Presentation Training Tips:
Presentations - Doing it “Old School”

By James A. Baker
Presentations Training Institute.
November 2009

All the emphasis these days is on adding as much high-tech glitz to your presentations as you can. We aren’t just talking about PowerPoint here, but PowerPoint with eye-catching graphics, astonishing animation and imbedded video clips. All this fire power certainly makes your presentation more noticeable (not to mention more expensive and more time-consuming to produce), but it doesn’t necessarily make it more effective. In the final analysis, a presentation is only as effective as the presenter. The audience is still looking for reasons to trust you and believe what you are saying. Don’t let technology get in the way of making a personal connection with them.

To help you stay connected, I would suggest one other type of visual aid. It is still a big part of most presentations, but we rarely give any thought to how it could be more effectively used. I am talking about handouts. When you need to provide your audience with information that is too detailed or complex to be handled on a flip chart, transparency or slide, or if you want to make sure that your audience has access to the important parts of your information for future reference, be sure and distribute appropriate handouts. Here are some tips for preparing effective, high-quality handout materials:

• Start by preparing a rough draft of each handout you want to distribute.
• Review each one for clarity and relevance to your presentation.
• Once you are satisfied that you have included everything you need, produce a final copy, making sure it has plenty of white space so that the information doesn’t appear dense or intimidating.
• Prepare graphics or charts using quality products.
• If you must include hand-drawn graphics, do not use blue ink, as it does not photocopy well.
• Highlight key points before photocopying.
• Number pages and label charts for easy reference.
• Include your name, the name of your company, the date and the subject of your presentation for the audience’s convenience.
• Proofread the final copy thoroughly. Reading each page out loud is the surest way to discover small typographical mistakes. The number of errors that can be overlooked when you just do a quick scan is amazing.
• Make more copies that you think you will need.
• Use different paper colors to prevent confusion if you plan to use a large number of handouts.

When using handouts during your presentation, refer to them but don’t read from them word for word. Your audience knows how to read. All you need to do is tell them why the information on the page is important and point out the highlights for them. If you go any farther, they will finish reading the handout and them get up and leave!

Finally, visual aids are wonderful, but when all else fails, paint a picture with words. By this, I mean use verbal tools that inspire your audience’s imagination to connect with your point, without you droning on and on, loading them up with facts and arguments that have no context for them. A well-told joke or a well-placed story by way of illustration can accomplish more than five paragraphs of dry facts. For example, when you watch the news, which has the greater impact on you, a reporter reading a list of all the damage done by a storm, or a story about a family who lost everything and is now trying to rebuild their lives? If you want to motivate your audience to get involved in helping out, which approach is more likely to open their hearts and their checkbooks? Telling a compelling story will energize everything else you do.

In the final analysis, there are lots of tools that can help you improve the delivery of information to your audience. However, the secret to success lies elsewhere, and here it is: When it comes to effective presentations, the messenger IS the message. Your audience is looking to the way you interact with them to determine whether or not to trust you, so don’t hide behind your visual aids. Face them with confidence, look them in the eyes and tell it like it is. Everything else is window dressing.

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