Skip to main content

Presentations - 20% content, 80% theatre

Memorable presentations.


Okay, maybe the proportions are a little exaggerated, but I'm trying to make an important point: a great deal of what makes a presentation memorable is the 'theatre' of it. The staging of the presentation is often the part that receives the least attention. You spend hours working on the content, sweating over PowerPoint, checking figures, loading up the laptop. But what about the staging? How will you begin the presentation - how will you enter - and as important, how will you end it, and how will you get 'off stage'? When and how will you present your visual aids? What is the killer element of your presentation, and how will you reveal it and when?

Try to remember a really great presentation you saw, and what made it special? A good presenter is a performer - and it is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learned. Consider the anatomy of a good standup - he or she starts with a great entrance, captures you straight away. The act is paced: some slow bits some high energy bits. Never bore the audience with a single speed presentation. The good stand up builds to their best material - ends with the killer item and leaves the stage professionally with the audience begging for more.

Why is theatre important? Not just for it's own sake - to make a professional presentation - but to make it memorable! If you leave your audience and the quickly forget you, chances are you've wasted your time - but like good theatre you want your audience talking about you for days after.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Face to face training v online training

I'm just off to deliver a two day workshop, and I love it. There is no better way to train, in my view, than working and interacting with real people. But, that said, I am also a big fan of online training. I often include online elements to reinforce training sessions, so delegates can go online and work out problems, download information and podcasts and try techniques long after the session has finished. But as stand alone training, online has many advantages: Cost - no transport or venue costs Timing - people can learn in their own time and own pace Testing - you can make sure lessons have been learned, not just attended Revision - people can easily go back Geography - learners can be in different locations, even timezones Demonstration - using photographs, moving diagrams, audio and video
2 comments
Read more

Not so much a post, more an announcement

I've just got the new One-Development website up and running, so please go take a look and give me your feedback. You can find it on www.one-development.com . I'm also interested to get peoples views on coaching as opposed to training. As a discipline it seems to get far less coverage yet it is an important tool for the people who are responsible for the running of our companies.
Post a Comment
Read more

Don't forget to write

Back in February I wrote on digital media training and in particular writing for the web. This has become quite an issue recently with clients increasingly opting for websites with content management systems ( CMS ). Web copy not only dictates how well you communicate your offer, but how well your site performs in organic listings on search engines. So extracted from my writing for the web training package, here are 10 key points to bear in mind. Remember how you read websites - look and learn from sites you think do it well. Don't expect your visitor to read what you won't read yourself. Customers only listen to one radio station WIIFM - 'what's in it for me'. Talk about benefits to them... don't talk about yourself. Vary descriptions: people use different terms to describe most things, so consider the terms they may search your site on. For example, I was working for a vehicle hire company, but visitors might search on truck rental, truck hire, contract hire,...
Post a Comment
Read more