Having spent years presenting, designing, facilitating or producing conferences I thought I would write something on some of the tips and pitfalls.
I have spent so many hours looking at the back of presenters heads whilst they read the bullet points off the screen behind them (not using the monitors in front of them) not that they should be reading bullet points EVER. This becomes especially frustrating when you are concentrating on performing a graphics operator roll. This is where you actually running the slide presentation on 2 machines in tandem the back up being one slide in advance in slide sorter mode so if anything fails on the show machine you can switch to backup immediately. The concentration required for this task is exceptionally high to exactly track what point the presenter is presenting. So here are some tips over and above general presenting on what and what not to do:-
• Know exactly what you want the audience to do as a result of listening to your presentation.
• Always give yourself far more time than you think you need to prepare, design and practice the presentation.
• Ensure that you know what version of software will be used and the templates used for fonts etc.
• Sit five rows back and see if you can read that small font size on the screen and if you can’t then remove it.
• Make sure you have rehearsal time booked with the production team and graphics operators.
• There is no substitute for rehearsal so have it well practiced before you arrive.
• Be very aware of how the stage is laid out and utilise the space ( don’t just stand fixed behind the lectern).
• Make sure you’re organised at the lectern even mark and memorise slides where you can move away from the lectern ( especially your closing slide as you want to be centre front of stage).
• If you’re presenting in the morning get extra stage time early in the morning whilst the stage crew are setting up and at lunch time if presenting in the afternoon.
• If you have embedded video’s ensure they play and that are cued properly. Having files in a WMV format is best as PowerPoint handles video more effectively and 07 PowerPoint is better to run video. 2010 is even better still but this will possibly freak out most current graphics crews.
• Obviously check your slides for any errors including builds and transitions. If you have copied slides please make sure you have turned off any auto timer, as I have seen presenters move the slide on and it then moves forward on it’s own. This causes a great deal of frustration for the presenter.
• If you’re being introduced then ensure you provide a script to brief the facilitator to do a great job of introducing you.
• Do your research thoroughly on the audience so you can align the key messages and subtly hone and match them to the audience.
• Don’t expect to throw a memory stick to the graphics operator 10 seconds before you go on for them to manage your slides and expect perfection when you appear on stage …They will have to load it on several machines to run in tandem.
• Don’t make minute changes and keep providing reviewed slides as this takes time to reload and re-sync. It’s frustrating when all you have done is removed the word “THE” from one slide.
• Think about what results you want from your audience are you Motivating, Informing (educating), Convincing or Entertaining your audience? How does this affect the content and delivery?
• Have water at the lectern in case your throat dries up.
• When entering the stage know how you’re entering and how you’re leaving. Use this process to get your head in presenting mode.
• Finally, never run overtime even if you’re the CEO as it just frustrates many people trying to adjust the conference and it causes lots of timing issues. Remember it’s not just your presentation you are part of a co-ordinated show!!!
