I 've given hundreds of presentations to people ranging from kids up to 3 star Generals and even a presentation to the GM of our division who oversees $2B in revenue.
So here is my advice and common things people screw up.
First here are a list of mistakes:
1) Eye Charts: This is the BIG OFFENDER. Having so much information up on a chart that you can't even read it including, flow charts, org charts, excel spreadsheets. EVERY point should be able to be made in ONE bullet.
2) Reading Your Slides Verbatim: Very Amateurish and boring. Really, if you are going to do this, why are you even giving the presentation? You should be expounding on key points.
3) Cool Audio sounds: 99% of the time, you should not use audio in your presentation. It is not a good idea to have a 'ping' or 'gunshot' every time a bullet scrolls down
4) Too Much Pointless Animation: Animation that does not enhance your point, hurts it. Having all this stuff fly all over the screen, disappearing, and reappearing, just is usually not a good idea
Now lets get on to the good list
Things that will enhance your presentation:
1) Understand the KEY MESSAGE: One week from your presentation, what is the key point you want your audience to remember? On each slide there should be one key point you are making. All these points should support your main big take away point
2) The One Slide per 3 - 5 minutes rule. On average, each slide should run you 3 - 5 minutes so you scale this accordingly. If you only have 15 minutes you better not have 18 slides. If you need to fill 45 minutes you are in trouble if you only have 8 slides
3) Think Visually: Graphics and Pictures are your friends. Whenever possible use graphics, visuals, and pictures to elaborate on a key point. The brain thinks visually. Which has more impact a line of text saying "Customer was satisfied" or a picture of a smiling person with the caption "Customer satisfaction" underneath it.
4) Understand EVERY SINGLE THING on your slides: If you don't understand a particular flowchart you better not put it up. Same goes charts, equations, etc.
5) BE CONCISE in your bullet statements: You really want to eliminate articles, adjectives, adverbs, and prepositions whenever possible. Bullet statements are not grammatically correct.
--The current trend shows we will exceed our sales forecast by $22M which is 43% beyond our marketing departments projections back in 2007 Bad
-- Current Sales Trend $22M => 43% higher than 2007 projection* Good (note, the * asterik would be a hyperlink to another slide detailing the 2007 projection/calculation in case someone asks.
6) One line per bullet statement rule. Every point should be able to be made in one line. I've given presentation for years and maintain this rule 98% of the time.
7) Practice, time yourself, and realize that in real life, you will probably talk 20% faster due to nerves.
8) Back-up slides. All extra details should have a hyperlink to it that jumps to a back-up slide. Think like a website. Notice how all proper nouns, facts, and statistics have a link that gives more detail. So should you presentation (within reason).
9) Anticipate your audience: This goes back to #8. What are some of the questions they will have? Your presentation should strive to answer these questions before they are even asked and if asked you have a slide that addresses that question or provides more detail.
For example. If I'm giving a 20 minute presentation, I'll often have 8 slides but will have 20 backup slides that will only be accessed if a specific question is asked.
Lastly, here is the general rule of thumb for the flow of a presentation.
1) INTRODUCTION: Tell them what you are going to tell them
2) PRESENTATION: Tell them what you are telling them
3) CONCLUSION: Tell them what you told them
Now here is the kicker. All the cool extraneous details need to be left out. Stick to the main topic, the main point, and everythign else needs to relate to that main point.
Also, don't assume your audience knows what you know. You need to start from the ground level and bring them up to your level.
For instance, I was giving a presentation to a senior panel of military advisors about funding for a new laser system. I had 30 minutes.
My flow went somethign like this.
0) Introduction: Developing new xxx laser system 1 minute
1) This is what a basic laser system is 1 minutes
2) Here are our current laser systems 2 minutes
3) Here are the problems with our current laser systems 2 minutes
4) Here is the xxx laser system 4 minutes
5) Here is how xxx laser system is different and why we need it 5 minutes
6) Here is what is needed for us to develop the xxx laser system 3 minutes
7) Here is how quickly we can get it out to the field and its impact 5 minutes
8) In conclusion developing the xxx laser system and potential impact 2 minutes
9) Questions 5 minutes
Now, I had nice pictures to make my point along with SIMPLE statistics that were also linked to images and everything was simple. This may sound trite but if you can't explain it to someone inside of 2 minutes then the slide is not right. The goal of each slide should be that someone looks at it and can instantly comprehend what you are talking about. If your slides aren't doing that, then they are not right.
Many of my peers made the mistake of launching into how great their technology was without defining the scope in which that technology was even used in. How do you know something is good unless you know what to compare it against? Or how do you know how good something is if you don't even really know 'what' it is.
O.k. i've babble quite a bit.
good luck hope this helps
Mel...
