The art of presentation: an unforgettable motivating story
Case study from Eduson.TV course
Alexei Kapterev | lecturer at MSU Business School
never let
the audience be bored
never let
the audience be bored
If your speech is dull, then within a few
minutes people will start checking their
mail or their tablet PCs, look out the
window, chat, drowse… If you want them to listen to you and
remember what you have said and
showed, then it is vital for you to make
your presentation catchy.
take into account
people’s real needs
Take into account
people’s real needs
Your audience may want one thing, but
be in need of something absolutely
different (for example, people wished
for faster horses, while what they
needed were cars). Likewise, you have to offer your potential customers something that
they really need.
structure is the most
important aspect of a
presentation
structure is the most
aspect of a presentation
Your narration must not be monotonous and evenly ‘’loaded’’; it
has to include conflicts and problems.
For example, while making a presentation, you may follow the ‘’Cinderella’’ plot: grave beginning,
improvement, peak scene, another
difficulty, solution and happy ending.
Regard the style
of speech as one
of communication
tools
Regard the style
of speech as one
of communication
tools
It is important to understand that a
presentation is not an official document
or a scientific publication in an professional magazine. Your address to
the audience should be an emotional
story.
Avoid
data pileup
avoid
data pileup
Extremely complicated arguments with lots
of voluminous calculations, valuations and
columns will scare away the majority of
people by their mere sight. The information provided in a presentation
should be as simple as possible. Complex data and long texts may be
provided in handout materials.
Motivate you audience
to act
Motivate your audience
to act
It is not sufficient just to tell people
something and convince them that your
conclusions are right. Ideally, as a result of your presentation,
they will start buying your product and
use your company’s services; they will feel
that they have to do something in
connection with the discussed problems.
Strike a balance between
information and motivation
strike a balance between
information and
motivation
You cannot ‘’warm up’’ your audience
and motivate them to act if you do not
provide them with any data - what,
how, where and how much. At the
same time, you cannot provide them
with information only. To find a balance between them is one
of the principal and most difficult tasks.
do not concentrate
on «decorations»
do not concentrate
on «decorations»
It is not the font beauty or background color that matters. The important thing is whether the
text, tablets and diagrams help to
achieve the goal of your presentation.
In most cases, a simple slide design is
the best solution.
finish your presentation
with flair
finish your presentation
with flair
The final is the most difficult and the most
important part of the presentation. The
conclusion has to provide a resume of
spoken ideas, call for action and, the same
time, influence the audience at the level of
emotions and values. For example, what Steve Jobs «sold» to his
audience with the help of a presentation
was not so much the iPod itself as the
feeling of being forward-minded and cool
that this gadget brings.
do not fear
using humor
do not fear
using humor
Timely jokes ad self-irony will help you to
create a positive mood for presentation
perception among the audience. The best example is Al Gore’s «Inconvenient Truth», for which he got
the Nobel Prize and that became a subject
for an Oscar-winning documentary film.
Gore spent 6 out of 16 minutes on a
standup performance to create a positive
impression.
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