This post contains tools and techniques that can transform a tiresome presentation into i that will wow your audience.

  1. Adjust to your audience's beliefs. Human being beings fit facts into their behavior rather than class their beliefs based on facts. Yous won't change their beliefs, so don't effort.
  2. Presume your audience can read. If a slide is self-explanatory, interruption and let them read it. If a slide requires comment, practice then. Never read a slide aloud.
  3. Avoid cliches similar the plague. Seriously, cliches brand both you and your ideas seem canned and unimaginative.
  4. Be yourself. When you pose as someone you're non, your audience will sense the insincerity and assume you lot're lying.
  5. Begin with a "heart-stopper." Capture your audition'due south attention by making the start slide after the intro spotlight a surprising fact.
  6. Believe your own message. If you don't believe in what yous're saying, you tin bet your final dollar that nobody else will believe it either.
  7. Bring some refreshments. If you're presenting to fewer than a dozen people, a box of donuts tin can make even a deadening presentation more than palatable.
  8. Build in some breaks. Give your audience time to digest what yous've said by periodically segueing to a cartoon, video clip, or raise-your-hand poll.
  9. Check the setup beforehand. Never assume that the projector or the webinar software will acquit. Always endeavour out the setup before your presentation starts.
  10. Money acronyms sparingly. If you must use a complex term frequently, information technology's OK to shorten it into an acronym, but don't plough your presentation into alphabet soup.
  11. Customize your slides. At that place is no such thing every bit a "one size fits all" presentation. Every audience is unique, so change your slides to match their needs.
  12. Don't introduce yourself. Have somebody else at the meeting explicate who you are and why you lot're presenting.
  13. Eliminate the cheesy animations. For instance, using bullet points that "fly" into identify makes y'all look foolish while distracting from your bulletin.
  14. Encompass social media. Rather than asking people to stash their phones, inquire them to tweet their thoughts. Display the tweets on the screen.
  15. Enlarge your letters. Your slides should be readable from the back of the room. Aren't sure they're big plenty? Walk to the back of the room and see for yourself.
  16. Eradicate vague generalities. Facts that are quantifiable, verifiable, memorable, and dramatic enhance your credibility. Fuzzy concepts imply fuzzy thinking.
  17. Expunge generation-specific pop civilisation references. Most millennials won't get a Seinfeld reference; ditto Baby Boomers with, say, Gamble Fourth dimension.
  18. Face frontwards. Your audience does not desire to see the elevation of your head or, worse, your backside. Don't look downwards at your notes or turn to encounter the screen.
  19. Follow the 20/20 dominion. Cut your presentation to 20 minutes or less and rehearse your presentation 20 times or more than.
  20. Forget all that biz-blab. Buzzwords make yous audio pompous, unoriginal, and, well, like a corporate weasel.
  21. Get for the gut. Powerful presentations create strong emotions; dull presentations are abstract and intellectual.
  22. Highlight segments of complex graphics. If a graphic communicates two ideas, create two "break out" slides that highlight each respective point.
  23. Hone your bulletin. Cut out irrelevant details and include simply what you absolutely must say to get your message across.
  24. Place the next step. Presentations exist in club to assist people make decisions. At the end of your presentation, identify and ask for that decision.
  25. Keep it simple, stupid. The more than complicated your presentation, the more speedily they'll forget it. Making it simple helps make it memorable.
  26. Know why you're presenting. When creating a presentation, don't remember virtually what yous desire to say. Think about what decision you want the audience to brand.
  27. Lose the verbal tics. Don't utilize "like," "uhhh," "y'all know," or "OK?" when you lot're thinking of what to say. Merely leave a gap; it makes you seem thoughtful.
  28. Make no apology. Never apologize for circumstances outside your control. Apologies make you sounds similar a victim. Keep it upbeat.
  29. Mingle beforehand. Arrive well earlier your presentation to come across audience members and gauge their interests. Tune your presentation to friction match.
  30. Minimize your own opinions. Brand your instance using meaningful, emotion-laden facts rather than only spouting your take on the issue.
  31. Neutralize inevitable objections. When you know an objection will surface (like "it's also expensive"), answer the objection in the body of your presentation.
  32. Never tell a joke. Jokes are hokey; even professional person comedians no longer tell them. Instead, brand observations that reveal the humorous side of real life.
  33. No slide barrages. If you're nearing the end of your allotted time, don't endeavour to cram 25 slides into the last five minutes.
  34. Only backtrack when yous must. Clicking back to a slide makes you seem disorganized. But do it for must-reply-now questions.
  35. Footstep yourself. Rule of thumb: the number of slides should match the number of minutes in the presentation.
  36. Prepare your own questions. Accept a question or two ready so that the Q&A at the end doesn't lapse into an uncomfortable silence.
  37. Present when people aren't distracted. If possible, avert presenting at the end of workday, only earlier lunch, or the day earlier a holiday.
  38. Put "Relax, Breathe & Slow Down" at the height of your notes. These reminders will keep you lot centered and in control of both yourself and the room.
  39. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Presentations should never exist improvisations. Ready yourself mentally by rehearsing your talk.
  40. Relevance, relevance, relevance. Simply present issues and ideas that are meaningful to your audience. If nobody cares, why are you presenting?
  41. Remain within your allotted time. Standing to talk later your presentation is supposed to cease makes you seem disrespectful and big-headed.
  42. Remove all stock photography. Photos showing models "working" in an ideal office are visual noise. Better no visual at all than something posed and corny.
  43. Respect your audition'south intelligence. Even if you lot're the world's top skillful on your subject matter, don't be snarky well-nigh your audience's relative ignorance.
  44. Select a simple slide design. This keeps the focus on your presentation rather than on the visual background.
  45. Simplify your fonts. A unproblematic, unornamented font (like Arial) makes a slide much easier to read.
  46. Slow down! If your presentation is running long, skip over slides rather than going "motor mouth" to cram everything in.
  47. Speak to individuals. Rather than talk to the whole room, pick successive audition members and address your remarks to each.
  48. Step away from the podium. If you remain behind the podium, your presentation will seem like a lecture.
  49. Stop turning statements into questions. That weird little uptick at the cease of a argument makes you sound indecisive. Save it for chitchats.
  50. Take them on a journey. Bring the audience from where they are today to where they're in the emotional country to brand a decision.
  51. Talk TO them, not AT them. Proceed your tone conversational rather than formal. Think "dinner political party" rather than "lecture hall."
  52. Tell a story or series of stories. Rather than outlining elements of your subject affair, provide a sequence of events explaining why it's meaningful.