How To Have Engaging Content In A Presentation?

01.Aim to provide something new

A vice-president of a company told me that everytime he interviews a candidate, he feels it’s a productive meeting if he could learn atleast one new thing from the candidate.

• Search on google for fresh news relating to your topic.

• Is there a new perspective that you can bring to the same topic – search for google on viewpoints of people talking about the topic. Are you able to provide an incisive insight about the topic?

• Speak to a couple of people who may have knowledge about the topic – you will be amazed at how another head can bring in a totally new perspective. You can even mention in your presentation that you interviewed real people in preparation of the presentation – and include their quotes.

• Are there new emerging trends about the topic? How have things related to the topic changed from before and how are they expected to change in future?

• Think: What new information are you bringing for them?

02. Arresting Titles

Look at the titles of news articles on good newspapers (like New York Times – nytimes.com) or book titles on amazon.com. These titles are written by professional copywriters not by the book authors! They are designed to catch your attention immediately using advertising techniques which appeal to your subconscious mind and heart.

• Explore bestseller books on amazon.com which relate to your presentation and see if their titles and names of their chapters can be used for your presentation titles and titles of sections in your presentation.

• Think: How can you inspire them?

03. Information Overload

• Do not be paranoid about providing a lot of information. There is only so much information a person can absorb in a limited time; too much information results in stress among listeners.

• You may feel that you are providing “rich” content – your audience is most likely wanting to “get it over with”. If you forget too much information they will forget everything. If you provide just the right amount of information they are more likely to remember that one thing.

• Here comes the art of presentation: Think how you can give bite size content while still doing justice to the topic. Maybe you should just address one aspect of the topic telling your audience that the entire topic would need much more time.

• If you have 30 minutes to present, plan for a maxmimum of 10 slides and practice finishing the presentation in 20 minutes. No one likes a presenter who eats up time beyond the given time.

• Prepare also a shorter version of your presentation if unexpectedly you end up having less time than planned.

• Think: Will you be able to motivate & get them enhusiastic?

03. Introduce Variety

• When somebody says “presentation’ do not think automatically of “powerpoints”!

• YouTube videos, live or recorded demos, viewlets can liven up an audience. Intstead of cracking a joke yourself, try to find a humourous YouTube Video related to the topic.

• Find interesting images which relate to your topic. Many free images are available on the internet including Flickr and other online galleries.

• Think if you can include simple props in your presentation.

• Break the monotony and introduce energy by using whiteboard – practice using the tools that you like.

• Think: How can you entertain them – animate them & get them to participate?