Compacting your presentations. Yes, you really can.

Thursday

There are 2 kinds of presentations, or if you will, 2 aspects: informative and convincing.

If you are teaching a course and using powerpoint as a datadump, I wouldn't call this a presentation. If you are giving an informative presentation, always make sure you have a clear structure. These presentations can be a bit longer if the subject requires it, but avoid reading everything from the slides.
Remember, even if you've been asked to share information, rarely is the mere transfer of information a satisfactory objective from the point of view of the audience. After all, the audience could always just read your book (or article, handout, etc.) if information transfer were the only purpose of the meeting, seminar, or formal presentation. Data without intuition are merely raw information, and intuition without data is just guesswork.

If you are giving a convincing presentation, you are selling an idea or a concept. Here it's important to understand your audience and adapt your presentation accordingly. Realize that the average attention span of a human is 20 minutes, so I wouldn't recommend going much beyond this point. The shorter your presentation, the more you will have to focus on the core point of your message. Stripped to its essence, presentation is selling.

In presentationzen, Garr talks about the elevator test.

Check the clarity of your message with the elevator test. This exercise forces you to "sell" your message in 30-45 seconds. Imagine this is the situation: You have been scheduled to pitch a new idea to the head of product marketing at your company, one of the leading technology manufactures in the world. Both schedules and budgets are tight; this is an extremely important opportunity for you if you are to succeed at getting the OK from the executive team. When you arrive at the Admin desk outside the vice-president's office, suddenly she comes out with her coat and briefcase in hand and barks, "...sorry, something's come up, give me your pitch as we go down to the lobby..." Imagine such a scenario. Could you sell your idea in the elevator ride and a walk to the parking lot? Sure, the scenario is unlikely, but possible. What is very possible, however, is for you to be asked without notice to shorten your talk down, from, say, 20 minutes, to 10 minutes (or from a scheduled one hour to 30 minutes), could you do it? True, you may never have to, but practicing what you might do in such a case forces you to get your message down and make your overall content tighter and clearer.

This is what I like about Pecha Kucha, you really have to compact your presentation into 6 minutes 40 second and 20 slides. No bullshit, just your main points. If you can do this, you will have no trouble making good 20-30 minute presentations.

If you really want to train and improve your presentations, you can also consider joining a local Toastmasters chapter. There are several in Belgium. So what is toastmasters?

From a humble beginning in 1924 at the YMCA in Santa Ana, California, Toastmasters International has grown to become a world leader in helping people become more competent and comfortable in front of an audience. The nonprofit organization now has nearly 226,00011,500 clubs in 92 countries, offering a proven – and enjoyable! – way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills.

Most Toastmasters meetings are comprised of approximately 20 people who meet weekly for an hour or two. Participants practice and learn skills by filling a meeting role, ranging from giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one to serving as timer, evaluator or grammarian.

There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved.

Unfortunately, membership is not free. So you can always consider speaking (or watching others) at Pecha Kucha Brussels or Barcamp Brussels. Practice makes perfect.

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