prettying things up – sure it helps if the slides look great but I for one would rather have a slide with three or four important and salient points than a colourful piece of whizzy clipart. I can remember short punchy points far better than I could describe a clever looking slide.

Also, be careful and selective about what you put at the top, bottom and sides of slide designs. Many screen projectors and screens I have seen used at presentations are not aligned correctly and can cut off bits of presentations.

Leave a good margin around text just in case this happens to you.

Screen Savers/Wallpapers

Disable screen savers, power management functions, and switch off any garish wallpapers. I have actually been to a presentation with a family photo on the window background and an animated screen saver kicking in half way through the presentation. This is not something you may necessarily want to share with a room full of people that do not know you. Remember the audience often sees what is on your computer screen prior to you starting the presentation. We do not want to read your emails or be informed by your virus checker that your computer may have been infected.

You want the audience to go away with memories of what you said – not what we saw.

Keep A Drink Handy

Dry mouth and coughing fits? It happens, it is part of life. You can help deal with this by keeping a cool drink handy. If you have not bought one with you then it is time to find one. Cool still water is probably the best bet and remember to sip it – the last thing you want is hiccups! Though this can liven up a particularly dull performance.

Taking a few moments to reach for a drink can also introduce a handy pause to give the audience a chance to talk to each other, consider what you have said or catch up with notes we may be making.

Cue Cards

Love them or hate them cue cards have their place. It is easy to drift off track or lose your train of thought so keep a series of cue cards with short prompts to hand in case you need them.

Keep the information on your cue cards really short so you can see them quickly but not be tempted to keep staring at them or reading off them.

Cue cards should be used for prompting only.

Take The Audience With You

At a presentation, we are on a journey together. It is much easier if the audience is on your side and on your wave length so talk to us and not at us. Nods from the audience often mean we are following and appreciating what is being said. We are not really prone to big whoops of joy or shouting Hallelujah but a quick scan across the audience should let you know if we are with your or not. Adding something interesting or unexpected can often pep the audience up during a particularly slow session.

Do not just read to the audience or leave them out on a limb.

Incentives

It can help to offer a prize based on one of your key points during the presentation, or for an interesting question raised by an audience member. However, if you use incentives remember they are to maintain the attention of the audience and encourage feedback – otherwise you will simply be giving stuff away without getting your point across.

Tell the audience the first person to ask a question will get a prize  – this will usually generate a good show of hands.

This article was brought to you by Jason Slater Technology Blog

Catch Up Posts…

• Giving Presentations, From An Audience Perspective
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective #2
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective #3
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective, Part 4
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective, Part 5

Previous 42 things…

• 42 things about Web 2.0
• 42 things to enhance and improve your network

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Related

• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective #3
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective, Part 4
• Giving Presentations, From An Audience Perspective
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective, Part 5
• Giving Presentations From An Audience Perspective #2