During the presentation: visual aids
Keeping yourself on track
There are so many ways of preparing and what you actually take into the presentation to keep you on track.
I think what you must do is find what is comfortable for you.
If you have a whole script and you're reading that script, it's very difficult to keep a rapport with your audience because all the time you're looking down reading that, so you're losing eye contact, you're constantly losing eye contact and it it's going to feel very stilted.
If I am doing a long presentation, I might write out the whole script first and then distil it down to notes and then I might just work from the notes.
And that will give me the structure and I can improvise that.
Sometimes, there might be a section you know very well, so you can improvise on that, but it's important to keep to the structure.
Some people keep the structure in their mind, the whole structure, and just go in with nothing. That personally doesn't work for me, so I don't use that. But your preparation is very important. Make sure you're well prepared.
Using PowerPoint
With your presentation, use by all means use technology, use slides, use audio clips, video clips, props, all of that. You don't need to use a bicycle, of course, but use all those things that will bring the presentation to life, but make sure they're concise and relevant.
The problem with PowerPoint, the number one problem is that people have too much information on the slides. And so many of the executives I work with just don't understand this, and they are cramming the information in.
Research has shown that our brains can't cope with this anyway. We cannot listen to you speaking and read different words at the same time.
And the number two problem with PowerPoint is that you get the speaker turning around to read the slides to us. Now, then the audience are ahead of you. They can read it faster than you can speak and they get bored.
So use whatever is comfortable for you.
Start with a good punchy opening, it's going to wake them up, you know, make it exciting
And, finish clearly with what do you want, often a 'call to action'. What do you want them to do? So that your presentation answers the question: 'So what? What's going to happen now?'
