tips to succeed in presentation

Presentations are boring when they present scads of information without any context or meaning. Instead, tell a story, with the audience as the main characters and, specifically, the heroes .

Audiences only pay attention to stories and ideas that are immediately relevant. Consider what decision you want them to make, then build an appropriate case.

A verbose introduction that describes you, your firm, your topic, how you got there, only bores people. Keep your intro down to a sentence or two, even for a long presentation.

Kick off your talk by revealing a shocking fact, a surprising insight, or a unique perspective that naturally leads into your message and the decision you want made.

When was the last time you heard someone complain that a presentation was too short Make it half as long as you originally thought it should be or even shorter .

Fuzzy concepts reflect fuzzy thinking. Buttress your argument, story and message with facts that are quantifiable, verifiable, memorable and dramatic.

One size fits all presentations are like one size fits all clothes; they never fit right and usually make you look bad. Every audience is different; your presentation should be too.

People shut off their brains when confronted with complicated drawings and tables. Use very simple graphics and highlight the data points that are important.

Fancy slide backgrounds only make it more difficult for the audience to focus on whats important. Use a simple, single color, neutral color background.

Dont try to give your audience to get an eyestrain headache by using tiny fonts. Use large fonts in simple faces like Arial ; avoid boldface, italics and ALL CAPS.