Overview: Effective Presentations

I recently had the great opportunity to participate in a presentation training course hosted by Darren LaCroix, who is a presenter trainer from Humor411 (www.humor411.com). During that one-day training, I’ve learned a lot of very useful tips on how to more effectively present. I am by no means an expert in speaking (far from it), and this post is not meant to be a lesson. Instead, I wanted to share my experience with this training course and highlight some of the key takeaways that I personally found helpful.

The training started with an overview of public speaking, where Darren showed us three example videos. The first one was a final presentation he gave that won him The World Champion in Public Speaking award in 2001. This example showed how captivating and engaging he was by employing the techniques that he was about to teach us. The second presentation was a dry-run of the same presentation. This example showed us the difference between using (or not using) some of the recommended techniques, and also demonstrated the epic difference practicing makes. The final one was a video of his very unsuccessful first on-stage performance. The purpose of showing us this example was to dispel the myth that some people are “born with” the talent of speaking – Darren went from someone who couldn’t complete a thought on stage to a world champion, and according to him, it was all about practicing and learning from people who presented well.

The rest of the training involved us each delivering a presentation and taking turns being critiqued by Darren and the other participants. This was particularly helpful, because not only did I get feedback on my own performance, but as a critic of others’ speeches, I was also able to get a different perspective on the different techniques and styles.

There were a lot of takeaways to delivering effective presentations, so it would be difficult to sum up every technique, especially the more detailed ones. However, some of the simple takeaways for me were:

• The presentation is about the audience. Can they hear and see you? Is it immediately clear why they should take time out of their busy day to listen to you?

• Are you emphasizing a main point and following a defined structure in your presentation?

• How are you engaging your participant? How are you putting the audience into your scene and getting them to think?

• Are you tying your points back to your audience and relating it to ROI?

• Are you concluding your presentation and tying it back to the main point?

• Use the “B” button – when a point you’re making (especially at the beginning or the end of the presentation) doesn’t require the slide, hit the “B” key to hide the slide.

I know these sound very basic, but watching me (on video) and others present really helped draw out effective vs. ineffective techniques and made me realize that small things can go a long way.

Key things I learned to avoid whenever possible:

• Not being able to provide input into the creation of a presentation or having to present content you’re unfamiliar or not comfortable with. You should be comfortable with the style and content of the slides.

• Leaving questions in audience’s minds. Rather, end with a conclusion. Having a Q&A slide is okay, but be sure to provide a conclusion afterwards instead of ending it with, “any questions?”

• Sameness in style and pace in long presentations.

• Physically moving or gesturing without purpose.

• Barreling through the presentation and stepping on audience’s thoughts.

In conclusion, if there is one training course you are looking for, this would be an excellent one to consider. Presentation skills are inherently crucial in our line of business because we do it so often both internally and externally with clients. Attending a class on brushing up presentation skills (be it this one or any other) will be extremely helpful in crafting efficient and engaging presentations.