In his book, Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, Garr Reynolds discusses many different methods and exercises that help you craft a great presentation, including techniques used by TED presenters.
A chapter I find particularly helpful talks about “messages that stick”- why do some presentations make a great impact on you whereas others just fade away minutes after you have stepped out of the conference room.
In order to make a presentation memorable, take a step back, prior to crafting your slides, and think about a time when stories were passed along around the campfire. What made those messages resonate with you? Garr mentions six principles, first introduced by the Heath brothers in their book Made to Stick:
- Simplicity. Decide what matter in your presentation and simplify these points. Not everything should be “high priority”.
- Unexpectedness. Keep the crowd interested. Create a “gap” in their knowledge by asking questions, then fill that gap with information.
- Concreteness. Give a simple speech with real examples, not abstractions. For example: “let’s kill two birds with one stone” is easier than saying “let’s work towards maximizing our productivity by increasing efficiency across many departments”.
- Credibility. Most of us are not well-known experts in our field, and usually use data to back us up. Try putting the data in contexts instead of just leaving it “as is”. For example: “enough battery to last you on a flight from NYC to LA” instead of “five hours of battery life”.
- Emotions. An easy way to help people “feel something” about your content is to add images.
- Stories. Try to provide real-life examples and illustrations instead of simple streams of information.
Think about the last memorable presentation you have witnessed. Most likely, it encompassed most, or all of the points above.
A link to the book on Amazon:
Book marking this one for my self-MP presentation. Thanks!
Presentation Zen is an excellent resource when looking for ways to improve your presentation skills. For those who have not heard of it or have not visited the website, I highly recommend it: http://www.presentationzen.com/. Topics range from building a story, knowing your audience, slide craft, and more.