How to Make Your Presentations More Impactful
By Maurice DeCastro, Mindful Presenter
Creating and delivering a presentation is a key part of any career, and a challenge that many people have to face - whether they feel they are ready or not. Delivering a presentation addresses a key fear for many professionals: public speaking.
When you’re interested and passionate about a topic, it’s easy to talk about it with clarity and confidence to one person or even a few people. But speaking to a room full of people in a more formal setting suddenly becomes overwhelming. It’s easy to leave preparation to the last minute and deliver a lukewarm presentation that doesn’t make a huge impact. Here are some ideas and techniques you can implement to make your presentations impactful, thought-provoking, and a breeze to deliver.
Part 1: Preparing the presentation
[pullquote]
‘Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.’
-Confucius
[/pullquote]
Luck and confidence can be on your side, and winging it may seem second nature, but nothing beats good old-fashioned preparation. It’s hard to know exactly how much preparation goes on behind the scenes, but for many events - it’s a lot. Whilst you don’t need to spend weeks perfecting your presentation, dedicating time to really think about it will make your presentation more impactful.
Think about your topic and how you are going to approach it
Whatever topic you’re talking about, there is a way of making it memorable and interesting. Think about your audience and the purpose of your presentation. What will they find interesting? Do they already know a lot about this topic? Answering these kinds of questions will help you form the basis of the content.
Plot it out in three stages