In the last four years of my life I’ve been doing different things. University first, then internship, then a real job in the gaming industry, then recently a new one in the web and communication field, after a huge change in perspective… and I actually guess it’s more or less the same for a lot of you.
After a bit of thinking I realized there’s one thing I’ve been doing throughout the entire process and I’m positive I’ll be doing in my future: presenting. Not focusing on any topic in particular, it’s the pure act of putting ideas into slideshows and present them to someone, whether it’s a CEO, a random manager, a client, a partner, a group of collaborators, a supervisor.
That’s why I thought it was worth sharing my experience with you and introduce you to the Art of Presentations in a series of posts dedicated to discovering how to build a great asset to support your speech. Whether it’s a product presentation, a client meeting for a design proposal, a pitch, really, whatever, there are some rules you will be better off following. They surely changed the way I build my own presentations (and trust me, it’s something I do on a daily basis).
First rule: Think (before you write anything).
I can feel your disappointment, really. But it’s not as straightforward as it seems. Creating a successful presentation is not just putting some data, bullet lists and images together with a “the-more-I-write-the-better-I-look” attitude. This is a way too common mistake. People tend to believe that writing is enough to get a presentation done the right and best way. No. Way.
It’s not about gathering everything you have about a specific subject and putting it into a comprehensive one-hundred-slide Powerpoint presentation that would make Dante’s Divine Comedy blush in comparison. How many endless presentations of this kind have you witnessed in your life? Uncountable during mine. And guess what, all of them were delivered to the audience through a reading session by the speaker. No added value given. What’s the point in just reading it?
Thinking about every single pixel in your presentation instead, means getting the best with much less (yet more focused) content. It means addressing your audience with carefully selected keywords that will just help the listeners concentrating on what you are saying.
Corollary to First rule: make people think (because it’s the only way to have them remember you).
Image by H. Michael Karshis
