Five things to do before your presentation

There aren't many organisations these days that don't go a week without having some sort of presentation to other people in the company.

In fact, some companies use presentations as a sales tool, providing information to prospective clients in a format that makes it easy to digest, understand and act upon.

However, we've all heard the statement "death by PowerPoint" and many of us have sat through meetings as people have relentlessly read the words of dozens of slides in front of us as we try to find an excuse the leave the room.

These types of presentations are no good to anybody and they likely come about because the presenter is ill prepared.

Many people get excited putting their presentation together and revel in designing all the neat little animations, but in reality, it's the presenter that people have come to see and so it's important that you don't rely on the slides to carry your idea.

Simply reading out the slides you've prepared without adding any life or enthusiasm to them will just render the presentation pointless and you may as well just give hand-outs.

No, a presentation should be full of life. You are there to present, yes, but that presentation method should enthuse and excite the crowd and you should be ready to take questions and give answers and help when ready.

With that in mind, here's a check list of five things to keep at the back of your mind when preparing for a presentation.

Create speaker notesAs you’re creating your slides (if using

them) or just preparing acetates (yes, I still see these in use), always have notes to go with each point. This serves two purposes – the first is that you’ll not forget what the slide is about and secondly, you’ll know what’s coming up next.

Getting ahead of yourself is far too easy to do if you’re not prepared and it makes for a poor listener experience.

Check your timings

So many people go over their allotted time allowance and end up rushing to finish. It’s easy enough to do but you should resist this by making sure your slides are succinct and your point easy to get across.

Sometimes questions from the audience can slow everything down and if this is happening it may be better to explain that questions will be taken at the end. Cutting short a question and answering time slot is easier that shortening slides mid-presentation.

Rehearse!Don’t leave it to chance! Go through the presentation

with someone you trust to pick holes in it. This bit can be difficult if the person is especially close as you’ll find they’ll either be way too soft with you and tell you how great it all is, even if it’s not, or they’ll be hyper-critical and try to re-write it for you.

The best thing to do is to rehearse in front of a few people and see what the consensus is before trashing the whole thing and starting again.

Number your notes

Sound obvious? No, it never is. Put a number on every single note so if you drop them you can simply pop them back in the right order without looking a complete fool in front of everyone!

Get some rest

Presentations can be difficult if you’re not used to it and so it’s always good to ensure you’ve had a good night’s rest beforehand. Going out on a massive drinking binge the night before you’re about to present in front of a bunch of academics is not a good idea!

As you can see, most of this is about preparation and it can’t be emphasised enough about how much preparation can make the difference between a good and bad presentation. Even if you feel you’re good at it, don’t be fooled by your own self confidence.

Even good presenters have off days and when that happens, you need to be able to pick up your notes and pick up where you left off.

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