How does this happen?
The best way to illustrate how speakers end up with presentations that are too long and too full of information is to give you a real example.
Not long ago, one of my clients asked me to help him with his presentation. He was scheduled to speak at a conference in order to share his experience with a new technology. The main objective of his talk was to show the audience how this technology had helped his organization reach more clients and make their experience with his organization more user-friendly and efficient.
In our first meeting, my client showed me the slides that he had created and he wanted my feedback.
His first eight slides included detailed information about his organization: history, structure, its latest marketing campaign, recent changes in strategy etc. In other words, the first part of his presentation had absolutely NOTHING to do with his presentation objective and there was no reason for the audience to listen to any of this information.
If we had kept the presentation as he had created it, he would have lost his audience's attention before he had even gotten to the point of his talk.
This is a very common mistake. We think that the audience MUST be interested in us as speakers or in our organizations so this is what we initially talk about. In reality, the audience is not interested in us or our organizations (unless we are celebrities, of course).
They have come to hear what you have to say about the topic and nothing more.
In this example, we ended up deleting all of the first eight slides and starting the presentation with what the audience came to learn about - this great technology and how it could be applied to help them gain the same benefit that the speaker did. In the end, the presentation was a success and the speaker gained credibility in his field.
So, the next time you‘re planning your presentation, ask yourself if the information you've included is absolutely necessary for the audience to hear. If it isn’t, take it out!
The best way to illustrate how speakers end up with presentations that are too long and too full of information is to give you a real example.
Not long ago, one of my clients asked me to help him with his presentation. He was scheduled to speak at a conference in order to share his experience with a new technology. The main objective of his talk was to show the audience how this technology had helped his organization reach more clients and make their experience with his organization more user-friendly and efficient.
In our first meeting, my client showed me the slides that he had created and he wanted my feedback.
His first eight slides included detailed information about his organization: history, structure, its latest marketing campaign, recent changes in strategy etc. In other words, the first part of his presentation had absolutely NOTHING to do with his presentation objective and there was no reason for the audience to listen to any of this information.
If we had kept the presentation as he had created it, he would have lost his audience's attention before he had even gotten to the point of his talk.
This is a very common mistake. We think that the audience MUST be interested in us as speakers or in our organizations so this is what we initially talk about. In reality, the audience is not interested in us or our organizations (unless we are celebrities, of course).
They have come to hear what you have to say about the topic and nothing more.
In this example, we ended up deleting all of the first eight slides and starting the presentation with what the audience came to learn about - this great technology and how it could be applied to help them gain the same benefit that the speaker did. In the end, the presentation was a success and the speaker gained credibility in his field.
So, the next time you‘re planning your presentation, ask yourself if the information you've included is absolutely necessary for the audience to hear. If it isn’t, take it out!
© 2009 Jeanne Trojan. All rights reserved
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