Top 23 Rules for Powerful Presentation

We all might have given a presentation at least once. Presentation is a process of presenting some topic to audience. It could be to either to demonstrate, inform, inspire or persuade.  

What if we talk about powerful presentation?

Presenting a powerful presentation a skill that we all should master. It's a soft skill that can be improved only by following proper tips and by practice. We all might have heard the most common phrase "Practice makes a man perfect". 

So, here we are going to discuss some powerful tips that will boost your presentation skills and will make your audience to remember it.

Top 23 Rules for Presentation:

1.  Understanding audience is a key to successful presentation. Make sure you answer the following questions:

• Who is your audience?
• What is their age group?
• What is their interest?
• What is the venue and occasion for your presentation?

2.  Before creating a PowerPoint presentation, we first need to choose an interesting topic. After answering the above questions choose a topic very carefully that relates with your audience interest. 

3.  Choose a simple template for your presentation. Your PowerPoint Presentation should be in the following order:

• Topic Name and Presenter's Name(i.e., you)
• Index
• Introduction to the topic
• Content (Slides related to topic)
• Conclusion
• Thank You! slide

4.  Remember that you are the presenter, not PowerPoint. use your slides to emphasize a point, keep yourself on track, and illustrate a point with a graphic or photo. Don't read the slides.

5.  Dress-up appropriately. It's better to be in formals.

 

6.  Make sure you reach the venue before your audience and welcome them while they are entering the hall.

7.  Coordinate with the coordinator and make sure all the necessary things are kept in the right place (if any) and make sure all the electronic equipment are working properly such as mic, projector etc.

 

8.  If you fill nervous, take a long breathe before you start.

9.  Act as a leader. For your audience you are their leader who is there to tell them something interesting. 

10.  Make sure you make eye contact with your audience. You should look like you addressing each and everyone of them. 

11.  Make audience interaction. You can do so by asking questions in the beginning of your presentation so that everyone pay attention and they don't feel boring.

12.  Stand still while presenting. However, make sure you don't stand in front of the projector and your voice is audible to everyone.

13.  Don't make your audience read the slides either. Keep the text to a minimum(6-8 lines per slide or not more than 30 words per slides). The bullet points should be headlines, no new articles. Write in sentence fragments using key words, and keep your font size 24 or bigger.

14.  Make sure your presentation is easy on the eyes. Stay away from weird colors and busy background. Use easy to read fonts such as Arial and Times New Roman for the bulk of your text, and, if you have to use a funky, use it sparingly.

15.  Never include anything that make you announce, "I don't know if everyone can read this, but..". Make sure they can read it before you begin. Print out all your slides on standard paper, and drop them to the floor. The slides are probably readable if you can read them while you are standing.

16.  Leave out the sound effects and background music, unless it's related to the content being presented. If you haven't made arrangements with the conference coordinator before the presentation, your audience members might not be able to hear your sound effects anyway. The same goes for animated graphics and embedded movie files. Your sounds and animated graphics will not be functional on the synchronized version of your webcast.

17.  Sure you can make the words boomerang onto the slides, but you don't have to. Stick with simple animations if you use them at all.. Remember that some of your audience may have learning disabilities and swirling words can be a tough challenge. These animations will not be functional in the webcast version.

18.  Proofread, proofread, proofread. You would hate to discover that you misspelled your company's name during the presentation and make use all the sentences are grammatically correct.

19.  Practice, practice, practice. The more times you go through the presentation, the less you will have to rely on the slides for cues and the smoother your presentation will be. PowerPoint software allows you to make notes on each slides, and you can print out notes versions if you need help with pronunciations or remembering what comes next.

20.  Make sure you don't exceed the time limit.

21.  In the conclusion, just summarize what all things have discussed so far.

22.  At the end, appreciate your audience that they listen to you.

23.  After ending the presentation, make sure you give time for Q&A. Ask your audience if they have any query to ask. Answer all their queries correctly. Your answer should be satisfactory to them.