Posts tagged as:

presentation preparation

When can you break the “rule” of a three-part structure?

August 7, 2009

In my Presentation Planning Guide I suggest that you use a thee-part structure for your presentation. They work for novels and movies, and for presentations too.
But, using a three-part structure is not a rule set in concrete. Sometimes your presentation will be more effective with more points. There’s a risk though, that each time you [...]

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How to use your fear of public speaking to be a better speaker

August 2, 2009

It’s normal to get nervous about public speaking.
When you stand up in front of people and open your mouth, you’re making yourself vulnerable. Public speaking involves risk. So aiming for zero fear is unrealistic.
I still get nervous when I have to present in unfamiliar situations. I’m very used to presenting to small groups of people [...]

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How to create a “new” presentation from pre-existing slides

June 13, 2009

In a perfect world, every new presentation would be prepared from scratch, tailored exactly to the specific audience. But in reality, you sometimes have to cobble together a “new presentation” from pre-existing material.
How can you create an effective presentation in the shortest possible time using pre-existing slides from different sources?
There are two phases to this. [...]

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7 time-saving tips for planning your presentation

March 13, 2009

In my last post, I wrote about why it’s worthwhile to spend time preparing a presentation. But it’s also possible to waste time preparing a presentation, by not going about it in the right way. So here are my 7 time-saving tips to help you prepare a presentation efficiently.
1. Always be preparing
Professional public speakers have [...]

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4 reasons to spend time on planning your presentation

March 12, 2009

Devoting time to preparing a presentation is worth it. Here are four reasons:
1. The audience’s time
Balance the time that you will spend planning the presentation against the time of the people in your audience. Say you’re presenting to 10 people for 40 minutes. That’s 400 minutes of people’s time – 6.6 hours. Isn’t it worth [...]

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9 ways to edit your presentation

January 28, 2009

I ask people who download my presentation planning guide what they find hardest about presenting. Here are some of the answers:

Being concise
Finishing on time
Fitting everything into the allotted time
Finding a balance between presenting too much and too little
Not giving too much info.

It’s a common problem. Most of us have far too much too say.
Long presentations [...]

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The three key ingredients for planning a presentation

December 24, 2008

The Speak Fearlessly blog has just published a guest post I’ve written on the three key ingredients for planning a presentation. You can check it out at Presentation Planning Guide: The Three Key Ingredients.

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4 Reasons brainstorming may sabotage your presentation

August 7, 2008

Many people plan a presentation by brainstorming. I don’t recommend it. Brainstorming is an attempt to capture everything you know on a particular topic. That’s likely to overwhelm your audience.
Here’s an example of a brainstorm for a presentation on financial planning to small business-owners.
Brainstorming to prepare a presentation leads to many problems:
1. You’re likely to [...]

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Are our brains wired to enjoy stories?

August 2, 2008

Presentation experts extol the power of telling stories in presentations. A recent Scientific American “The Secrets of Storytelling” explores why stories are so powerful. It looks at three theories from the fascinating field of evolutionary psychology.
Stories are simulations for real life
Keith Oatley, is a professor of applied cognitive psychology and a novelist. So he’s got [...]

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12 ways to increase the success of your presentation – before you even start

August 1, 2008

If you expect that something will be good, then you will probably experience it as good.
Many years ago I was invited to dinner at the house of a family friend – my father was the guest of honour. To honour him, our host had saved a very special bottle of red wine – worth $200. [...]