How To Give An Effective Presentation

Hi. I'm Simon Bucknall and in 2008, I won the European Championship of Public Speaking. At the Art of Connection, we help ambitious professionals to connect with their audience and we do it by bringing world class communications expertise into the training room to enable our clients to persuade, influence and inspire others.

It's one thing to give a presentation, but how do you ensure that your presentation is effective? And what we'll look at in the next couple of minutes is some simple practical techniques that you can use to ensure that your next presentation is truly affective. Because many people make a mistake in thinking that a presentation is all about you, the presenter. Well, it's not.

It's about the audience and so the first big tip is to think what is it that you want to achieve with your audience. What's the purpose of your presentation? Now, one way you can do that is to start thinking with yourself, what do I want people to come away from my presentation, thinking or feeling. If, for example, you are at a wedding, giving a wedding speech, how do you want the audience, the wedding party to feel about the person you are talking about? Or if it is a business presentation, how do you want the audience to listen as well as other business executives or whether it's colleagues, thinking and feeling about your subject area? Maybe you want them to feel inspired, maybe you want them to simply feel informed and challenged about a new way of thinking, or maybe at something else.

Getting crystal clear on that purpose, what's the thought you want in the minds of your audience? That will help ensure you have absolute clarity in everything that follows. So, that's step number one. Step number two is then to gather the material, the resources, the evidence, the ideas that you need to support that purpose.

Maybe you have stories you can tell, maybe there's data or statistics that you can use, maybe there's something else, a case study from previous work. But gathering that information takes time, and it's really important. And the most specific your material is, the more effective it will be for the audience.

So, that's step number two, gather your resources. And step number three, and this is the area where many people make a mistake of not spending enough time. Step number three is about structuring your material, all the resources you've gathered into three simple points.

Make it manageable. You may have come across the phrase 'a power of three' is a very powerful thing. So, those are the three key points in this presentation, get clear on your purpose, gather your resources and your information, the more specific, the better and then finally, structure that material into three key points.

If you achieve all those things, not only will you be able to give a presentation that's clear and easier for you to remember, you'll also go a long way to ensuring that that presentation is a lot more affective for your audience. Good luck. .