Presenting with impact

Think about a bad presentation you have witnessed as a member of the audience and take a moment to decide  what made it so memorably poor. Bad presentations are usually one or more of the following:

• Irrelevant or full of information that is not relevant
• Rambling or incoherent
• Filled with too much detail.

In other words, they are boring and they lack impact. Remind yourself of these issues before you present. Conversely, people say that good presentations:

• Capture your interest
• Are relevant to the audience and say something useful
• Are concise and contain everything that needs to be there, but without waffle.

So, to present well, is it all about preparation? 

That’s important, of course – very few people can ‘wing it’, and if you try, most people will notice. But preparation is really more about remembering some golden rules. They may strike you as common sense, but it is often the case that common sense is not common practice. 

Let’s look at some of these rules that will help you create powerful and memorable presentations.