You’ve been asked to deliver a presentation. What’s the first thing you do?
Open PowerPoint, choose your template and look at the first slide. You take a moment and then enter your name on the first slide and perhaps a title. You pause for another moment and maybe add a slide with the title ‘Agenda’. Then there is of course there is the final slide, you add that too. All along you want your presentation to stand out, to be great, to be memorable. If you really do want your presentation to stand out and be memorable you need to ditch the slides.
When was the last time you saw a presentation where PowerPoint wasn’t used? It used all of the time in business for every conceivable type of message. It’s also used outside of the office and even in schools. Now answer this question – when was the last time you saw a presentation that stood out? What made it stand out? The cool slides? The carefully chosen photos and clipart used on the slides? Of course not, it was the presenter that made it memorable.
We have got into the habit of using PowerPoint by default without even thinking of alternatives or even if we need anything other than our own voice. Yet the key to a great presentation is the presenter. It is the presenter that delivers the message.
Memorable presentations don’t rely on slides nor do they rely on clever graphics or sounds. It is simply the presenter that makes the presentation memorable.
So if you don’t use slides what are the alternatives? Well most rooms that are set up for presentations will have a flipchart or a whiteboard. Perhaps one or two well chosen words written on the flipchart can create real impact. Maybe an unusual prop or an object that is not in its native setting can stimulate thought or create a reaction.
Perhaps just using your own voice can be the most impactful way of delivering a message.
Using your own voice and focusing on the tone, pitch and pace can really make a presentation stand out. Matching your voice to your position in the room, removing any barriers between you and the audience. When you get to you key point deliver it with confidence and then use a flipchart or whiteboard to note one or two words that underline and support your message.
The next time you are asked to deliver a presentation don’t reach or your laptop to open PowerPoint, instead just pause. Once the urge to do that bad habit has passed think about how you will deliver the message, not how PowerPoint will deliver it.
