How to craft a memorable key message in 10 minutes
November 11, 2009
A key message is the number one thing you want your audience to remember or do as a result of your presentation. Some experts call it “the big idea”, the core of your presentation or the proposition.
Start planning your presentation by deciding on your key message. It will make the rest of your planning easy and straightforward. Steve Bent, one of my readers, said in a comment on a previous post:
“…[T]hat’s when I had the Eureka moment of the key message for that particular presentation. Then all previous thoughts, notes and parts of the presentation were easy to classify in terms of how relevant they were, and which step they fell into (if any).”
15 ways to improve your presentations in 2009
December 31, 2008
This is a big meaty post with 15 ways to improve your presentations. These ideas are designed to challenge you to stretch yourself. With each idea I’ve pointed you to further resources from fellow presentation bloggers or from my own archives.
Choose one or two to work on at a time. Bookmark this post, so that once you’ve implemented those, you can come back and work on some more during the year.
1. Customise your presentations for each audience
Will Smith’s keys to a great presentation
August 26, 2008
Leo Babauta from the blog Zen Habits recently posted his Top 5 most inspirational videos on YouTube. I hadn’t come across this remix of a speech by Will Smith (the remix is by TeamJonny5 – I’ve edited it slightly). It’s only 1 min 19 sec so take the time to watch it because in this short snippet Will Smith showcases the elements of great speech design :
OK, it’s not a corporate or business presentation. But I bet if I asked you in 6 months time “What are Will Smith’s keys to life?” – you could tell me. That’s because it’s got great design for stickability. What makes this speech so memorable that you can use when you plan your next business presentation? [Read more]
Six ways to take charge of what your audience remembers
June 27, 2008
We ask people on our courses what they remember from the last presentation they went to. Typically they either remember nothing, or a random point or story that the presenter told.
So when you’re presenting, take charge of what your audience remembers. Here are six ways to do that:
1. Focus your presentation around one Key Message
The five word presentation challenge
June 12, 2008
If you were only allowed five words in your presentation – could you do it?
That was the challenge facing winners at the 2008 Webby Film and Video Awards on Tuesday night. A five word limit on their acceptance speech.
This five word limit forced people to be focused, simple and concrete. Just like a longer presentation should be. Here are some of my favourites: [Read more]
What can you learn about presenting from Seth Godin?
May 24, 2008
To read a Seth Godin book is to have ideas sparked in your head on every page. Can he do the same in a presentation?
I’m going to look at a presentation he delivered at TED. Have a watch and then read my analysis for what you can learn about presenting from Seth.
My emphasis is on the content of his presentation (Garr Reynolds has commented on Seth’s great visuals on his blog). My starting point in analyzing a presentation is the key message. Seth’s key message was clear and memorable: “Ideas that spread, win.”
He tells us his key message a minute and a half into his presentation. I like that. You don’t want to wait till half-way through to find out what the point is. He supports his key message with 10 (yes,10) slides of different famous people with call-outs repeating the key message. Here are two:
A Simple and Concrete Key Message
May 3, 2008
An effective way to plan a presentation is to start by crafting the Key Message. The Key Message is the one thing you most want your audience to remember.
You could also think of it as the five second version of your presentation.
