The importance of planning your next presentation.
The time rolls around for your next presentation. You have two options:
Pull together bits and pieces of old presentations. After all, you’ve done this a million times, you’ll be fine, right?
Plan ahead of time. Think deeply about your audience and message. And craft a presentation that both creatively engages your audience and helps you reach your business objectives.
The best presentations are well planned; they engage audiences and create buy-in. In a socially-distanced world how we communicate has fundamentally changed. Preparation is even more crucial to the success of a presentation. There is a multitude of benefits to creating a presentation that is memorable, creative, and more than just your ordinary slide deck. But to do that, you have to prepare well. Here are a few ways you can plan your presentation more effectively.
1. Get a better understanding of your objective.
Most people know that they need to give a presentation, but they rarely ask why. Presentations are a strategic communication tool. There is a reason you are giving a presentation. The message you have to convey is more important for your audience to hear directly from you– that’s why it wasn’t sent in an email!
Consider why you are presenting and what is your primary objective? Is it to get buy-in, disseminate information or maybe create organisational change? Once you’ve thought about the objective, think about how you’ll measure the outcome. Very few presenters consider how they’re going to measure the effect their presentation has on their audience. Consider how you can build in a call-to-action that is measurable and links to your overall business objective.
2. Develop greater consideration of your audience.
Giving yourself more time to prepare your presentation means that you have the opportunity to think about your audience. Your audience has needs and wants. If you want to create an engaging presentation, you have to take the time to work out what those needs and wants are. Evaluate your message. Does it help or hinder your audience from getting what they need? If it is going to have a negative effect, how can you rephrase your message to make sure they listen? By taking the time to understand their perspective, you can ensure you tailor your message to speak more empathetically and effectively.
3. Innovate – give yourself the time to say and do something new.
Planning your presentation gives you more room for creativity and innovation. After you’ve considered what your audience needs to hear, consider how your audience needs to hear it. The Coronavirus pandemic has shifted most conferences and presentations to be conducted over video conferencing platforms. While this has put in-person presentations on hold, it has opened up the opportunity to transform how we present to our customers and staff.
Restriction often breeds innovation!
We’ve been working closely with our clients to help them optimise their presentations for online channels. Answering questions like: how can we use video to help engage our audiences? How can we make online presentations more interactive? Planning ahead allows you to stage and produce a presentation that surprises your audience and subverts their expectations to create a performance that is innovative and memorable.
At Presentation Studio, we have helped hundreds of our clients take a strategic approach to their presentations. Book an “Insight Session” with one of our content strategists to help you plan your next presentation.
Creating a presentation that is engaging, strategic and innovative is completely possible. They just take a little bit more planning.
Get started on your next presentation today!
If finding time is still too hard, reach out, and let our team at www.presentationstudio.com transform your presentations for you!
Emma Bannister is passionate about presenting big, bold and beautiful ideas. She is the founder and CEO of Presentation Studio, APAC’s largest presentation agency, and author of the book ‘Visual Thinking: How to transform the way you think, communicate & influence with presentations.’