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| Do's |
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Smile! When audience members see a genuine
and sincere smile, it makes them want to smile too.
What could be better than looking out on an audience
of happy, smiling people? |
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Move. Don’t hide behind your podium.
Presentations can be scary, but the audience won’t
eat you alive. This doesn’t mean you should pace
furiously from one end of the stage to the other,
but a little movement will help keep your audience
awake. |
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Test your setup before the presentation.
Can you see your visual aids, slides or overheads
clearly from the back of the room? Is everything working
as you had expected? |
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Present to the crowd. Consider your audience
before your presentation. If your audience is a group
of university students, leave your suit at home and
make your presentation less formal. If your audience
requires more formality, perhaps it’s best if
you forget the animation. It’s unlikely that
swirling text and funny noises will impress this crowd. |
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Don’t try to impress with jargon.
Never speak above the crowd in hopes of impressing
people. When you’re speaking in a language that
doesn’t compute, they’ll tune out. The audience
may also see you trying too hard to impress and you
may come across as false or insincere. |
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Use a computer and multimedia projector.
Professional presenters use a computer and projector,
so why shouldn’t you? Overheads projectors are
a little old-fashioned and printing those overhead
slides is a nuisance. Get out of the comfort zone
and try using new technology. If you’re worried
about its reliability, bring your overheads as back-up. |
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Be yourself! Be honest, open and sincere.
You’re best at being yourself, so let your true
self show. People relate to honesty and expressiveness. |
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Update your slides for each presentation.
Don’t use the same slides again and again. In
the world of visual aids, fresh is good. |
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Place your company logo in the bottom right-hand
corner of your slides. The eye looks naturally
to the bottom right corner, so if you want your company’s
name reinforced, place it there. While you’re
at it, why not use corporate colors for your slides?
Not only is it a double-whammy but it’s also
a way to stay consistent with the use of color throughout
the presentation. |
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Use light colors on a dark background and vice-versa.
This seems obvious but it’s important to keep
in mind. The easiest combinations to read are white
or yellow bold text on a dark background. |
Bonus tip!
Show a visual every one to three minutes. Using this guideline can help
you stay on schedule during your presentation. In the planning stage,
if you allocate a maximum of three minutes for each slide, it will help
you stay on time during your actual presentation.
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| Taboos |
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Forgetting to turn off your screen saver.
Your presentation is going smoothly, and you’re
taking a little extra time to explain each of your
PowerPoint slides. You turn to look at the projection
screen and, in horror, realize that the audience has
been watching cute little tropical fish swim for the
past five minutes. If you’re using a laptop for
your presentation, be sure to turn off your screen
saver before you begin. |
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Beeping laptop. If you usually present
using a laptop, you’ve probably experienced the
low-battery warning. It screams for attention and
successfully irritates any well-intentioned audience.
Bring an extension cord if you’re using a laptop
and plug it in. This way you won’t have to worry
about low batteries interrupting the flow of your
presentation. |
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Speaking too quickly. It’s natural
to speed up when feeling nervous. But when you speak
at record speeds, not only is it difficult for the
audience to understand what you’re saying, but
it’s a dead giveaway that you’re sweating
bullets. |
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Overusing animation. Animation is great
for capturing the audience’s attention and adding
interest to any presentation, if used in moderation.
However, when things are whirling, whizzing and zooming
across the screen, they direct the people’s attention
away from your message. They’ll be too busy trying
to figure out how you got your visuals to do those
amazing tricks. |
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Unexpected animation. Be sure to rehearse
your animated presentation before you give it. This
ensures the animation you’ve used is working
properly and is appropriate for the audience. Don’t
let any unexpected sights or sounds catch you off
guard. |
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Using too many bullets and fonts. Keep
it simple by using only a few bullets and a maximum
of two fonts per slide. If you get too many fonts
and bullets, the design becomes cluttered and the
information more difficult to read. |
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Forgetting to delete all guidelines.
If you’re using PowerPoint, there’s nothing
worse than a slide that appears as "Click to
add title." Of course the audience will forgive
you, but it certainly won’t help you look like
a pro. |
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Using a font that’s too small. The
smaller the font, the more difficult it will be for
the audience members at the back of the room to read
your information. |
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Placing too many words on a slide. Keep
the information in your presentation concise. The
words that appear on the slide should spark the larger
thought, not explain it. Follow the 7 x 7 rule, which
limits the words on a visual to no more than seven
words per line and a maximum of seven lines, for a
total of 49 words or less per visual. Headings or
titles should be kept to four words or less. |
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Using red lettering on your slides. Typically,
red has negative connotations. It’s almost always
interpreted as a warning sign or danger, and in business
it symbolizes failure or financial loss. |
| Bonus Tip! Spelling
is important. Probably one of the most embarrassing blunders
is overlooking spelling errors on your slides. Don’t solely trust
your spell-checker either. Your best bet is to review your slides and
then ask someone else to look at them next. |
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