I think of an objective as something that you use in the planning stages of your presentation, but don’t actually say out loud during your presentation. On the other hand the key message is what you say (and repeat) in your presentation.

My experience (for most presentations) is that you can dispense with working out your objective by going straight to deciding on your key message. To get the key message I ask myself “If there was only one thing my audience remembered from my presentation, what would I want it to be?” or “If my audience did one thing after my presentation, what would I want it to be?”. I agree that this should be able to be expressed in one succinct sentence.

Are we thinking along the same lines?

I have often seen (and made) the mistake of trying to do too many things with one presentation. I think the title for #3 is misleading. You should spend enough time refining your objective to get it down to one sentence. If you can’t sum up in 20 words or less what you want your audience to think, do, or feel differently when you are done, then you are setting the stage for mediocrity.

I like your other suggestions, and I’ll experiment with them in the near future.

Thanks!
Todd

Thanks for your advice. Practicing your presentation is definitely a key to being effective in front of the audience. For more on rehearsal see my post http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/delivery/how-to-go-from-good-presenter-to-great-presenter/.

Olivia

It’s amazing at how much a presentation changes after just a few practice runs. I’ve found that 7 seems to be the right number for the number of times that a presentation needs to be practiced in order to get it “just right”.

- Dr. Jim Anderson
The Accidental Communicator Blog
“Learn How To Calm Your Fears, Wow Your Audience, And Get Your Point Across”