Perfect Presentations

Whenever you give a presentation, it's important that your message is clear, your ideas are transparent, your delivery is confident, and the overall impression is professional. Here we provide step-by-step guidelines below to ensure that your presentation creation process is a thorough one, and provide a template to support you through this process. There is also information on how to create eye-catching visuals and how to handle questions effectively.

• The four phases of presentations
• Visuals
• Handling questions
• Perfect presentations in practice

The four phases in making any presentation are:

1. design
2. preparation
3. delivery
4. evaluation

• Start by establishing the aims and objectives of your presentation. Do you need the audience to be informed, persuaded, educated, entertained, briefed, or a mixture of these?
• Work out the characteristics of your audience in terms of:
  • size
  • age range
  • gender mix
  • cultural diversity
  • educational level
  • level of seniority
  • level of knowledge of the subject
  • likely boredom threshold
  • expected reaction to the presentation
• How long do you have for your presentation and for what length of time do you think you can keep the audience’s attention?
• What visual aids would you like to use, and will this be possible in the presentation venue?
• What are the key arguments, issues or learning points you would like to get across?
• How much research do you need to do, and from what source will you gather your material?
• How much time do you have until the presentation, and how much of this time will you be able to spend preparing for the presentation?
• Does anyone else need to be consulted during the preparation phase?
• Do you have to clear what you intend to say with anyone prior to the presentation, and when will they be available?
• Will there be a question and answer session following your presentation?
• Will it be appropriate to produce a verbatim script of your talk, a summary handout or hard copies of your slides for distribution to the audience?

• Take your list of objectives and key issues or arguments and work out what you will need to cover during the presentation. For each point, list the information you will require.
• Do your research and collect all of the information that is relevant to your requirements.
• Work out a structure for your presentation, bearing in mind that, generally, you need an introduction, a main body and a conclusion. Ideally, the introduction should explain what you will say, the main body is for saying it, and the conclusion should include a summary of the main points discussed.
• Use the 'power of three' rule. When we hear lists of three things it resonates well in our brain and we tend to remember things better, which is why it is a technique that many inspirational speechmakers use. [1] For example, 'Friends, Romans, countrymen', 'Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness', 'Education, education, education'. Barack Obama used it to good effect in his victory speech:

• From the material you have assembled, pull out the specific information that you need and build your structure around it, focusing on what you are trying to achieve.
• Decide whether you will use a script, abbreviated notes or speak from memory.
• Produce your script in note form and refine the notes until you are happy with the finished product.
• Number each page of notes so that they can easily be put back into order if you drop them.
• Create the handout if you are going to use one.
• Read through your presentation to make sure that it all fits together and makes logical sense.
• Pay particular attention to your opening and closing sentences – make sure you grab the audience’s attention and try to finish with a bang.
• Practise your presentation, including a full dress rehearsal in the actual venue if it is a formal event. If this is not possible, try to practise in front of a mirror or with someone observing you.
• If you will be using a microphone, practise with the appropriate type, particularly if you are inexperienced with using one.

• On the day, make sure you arrive at the venue well in advance to check out the equipment, visuals, any props, seating arrangements, the use of technicians, etc.
• Make sure you are comfortable with your position for the presentation, and familiarise yourself with your surroundings.
• Have a glass of water available within easy reach.
• Arrange your notes in such a way that it will be easy to see and use them.
• Always remember to welcome your audience at the start of the presentation and thank them for their attention at the end.
• Concentrate on projecting your voice and pace yourself. Pausing briefly between each sentence will help you ensure that you don’t run away with your speech.
• Remember, only you know the content of your presentation. If you forget part of it, continue and, if possible, try to subtly add the missing part later on. The audience is only likely to notice that something has been missed if you tell them so!
• Keep an eye on the time. Be prepared to be flexible and concentrate on the priorities if you are running out of time.
• Maintain eye contact with the audience and try not to constantly look at your notes. To minimise the risk of this happening, use your visuals, if possible, as a guide to what you will say.
• If you are using a screen, be careful not to stand in front of any part of it.
• Try to avoid distracting habits such as fiddling with your notes or jingling coins in your pocket.
• Don’t allow visuals to take over. You should be the centre of attention.
• Don’t talk when changing visuals as you will have your back to the audience and they will not have your full attention.
• Stand with your hands by your side and use open gestures. Standing with your arms or legs crossed or with your hands clasped or behind your back can make you appear aggressive or nervous.
• Feel free to move around but be careful not to end up pacing.
• Never assume that the audience will understand acronyms or jargon. Ensure that you explain all terms that may not be familiar.
• If you have prepared a finale, deliver it as you planned to get the reaction you want.
• Don’t forget to give out the handouts if you planned to do so. Decide when you will distribute them, depending on what you wish to achieve with the presentation; either at the start so that everyone can follow along and take notes, or at the end to ensure that all attention is focused on you during the presentation.

• After you have delivered your presentation, it is important that you evaluate how it was received - particularly if you intend to deliver it again to a different audience. Even if it was a one-off, reflecting upon a presentation will help you to develop and improve your skills, and to establish what methods/approaches work in which situations.
• Solicit feedback directly from your audience. The most common way of doing this is to issue an evaluation form after the presentation has concluded. We have provided a sample evaluation form that you can download and customise from Supplementary Resources. You can send this form out as is, or add/delete questions as appropriate. You will need to overtype the sections in [bold parenthesis] with your own information.
• In addition to audience feedback, there are numerous questions that you should ask yourself that will give you some pointers on the effectiveness of your presentation:
  • Did you manage to cover all of the points that you wanted to? If not, establish what prevented their inclusion, and consider how they can be highlighted next time. This could be anything from incorporating them on your visual aids, to having a checklist or note cards that you can easily refer to.
  • How did your timings work out? Did you overrun or finish earlier than you expected? A few minutes too long or short is fine (unless your presentation is part of an event where timings are crucial) but if your timings are way out you should review why this was: were you asked to explain things in a lot more detail than you included in the presentation, or did you leave too much time for questions at the end? Review what elements of the presentation forced you to overrun and see what action you can take to prevent this next time. For example, include more detail on the areas that you were questioned on and counter this by cutting down some sections that could easily be condensed. If you finished early, it is not always necessary to bolster your running time with more material. It could simply be a case of giving more accurate timings to your audience.
  • If you included interactive elements, e.g. direct questions to the audience or exercises, did these get the response that you wanted? If not, you might have to look at making your questions more direct or giving people more background information.
  • Did the audience respond to your visual aids? Remember, they are designed to support your message, not become the presentation. If you got the sense that they spent more time looking at the visuals than listening to you, then you will have to rethink how you use them. Additionally, if everyone looked like they were straining to read them, it will be necessary to adjust the colours and text sizes so that they are clearer.
  • Do you feel like you engaged the audience - did people look interested, ask questions, nod as you spoke etc? Or did they look bored, checked their watches or chat amongst themselves? If it was the latter, did you feel yourself losing the audience at particular parts of the presentation or was it throughout? Look at each stage in turn and consider what you can do to make it more engaging. For example, include a question that is thrown over to the audience, make sure key points are delivered with a 'hook', e.g. "This is important to you because ...".
  • What questions did the audience ask you? If they didn't ask any, don't assume this is because you covered everything. You may not have held their attention enough sufficiently for them to feel inspired to ask anything. If they asked questions regarding points you felt you had covered during your presentation then it is possible that you weren't clear enough.
  • It is always a good idea to ask someone in the audience if your voice was clear. Get them to feedback on your tone, pitch and speed. If, for example, they felt you spoke too fast, next time you give a presentation stop and take a breath at regular intervals, and try to moderate your pace as you deliver your words.

Below are some tips on making clear and striking visuals to ensure your presentation stands out.

• If using overheads or slides, landscape format is generally easier to read than portrait.
• Avoid long chunks of text as this can be difficult to read.
• Bullets are useful for keeping things brief. Try to keep to short bulleted points, and don't squeeze too many points on each visual.
• For clearly visible text, the minimum font size should be 20 point, and around 10-14 points larger for headings. Make sure the size of your slide headings does not drown the rest of your text though.
• Use a plain Sans-serif font such as Verdana or Arial, and use it consistently throughout your presentation.
• Use colour wisely. For PowerPoint slides, a light font on a dark background, such as white on blue or purple, works best. For overhead slides, the opposite holds true, and black on white works best.
• Try to leave a reasonable margin around overheads, to ensure that they do not overlap the projector and cut off any text.
• As with notes, it is a good idea to number each visual so that they can be easily reassembled in order if dropped.
• Limit the use of transition and build effects. Your messages will be lost if you choose one of the more outlandish transition styles, particularly if you use a different style each time.
• Pictures can often express a point more succinctly than words. You can use high quality graphics or photos (readily available to purchase online via providers such as iStock or punchstock). However, it is best to avoid using Clip Art or cartoonish line art, where possible, as these can make your presentation look amateurish. Judicious use of images or photographs of people may help your audience connect with your slides on a more emotional level. Make sure the pictures you use are relevant to the points you're trying to make or the messages you are trying to get across. And be careful where you place them on the slide, so that they don't become the focus of the presentation.
• It is often a good idea to use a theme for your presentation. This could incorporate a company logo or corporate colours, which appear consistently throughout the presentation. You can create your own templates (by saving them as a 'Design template') for future use.
• Use charts, diagrams or graphs to display complex information in a simple, easy to understand way. You can incorporate pie charts, vertical and horizontal bar charts and line charts into your slides - the most appropriate style will depend on the information you are trying to share. For example, line charts are good for displaying trends, while pie charts are an excellent way to demonstrate percentages. Use an appropriate colour scheme with these and don't overload them with too much detail.
• Use audio or video (music, the spoken word, sound effects, interviews, YouTube video clips) where appropriate to help illustrate your points. but be careful not to use unnecessary effects (such as applause when moving between slides or cheesy animations) as you could lose credibility with your audience.
• Another audio-visual medium you could consider using is screencasting. A screencast is simply a video that captures the display from a computer screen, accompanied by a voiceover of what is being shown. They are becoming increasingly popular tools, especially for training and development purposes, as they can be used to introduce concepts that may be difficult to put into words, such as demonstrations of how to use a computer application. The combination of video and audio makes them a very effective way of engaging your audience. A number of screencast software packages are available: some of these are free (e.g. Wink, ScreenToaster) while others are commercial (e.g. Adobe Captivate, Camtasia). A useful list of screencasting video tutorials is available from the Mashable website.
• If you are using sound or video, test the quality at a level that will be used for your presentation - what sounds fine through your headphones and looks OK on your computer screen may not be quite so suitable when it is amplified to fill a large room.
• Garr Reynolds' site has a great selection of tips on how to create effective visuals, as does Nancy Duarte's slide:ology blog and book.

Question-taking is for many people the most daunting aspect of giving a presentation, as it opens up the risk of passing control over to the audience, as well as the fear of not understanding or having the answer to questions.The following guidelines will help to ensure that your question session runs smoothly.

• During the preparation stage, identify the questions you are most likely to be asked and make sure you will be able to give correct answers in a concise manner.
• Advise on how you will handle questions before you begin your presentation. Can the audience interject at any point or do you wish to reserve question-taking until the end? If you don’t explain the ‘rules’, you may find yourself dealing with unwanted interruptions during the course of your presentation.
• Repeat each question as a matter of courtesy to the audience as some may not have heard it the first time.
• Keep your answers brief and to the point.
• Answer all questions politely and courteously, no matter how hostile or irrelevant they may be.
• Don’t panic if you don’t have the answer to a question immediately to hand. Be open: explain this to the questioner and invite him/her to stay behind afterwards to discuss the issue further.

To really get a good idea of what constitutes a great presentation and a highly engaging presenter, take a look at these examples from the late Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple. Jobs was well-known for his electrifying and inspirational presentation style, and in the first video, communications coach Carmine Gallo discusses the techniques Jobs uses to captivate his audience.

In this 15 minute speech to graduates of Stanford University, Jobs provides some insights into his life, including how he became CEO of Apple Computer and Pixar Animation Studios. He uses the 'power of three' rule to good effect here, sharing the three main lessons he has learned throughout his life.

For more examples, TED has a great selection of riveting talks on a wide variety of topics, which will help you fine-tune your presentation skills.

[1] Power of three rule: wherever possible think of things in threes. For example, three key points to make at the beginning, three key points to develop further in the middle and three key points to make at the end. This article provides a good introduction to the power of three rule.