Giving Great Presentations
Yes, the best things in life are quite free simple. Like Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 rule of presenting:
It’s quite simple: a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.
It’s inevitable that contract workers will find themselves giving presentations. Sometimes it involves pitching to a potential client. Or giving updates on a particularly complex project. You could also find yourself presenting to peers, giving a talk as an expert in your field. Or letting people know exactly what you do as a freelancer.
Regardless of the situation, an effective presentation makes it easier for you to achieve your goals. One thing I learned is that no matter how great the quality of your work is, it’s realtime interaction that ultimately gets the job done, getting your message across and helping you build valuable and lucrative relationships.
And from personal experience, what Guy says applies. Presentations should be short and sweet. They should concentrate on the salient points, instead of trying to school an audience on every aspect of the topic. While presentation apps are very powerful, we should all remember that they’re tools. Their effectiveness depends on the user, and it won’t do a good job of covering up the fact that you’ve failed to prepare properly or you don’t know your subject matter. Great presentations are less about the specifics, and more about the ideas.
Another key to giving great presentations is knowing what you’re talking about like the back of your hand. If you think you’re totally ready to present, here’s a good question to ask yourself: if Murphy’s law reared its ugly head, and you’re forced to make do with some notes at hand without computer or projector, could you pull it off? Amazingly, complete knowledge of the topic helps overcome the usual reasons for avoding public speaking. It’s harder to suffer from stage fright or not be clear when you’re confident in what you’re saying (but not fake confidence!).
Thanks to fredjk for the photo.
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POSTED IN: Living as a Freelancer, Useful Info
5 opinions for Giving Great Presentations
Brian S. Nick
Feb 15, 2007 at 4:11 pm
I wish every presenter had to read this post. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to sit through exceptionally long PPPs where the lecturer simply read the slides. Worse yet, I have done similar things myself (I feel bad for those that had to sit through it). I am bookmaking this post as a reference for when I have to create my next presentation.
Rico
Feb 17, 2007 at 8:43 pm
I think reading out the slides is one thing I want presenters (and myself) to really avoid. It’s a lazy way of presenting, and your presence up front becomes useless. Distributing handouts instead would’ve had the same effect.
Good luck on your next presentation!
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