Three ways to make presentations more entertaining
Have you spotted this before in a virtual or face-to-face presentation? Or are you guilty of this yourself?
The co-worker that does something else when they’re supposed to be listening to a presentation. Sending a text, checking emails, scrolling through social media, even falling asleep in a presentation? Come on admit it it’s tempting isn’t it, they can often be pretty snore-worthy. But how would you feel if this happened to one of yours? Horrified I’m sure.
The biggest challenge to us as presenters is often just being able to hold your audience’s attention effectively enough to deliver a message that can be remembered. This often comes down to crafting your presentation into an inspiring, and entertaining message that instantly engages an audience and takes them on an exciting and intriguing journey.
Top tips for inspiring presentations
So how can you make sure the audience at your next presentation are eagerly poised and receptive to what you have to say? Here are 3 ways you can make your next one more inspiring, entertaining and most importantly memorable.
Keep your presentations short and sweet
No one likes to listen to long, boring speeches. Following this route will guarantee you’ll lose even the most staunchest listeners early in the game. Not only that, you’ll run the risk of diluting your core messages entirely and leaving very little to take away at the end.
Go back to the planning stage and boil down your presentation into short punchy ‘bites’ with lots of impact and meaning. Keeping things simple and to the point is always a winning move. Avoid long boring monologues and power-points like the plague and you can’t go too far wrong.
Tell a story with your presentations
Have you ever been hooked by a great TED video? Well, need we say more? It’s human nature to love a story. People tune in when you start telling a story, because we automatically want to know what happens next. Structure your presentation around persuasive storytelling techniques (beginning, middle and end) and you’ll create a message that’s easy to digest, remember and retell.
Practice your presentations. Then practice some more.
Testing your presentation out, on yourself in front of a mirror, or a friendly audience, again and again. It’s a tried and tested method and it’s part of every professional actor’s toolbox. Working on your tone of voice, your posture, making the most of pauses, and which facial expressions to use, will make the difference between presentations that are just ‘meh’ and ones that always engage, inspire and are memorable every single time.
Not many people are naturally great at public speaking and presentations, but most of us can dramatically improve with the right set of tools and techniques and lots of practice.
Need some help with delivering inspiring messages?
Then the modules in our Delivering Inspiring Messages could really help. These modules apply powerful creative techniques to let participants construct presentations, pitches, messages or conversations that hook and engage an audience’s imagination in any virtual or face-to-face situation and make key business messages more memorable, compelling and inspiring.
