Guest Blog The A-Z of Becoming a Confident and Interesting Presenter

One of our friends from the presentation industry, Ian Callow, is co-author of The Presenter’s Handbook. In this guest blog, Ian shares his A-Z tips for presenting with more confidence.

We have all sat through presentations where it is "Death by PowerPoint" or "Sea Sickness" from the over-use of Prezi functionality. Just consider how this impacts on those watching. In a business environment it certainly impacts on the revenue stream with bored prospects unlikely to become clients. In the world of education students disengage and are likely to end up with a one-way experience, reading your presentation from a student portal instead.

As a presenter you need to make a difference and not rely on the software to do your job.

A successful presentation needs to be engaging to the audience. Polling systems such as Ombea enable interaction while giving you immediate feedback. This is incredibly useful but such interactivity is only a small part of an important journey: There is a lot more you can do make your presentation stand out. Let’s take a look at a few tips, from A to Z, to start the thought process. For a deeper explanation of some of the terms used in the list, check out our main website at www.presentershandbook.com.

A Audience Consider the audience at all times during the presentation.
B BYOD Delegates and students have access to mobile technology. Let them use their own devices in your presentation to take notes and interact.
C Credibility Create credibility with the audience; this helps them take on the key message.
D Deliver Deliver a presentation that is memorable for the right reasons.
E Enjoy Enjoy the feeling of presenting. Your enjoyment will help your performance.
F Feedback Ensure you gain feedback from the audience. You will then know how good the presentation was.
G Graphics Use good quality graphics during your presentation and avoid clipart.
H Help Ensure help is on hand from a technician if a malfunction occurs during your presentation.
I Interaction Allow delegate interaction for presentations over 20 minutes.
J Joke A joke shared with the audience will relax both the audience and yourself. Also see ‘X-Rated’.
K Key Understand what your key message is going to be for the presentation.
L Learn Learn from your performance by building in self-reflection tools after presenting.
M Mirror Use your mirror neurons to learn from the best.
N Nerves Nerves can be quashed by building anchors to trigger a positive state.
O Orientation If you are not happy with the orientation of the room, move tables and chairs.
P Physiological Maintain a good physiological stance when presenting.
Q Question Question your audience (Ombea). Why should they only be allowed to question you as the presenter?
R Rehearse Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse some more for a successful presentation.
S Safety Always have a safety net available in case things do not go according to plan.
T Timing Timing is a key function of the presentation, start and finish on time.
U Underpinning Underpinning your key message is you. Ensure you are at your best.
V Video When using video in a presentation make it short and relevant.
W What What is your story to relate you to the presentation? Tell the audience.
X X-Rated Avoid an x-rated presentation. What you find amusing others may take objection to.
Y Yes Yes you can become a great presenter - reading The Presenter's Handbook is a first step.
Z Zero Accept a zero tolerance approach to poor presentations, evolve and improve.

For more information on becoming a Power Presenter visit The Presenter's Handbook website. Whilst your there remember to take part in our interactive quiz to see how good a presenter you actually are right now.

About the Author

Ian Callow is a co-author of The Presenter’s Handbook. In addition to the work he does with our Ombea training programmes, Ian is a CPD & IT trainer for IRIS Connect, SMART Meeting Pro, and more. You can follow Ian on Twitter via @idcallow and @Pres_Handbook. If you want to read more of what Ian has to say about becoming a better presenter then check out his blog for The Presenter’s Handbook. Or get yourself to Amazon and buy the book.

Find out more

Give us a few minutes and we will let you know how organizations just like yours have increased their revenue and engagement.