Practical tips for creating a presentation: keep in mind

Editor's note: Why is a Web2.0 blogger writes about old fashion presentations? Because developing a message, a flow to present it, and strategy to convince, and a good presentation is crucial to any manager. If you can't do it with Power-Point slided you are not going to be very good with a blog, a wiki, a newsletter, or a site.

In the last article I described technical presentations made by field engineers. It is often seen that technical people give not so good presentations while less technical people, usually in marketing and business area give good ones. Why is that? After all the technical people know the "product", the "technology" and it's use (application). They can usually "run the machine"! But the emphases on good presentation: creation and delivery; is not there. It should be any technical presenter goal to give an   E X C E L L E N T   presentation. No ifs, ors, or buts. If you are finally going to get someone in a chair, and he is going to listen to you, you better leave an impression on him. Otherwise, you better go back to writing, debugging, and running programs. Just like learning to program you can learn to create a good presentation. Just like learning to run a program you can learn to deliver a good presentation. Just like learning how to support a user in trouble you can learn how to ask a question in a crowd and get a good answer. But all of this takes preparation and practice. Just like writing a program and debugging, it takes lots of preparation and trials to get this right.

Here are a few examples in recent presentations which could be improved. When we look at someone else failing it helps us learn to do better ourselves. With presentation this is one of the best way to learn. Don't worry about hurting someone else's feelings, they will do the same to you some day.

Slides:

• Slide that does not make sense from one to the other. Links to the previous slides are confusing.


• Slide that does not support the main subject or even distracts the audience from the key subject.


• Slide that is not unique and duplicate the content from the previous or another slide.


• A slide which is not clear or is confusing and the presenter does not explain.


• Slide that explains something obvious or very simple. Fundamental knowledge should be assumed.

The complete presentation:

• Topic is not relevant to the audience or not clearly defined. (subject)


• Flow is interrupted, the presentation is made up of many segments without smooth progression. (flow)


• No main point is made, the presentation is made up of many parts with not one being a key point. (subject)


• Not enough supporting points for the “problem” or the “issue”. (detail)


• No clear “solution” or “proposal” - the presentation is not strong in the “convincing argument”. (convince)

The way a presentation is given:

• Speaker is boring and seem uninterested. (well, I will not go into this...)


• Speaker is not interested in the audience. (you guys have never seen this before?)


• Speaker is not knowledgeable and can not give clear explanations.


• Speaker is not credible, it seems like he can not “talk the talk, and walk the walk”.


• Presentation does not keep the audience's attention – no flow, no excitement, and no POINT!

A list which to “keep in mind” while creating the presentation:

• Make a list of the following items:
  
  1. Key topic of the presentation (ex. Computer security is a problem in the Internet age).
  
  
  2. Key issue you are making (ex. Most IT managers do not know the severity of the problem).
  
  
  3. Key point you are making (ex. We have a product that can help you with this).
  
  
  4. Progression or flow (ex. Start with a problem/s, show how to detect, show how to fix).
  
  
  5. Specific points and issues (ex. New clever attacks, complex networks, fast spread, etc.)
  
  
  6. How I can help (ex. I am an expert with this technology, listen to me and I can help).
  
  
  7. What you can do (before you believe me, go to these web sites, read this, etc.)
  
  
• When creating the slide content:
  1. a)How is the slide supporting the key issue, solution, or examples?
  
  
  2. Make each slide cover a point, do not overwhelm the reader: F O C U S !
  
  
  3. Keep the flow, look back one, two, even three slides – set up for the next one.
  
  
  4. Make one of few points: state an issue, show a solution, make a point – but just O N E !
  
  
  5. Get the audience involved: build in a question, ask for a comment, show a real example.
  
  
  6. Go through your own list (the ones at the top) and review possible “failures”.
  
  

Checklists and tip pages are very helpful to keep you on track. Making a presentation powerful and useful to the audience is just the first step. In the world of Web2.0 you don't have a physical audience, so these basic techniques are even more important. If you can't get you message across effectively in a Power-Point presentation, than it is going to be even more difficult in a blog. While blogs, wikis, newsletters, and single web pages have many advantages, the content quality and how it fits with the rest of the information is crucial. For these who have not developed a wiki content, starting out with a good presentation is one simple technique. Taking a big presentation and cutting it up to a few blog articles with more explanations is one way to start.

Next time: how to improve, recycle, learn from others, and just keep on going when the road is rough and bumpy.

Next-Next: how to give a presentation that is not boring - what NOT to say!

Next-Next-Next time: how to convert a presentation to a few articles. (or maybe, how to structure a series of articles in a blog, newsletter, or a site section... or...)