Creating a Presentation That Gets the Positive Attention You Want!

Posted on March 29th, 2009, by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D.

Presentations can be as short as a few minutes or as long as a few days. They can be offered to one person….or to thousands. When you are designing a presentation, consider using one or more of these ten tips:Ask yourself, “What is the goal of this presentation?” Once you have an answer, you can focus your creativity.

Ask yourself, “How will I know if I’ve achieved this goal?” What is the actual outcome you are looking for? A decision on the part of a client? An action step taken from a group of colleagues? A request for additional information?

Remember, less is more. Reread tip #1. People make jokes about ‘death by PowerPoint,’ but before PowerPoint, it could be ‘death by transparencies,’ or ‘death by ____________.’ Really, less is more.

Ask yourself, “What do I want people to know, feel, and do as a result of my presentation?” Bill Jensen wrote an excellent book entitled The Simplicity Survival Guide. Using his idea about answering “What do I want people to Know, Feel, and Do” will assist you in planning presentations that get results.

Mindmap the presentation. My favorite book on mindmapping is Mapping Inner Space: Learning and Teaching Visual Mapping by Nancy Margulies. There are many other fine books and software, too.

For longer presentations, plan an ebb and flow, considering high and low energy. You can actually plan for the energy that occurs for you and your participants if you’re strategic in your thinking and timing.

Use visuals ONLY if they help make the point you are trying to make. Visuals should supplement, not supplant the message. The idea here is not to use clipart or cutesy pictures if they don’t assist in what you’re working to communicate.

Talk, don’t read. (My major advisor in graduate school would put her head on the table if any of us got up in class and read our research presentations instead of conversing and teaching the information. It was not a pretty sight when she did that!)

Show, illustrate, demonstrate…don’t just tell. It’snot just the younger generation that appreciates (and learns from) illustrations, demonstrations, pictures, graphics and so forth. We *all* do.

Hire someone to assist you. If the stakes are high, you can’t afford not to get all the help you need and deserve.

Planning powerful presentations is worth the effort it takes. Use these tips to assist you in that endeavor. It’s amazing (unfortunately) how little effort it takes to help your presentation stand out from the crowded field of poor presentations.

For more tips to assist your productivity (with presentations and other aspects of your professional and personal life), feel free to access the tools at

**Top Ten Productivity Tips (http://www.TopTenProductivityTips.com)

**Keys to Keeping Chaos at Bay (http://www.KeepingChaosatBay.com)

(c) 2008 by Meggin McIntosh, Ph.D., “The Ph.D. of Productivity”(tm). Through her company, Emphasis on Excellence, Inc., Meggin McIntosh changes what people know, feel, dream, and do. Sound interesting? It is!

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