Imagine you have to deliver a presentation to a group of people who are feeling slightly resentful that they are required to attend and that your allocated time slot is last thing on Friday afternoon. Are you feeling slightly sick or a little daunted at the thought of it?
Many of us have been subjected to talks, presentations, training session or lectures that left us feeling anything but energised let alone inspired or motivated by the information that was imparted to us. Some of us have been fortunate enough to attend a presentation that was interesting, stimulating and enjoyable enough for us to come away thinking or saying “Wow, that was great”! A really good presentation can even prompt the shyest and most retiring of us to say a personal thank you to the presenter. Now, if you have been fortunate enough to attend a “Wow!” presentation, think back and try to identify what was happening, or not happening, during the presentation that made you feel like it was worth being there and wanting to hear more when it ended. Now, think back to the most difficult presentation you have had to sit through. Try to identify why you felt completely bored, sleepy, embarrassed for the presenter or fidgety enough to jump right out of your skin if you didn’t get out of the room – and quickly!
Being able to identify the key differences between a good and poor presentation experience can help you in your own preparation for making a presentation that you would feel happy to deliver and happy to take part in yourself.
Here are some helpful hints from successful presenters:
• Be prepared and well-rehearsed
• Show you are passionate about the topic
• Capture the attention of your audience straight away
• Engage with and involve your audience
• Make eye contact and smile
• Keep it simple
Share your thoughts below on what you feel it takes to make a good presentation.
Written by Tatiana Morley
I agree with the other Melanie! “Presenting with energy, interest and well-placed humour or emotion works well. I especially appreciate when the presenter connects personally with the audience through shared experience to really bring it to life.”
Presenting with energy, interest and well-placed humour or emotion works well. I especially appreciate when the presenter connects personally with the audience through shared experience to really bring it to life.
If a presenter cares about the topic they are discussing this is obvious to the audience and automatically helps engage interest. I think it is also important to have less text and more pictures on any slides as pages of text are the last thing any audience wants to see.
When the presenter is passionate about the subject matter I think it is contagious and makes for a very informative and enjoyable presentation!!
I think that genuine and lively people are much easier to listen to.
Meaningful pointed information that allows an instructor or student to understand the core details of the slide and presentation. Limited graphics that is only used to add value / humour to the slide content
A good presentation for me has variety, the presenter makes it interesting with good visuals and voice changes not a monotone voice. Passion in the topic also comes through very clearly as well as preparation and genuine knowledge in the subject.
For me, a good presentation is all in the delivery. If a presenter can engage me with their attitude, passion and knowledge, than staying focused is easy and I will retain the information longer term. Eye contact is important, because it forces the audience into participating and makes the presentation feel more like a conversation rather than a lecture. Being well-rehearsed gives the presenter a sense of confidence and knowledgeability, but being too rehearsed can also be a detriment and make the presenter seem robotic or dry. The same can be said for audience involvement — sometimes forcing the audience to participate can take away from the presentation content.
In an ideal world a presentation would firmly convey the necessary information to the target group whilst simultaneously –
– Be engaging and draw out the attention and participation of even the most disinterested party in the room
– See the instructor continually making eye contact with each individual so they felt there was no alternative but to interact
– Display competence not only during the presentation of material but in answering questions completely
– Be the length of time appropriate to the material
– use variation in presentation media rather than the infamous ‘death by powerpoint’
When presenting alter the information being presented to the target audience – providing the same presentation to persons working in the field as civilians could leave audiences either spoken down to or confused. Treat the audience as peers who want to get the information you are also passionate about and be prepared. I like interaction but if caught off guard with questions you don’t know the answers to don’t blag.
The delivery style of the subject matter. Be passionate , engaging, know your material, interactive smile and make connection .
The following are a few of the components in some of the presentations that have left a positive impact on me:
-Topic of my interest.
-Presenter is well prepared, passionate about the topic and confident.
-Presenter does not read from a sheet of paper, but speaks to the audience.
-There is some level of interaction with the audience, where perhaps a question is asked for reflection before launching into the topic.
So many concepts to a great presentation. The main ones for me are:
Interesting topic delivered in an engaging and concise manner by a presenter with great storytelling abilities and humility.
A well prepared and engaging presenter takes the audience on a journey. Relevant stories assist to make the presentation interesting and engage the audience. Hearing about someones personal experience can really bring the presentation to life and the enthusiasm can be contagious.
The presentations I have enjoyed the most are where the presenter has really engaged the audience. This has been through either their own personality and the connection with the audience, or by their passion and knowledge of the subject.
Some of the best presentations I have attended is when the presenter is passionate and engaging without being ‘over the top’. They have excellent knowledge and experience about the subject and don’t force too much in the way of audience participation.
Sometimes its best to address the elephant in the room…eg its Friday arvo and I know you feel you are captive here…..so lets make the most of the situation…….
I think definitely if the presenter is passionate and engaging, this makes a presentation much more enjoyable. The worst presentations I have been to are ones where the presenter is clearly just going through the motions, is unprepared or is trying to give you too much information. The best presentations keep things simple, are targeted to the audience appropriately and ask questions of the audience, getting them to think and engage with the topic. Also I think a few jokes help!
I agree wholeheartedly with the helpful hints given at the end of the article and when I think back to engaging presentations that I have watched the presenter ticked every one of them. Being passionate can turn a presentation about just about anything into a good presentation, if that comes across to the audience and the presenter makes an active effort to try get the audience passionate about it too. Further to this, it is also helpful if the presenter makes themselves relatable, and uses language which will be understood and clear to the audience.
I think it is important to understand the material well yourself. Refine what you want to share by whittling it down to what is most relevant to the audience and most vital in your opinion. Make sure that your target audience is able to absorb the necessary information during the presentation – keep it simple! Changing the pace with anecdotes, asking the audience questions, discussion time at the end, questionnaires, exercises (I teach singing, so getting the students to stand up and try a basic exercise and the asking for direct feedback is always great), etc. is very useful. Many people have stated that keeping energy high is important and I agree, but I think if you are genuinely interested in communicating your information with your audience and are connecting with them – actually checking if the information has landed, etc. – one naturally forms a relationship with the listeners and they are willing to match your energy.
I think the key to good presentations is finding a way to engage the audience by being relatable and keep the content as simple as possible. Starting with an Overview, a few nice simple slides and a wrap up summary tends to work well. I find presentations when the presenter is passionate and enthusiastic it tends to rub off on the audience and keep them engaged.
For me, a good presentation is concise, short and to the point.
Of course, it helps if the presenter is engaged, interested and energized through it.
But I have found through the years, that if I am interested in a topic there will always be an enjoyable compartment of any boring presentation.
Presentation features that have stood out for me are :-
* started on time
* kept to the topic that was advertised
* kept moving and not stop/start, interrupted (the presenter was prepared)
* engaging
* the presenter was passionate and believed in what they were presenting
* there were opportunities to collaborate/discuss with others, either during or at the end of the presentation
* they were relevant to me
I believe that the key ingredients to teaching are to be very approachable to students, apprentices, labourers, subcontractors, employees, etc. As in the above key points, engaging and creating attention to students and creating a workspace when conducting training, advice, overseeing and picking up on key mistakes as well as praising students/apprentices in the workplace. I come from the Construction industry, and have trained Apprentices in various trades, levels of their apprenticeships, and even subcontractors and direct work personnel, including but not limited to office staff, supervisors, onsite workers, etc. There is a lot of teaching on a daily basis on top of this, where as when onsite it is a constant overseeing various trades, material delivers, etc, from domestic housing, to renovations, townhouses, medium rise 3 storey walkups, retail projects, shopfiting, government projects involving all aspects of gornment divisions, through to medium to high rise projects, project managing Tier1 and Tier 2 projects. A lot of other industries do realize the everyday teaching and advising that is involved and expected from Builders, Project Managers, Construction managers, Site Managers, Forepersons, Leading Hands, etc.
I had an Economics lecturer in my undergrad who made me want to sit for an hour in a cold theatre with 150 other students on a Wednesday night at 1730 in the middle of winter. She made dry content interesting and complex theories relatable. She used a basic slide show and stood simply on a stage with a microphone. I feel what made her so engaging was her energy. Her subject knowledge was second to none, but her capacity to make clear correlations with the audiences level of understanding and education was impressive. Never did you feel she was speaking at you with condescending undertones more that she was guiding your thought processes to reach a light bulb moment in comprehension. I was always left with a feeling of fulfilment. It was the perfect learning environment and experience.
I think a good presenter will always have the audience engaged, giving the audience as well the opportunity to express their thoughts and ideas. There needs to be positive energy, having the confidence to be able to present in front of a big crowd or even small. I find it very daunting before I present but with right materials and having the time to go through my lesson plan I feel less likely to make mistakes. slideshows can keep the audience engaged for an amount of time, having my own ideas and information bought in can help make it more interesting and make it fun at the same time – bring activities or ask the audience for answers, have small role plays, Friday afternoons are hard as its the last day of wk and last few hours and all the audience wants to do is get out. Keep them informatively entertained.
After becoming an NLP trainer and practitioner, the state of being of the trainer is key – their confidence and authority while being personable to the audience.
This comes from being prepared for the audience, topic and even rehearsing (in the mind and practicing out loud) – a good pilot with peers is a good start for a new program. Energy needs to be passionate – you feel it each time. Identifying the typical problems, issues, why do I need this, and how it will benefit the group up front is key. Starting with something different like going straight into a story-example breaks the audiences boredom wondering what the storyline is and why it relates. This only works if one makes sure there is a direct linkage of the reason for the story to the training. Asking questions, learning names, and involving the group up front without targeting anyone especially intuits is key. Looking at the whole group, being careful not to focus only on those agreeing or showing smiles is a skill. Having 3-5 chunks of information and really simple visual aids to support the key learning is key. Giving real examples people can relate to helps the learning meet all VAK learning styles. Moving with intention around the room and at the front without standing in the glare of the slides is an art. Having fun and enjoying the space is great. And building in workshop style interactions in small groups, helps the group learn from each other, moving the learning away from pure lecture style. Finally involving the group to share their insights and value at the end reinforces learning with possible time for what they will do when they return to the workplace.
Well done Kirsten. You have outlined in a nutshell what a good trainer should be able to do. As Kroehnert said in his excellent book “Basic Training for Trainers”, training, above all should be fun. People learn much better if they enjoy their training. I must share one of his mnemonics (pronounced ni-mon-ik – it’s a way of remembering things. He gave 9 methods to get the group involved:
Use a quiz
Seek their opinions
Entertain them
Ask them what they want
Give them props
Always challenge them
Make them guess
Encourage them
The mnemonic here is that you take the first letter of each point – and I’ll leave you to work out the key word 🙂 And this is exactly what you have outlined Kirsten. Well done.
A good presentation is engaging. It uses entertaining and simple language, interesting content and visual aids. A little humour goes a long way too. Inspirational presentations that I have witnessed have almost always had great body language as a core element. The presenter doesn’t need to appear confident, in my opinion, because the most knowledgeable presenters can still get stage fright. I feel that the presenter just needs to be prepared, know the subject matter, and present in an engaging way.
A good presentation has personality. The presenter shares something personal related to the topic, engages listeners in what they want to get out of the session and displays (real) enthusiasm for the topic. Slides are used to enhance or accentuate points but should never be read out. A good presenter is very knowledgeable about a topic and uses real life examples or case studies to demonstrate points.
Precisely Mary ….. slides/presentation show only contain the main points and the presenter adds to these points with life examples or case studies. I even ask my students for examples from THEIR past too this then makes it a more engaging and interactive presentation. Looking forward to the fact your next unit is Making a presentation Mary
A good presentation engages the audience and recognises there is collective knowledge in the audience which can be shared. It provides relevant and practical information the audience members can easily apply and shares information in an interesting story format.
Good presenters recognise the different learning styles in the audience and provide , images, text, verbal information, factual examples, small group learning opportunities etc. They have an ability to help the audience feel comfortable, making eye contact, delivering in a friendly, genuine and expressive tone and keep the message on point.
A good presentation has clear take-aways that can have a positive impact and presents new ideas in an easily understood manner. It is based on solid research and involves ideas from a number of people with expertise. It is well-planned and practiced but still presented in a natural, flowing manner; a good TedTalk is an excellent example.
You are so right Darren , I look forward to your contribution/s as you are now on the Make a presentation unit. You designed some excellent programs in your DES401 Assessments so I look forward to your next lot. Cheers!
Being well prepared is essential. Understanding the audience expectations – what are they there to hear about – is key to preparations. Thinking about adult learning concepts will help to develop a presentation that will interest, inspire and engage the audience. Presentation skills are essential such as clear speech, moderate pace and “reading the room” to be present and stay connected with the audience as much as possible. Being enthusiastic about the topic, friendly and professional will help to maintain the audience’s attention. I think that the purpose of any presentation is to deliver information in meaningful, useful and interesting ways that also encourages the audience to think differently or consider new ideas about the topic.
Good presenters know their material well, and have a well rehearsed talk that is the right length for the time frame, so they are not rushing through their material.
A power point slide with diagrams or graphs enriches a presentation, as long as it doesn’t dominate.
A good presenter knows what is on the slides, and doesn’t need to crane his or her neck and keep looking at them. A remote control slide changer is useful for this sort of presentation.
If the presenter doesn’t have his or her nose in the notes and on the slides, he or she will be making eye contact with the audience, and the talk will be more interesting.
Here are some of my thoughts which I think make a great and engaging presentation, concise information, engaging rhetorical questions to get your audience to think about the content , images or short video clips that relate back to the information
There are a multitude of factors involved in creating a good presentation. One of the keys is to plan and prepare carefully. This includes making sure your material is addressing the audience’s needs, has a clear objective and that the delivery is well structured. To engage the audience, the speaker needs to confidently demonstrate their expertise with passion. It is also important to gain feedback from the audience on the effectiveness of the presentation so that the presenter can review her skills and continually improve.
I like Simon Sinek’s philosophy of “Start with Why” as a way of structuring the strategy for a talk. When you answer the questions of: “Why should it be me talking about this?”
and “Why should we think about this? Is it new, ground-breaking, a great story…”
Simon’s “Why” keeps you focused on leadership rather than being didactic because this gives listeners respect and space to ponder your thesis. It also means you need to think about the ball you are throwing to the audience which means that you will make it easier for them to catch by contextualising carefully.
Good point Claire, it is important to establish your credibility with the audience at the beginning of your presentation.
Interaction with your audience, getting them engaged and participating. I believe that a good presenter should show a sound amount of knowledge about the particular presentation material. A good presenter should be able to use this knowledge to speak clearly about the topic, be able to move smoothly through the presentation without confusion or hesitance and would be able to engage more with their audience. A bad presenter, I believe, would be someone that doesn’t know the material, therefore this could result in not being able to move smoothly through a presentation and leading to the audience losing interest in the presentation.
Body language plays a big part of being a good/bad presenter also.
I feel being a good presenter & keeping your audience interested is “knowing your stuff”,
being passionate, professional, have product knowledge, well versed, well rehearsed, & make it interesting.
Involve the clients, actively listen, & be a bit spontaneous.
Most of all enjoy what we do.
To me any presenter who has a genuine interest in the topic they are presenting about and a genuine interest to bring that topic alive for the audience will have a good chance of being successful.
You are quite right Lucy, it is very evident if the presenter has a passion for the topic. I remember a student of mine sharing a presentation about some type of cactus and I thought, hmm this will be boring, however because of his knowledge and enjoyment of the topic it made the session interesting for all.
I like interactive learning, a presentation that has the participants contributing is what I consider is a good presentation.
I agree Beryl, these types of presentations always seem to be more engaging.
Theodore Roosevelt’s often quoted “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” is very appropriate to the topic of presentations. Many presenters focus their energy on the content in their slides or talk and some spend far too much effort rehearsing gestures and restricting or encouraging bodily motion in their effort to improve professionalism.
The other key to good presentations for me is to ‘tell them a story’. The best way to engage an audience is through their imagination. Telling stories is the oldest and most used method of imparting knowledge and teaching lessons. Stories that tap into our known beliefs or existing knowledge and then push beyond into a new place that touches us emotionally are the finest examples of presentations that leave an impression.
If you are asked to do a presentation on a subject you don’t care about, to an audience that doesn’t want to listen at a time when you both would prefer to be elsewhere – I would suggest you take your lesson to the real world. Find a story that connects the audience to the content and gets you interested. Then get out of the classroom and act it out.
Theodore Roosevelt has some amazing quotes. Thanks for sharing Steve. A great suggestion.
A really good presenter knows their content, is competent in what they are sharing and backs it up with interesting, insightful facts and quotes. It is easy to be engaged in a presentation when the presenter is passionate about their topic and uses aids to get their point across, my favourite being video clips, quotes, role playing. Although I really enjoy the opportunity for discussions and questions from the audience, the presenter needs to keep their presentation relevant and on track.
Absolutely Lisa! I certainly agree with you. Passion, painting a picture through story telling and keep it relevant. The success of a presentation will be judged not by the knowledge you send out, but by what the listener receives.
I think to deliver a great presentation, the presenter needs to engage with the audience and capture their attention from the start. This can be done by having an assertive and passionate tone in the voice, making eye contact with the audience and being aware of your body language. For example, being animated at times and moving towards focal points, this will help maintain the audiences attention. Ensuring you are prepared and well rehearsed will make the presenter feel more comfortable and confident, this will be noticed and absorbed by the audience. It is important to have an engaging and interesting slide slow, being mindful how much information is being crammed into one slide, how many slides there are in total and including any graphs or diagrams. This will also appeal to the various different learning styles of the audience. A presenter that is enthusiastic and has a positive attitude towards the topic they are presenting will be much more engaging than having the opposite approach.
Straight-out didactic presentations can be hard to absorb, especially when the subject is not an easy one to grasp.
Breaking up the presentation with ad-libbing relevant examples in the work place that the audience can relate to, can help in keeping the subject more interesting.
I agree that a good presenter needs to be passionate and knowledgeable about the content they are delivering. It is important to contextualise the content of the presentation and to be clear about why it is being delivered; make the audience want to be there. Humour and enthusiasm also help to keep the audience engaged.
For me, the presenter needs to know their content and be able to deliver it in a manner that engages their audience. Sometimes a presenter has one but not the other and that’s ok…just maybe not on a Friday afternoon last period!
Also, if the presenter can inject humor and involve the audience in some way that also helps.
I think passion is the key to making a good presentation. I once worked for a large company who had the most fantastic trainer. I always looked forward to sessions with her because they were always interesting and engaging because she loved the company and what it stood for. Ultimately that was passed onto us and was reflected to our customers.
I think the combination of being passionate about your topic and prepared for the presentation leads to you to be more confident and relaxed because you know what you’re talking about. It’s much harder to bring people along for the ride if you’re reading verbatim from notes and attempting to convince the audience that you know your stuff. It also allows you to engage more effectively with the audience because you can answer questions and then get back on track without getting flustered by the disruption.
I believe that what creates a good presentation is enthusiasm and passion from the presenter about their topic. If it was me and this presentation was delivered on a Friday late afternoon – I would tell the group at the start that it was a required presentation, thank them for coming as no one likes doing anything much at all late on a Friday and try to go through it as quickly as possible. I might include an interactive component as this wakes people up, or the very least try and make the presentation fun and interesting or even get some chocolate available if it was a small group.
The ability to know your topic, be passionate and enthusiastic about it and read a room and the vibe is really important when delivering a presentation.
So true Beth. If you don’t believe in it, neither will your audience. Also, in my opinion, if you are talking non-stop for more than 20 minutes, you are probably talking to the wall.
I agree with above tips on delivering a good presentation.
I also think a good presentation is one that can involve some of the audience, also giving you some personal experience’s to work off and teach audience how to work on some issues the spot.
Truleigh – I agree that there are times a presentation can involve members of the audience, but we have to remember that a presentation is not the same as delivering training.
Primarily, a presentation has one of two purposes:
1. To persuade, motivate, change ideas and behaviour
2. To provide information
There is often confusion about this. A presentation can be used as part of training delivery, but essentially training delivery involves facilitating learning in order to develop knowledge and skills. In training, the participants need to be active (or they don’t learn). In a presentation, the audience is watching and listening. Usually in a presentation, there is a question time at the end.
Thank you for sharing all this Hiromi. TED talks is world renowned and we do use some of their videos on our Academy Moodle site. There will be more to come.
Some of the most enjoyable presentations I can remember have been at the TED talks – “Ideas worth spreading.”
The TED talks started in 1984 as a one-off Technology, Entertainment and Design conference in Monterey, California . Now TED talks are given all over the word in more than 110 languages and there is no doubt that these short talks (maximum 18 minutes) have given public speaking and presentation a whole new lease of life.
And of course there are TED talks on how to give TED talks – here is a link to an article introducing 5 TED talks on this topic. They are very informative and I hope they may be of help in creating your presentation.
https://unknowntoexpert.com/public-speaking/top-5-tedtalks-give-great-ted-talk/
Good discussion here from everyone. I agree with engagement, being informative and interactive. Getting to know your audience allows you to assist them understand the content more effectively as discussions can help with contextualization. It’s amazing how sometimes we need to adjust our presentation on the fly and when we know our topic well, we can easily adapt.
Thank you Glenise, I agree, it’s wonderful when you actually feel that you are getting the information you really need and answers to questions you may have had. It’s amazing how quickly a group can be led into discussion that is so far-removed from the topic.
I agree with all of the above suggestions. The technique I find most effective is to involve the audience and give them opportunity to discuss and interact during the session. This gives the presentation a greater depth as people share their experiences and knowledge The involvement of the participants also means they become more engaged in the learning.
By the way I meant to say that this is a great Blog.
For me, a good presentation is one that captures my attention (in other words, it is engaging). Also, I feel that a good presentation is one that provides relevant, informative and factual information. I have sat in presentations where the presenter has been side-tracked by participants asking questions (often not relevant) – this can be frustrating for the audience particularly when the presenter is led away from what the topic is.