I am sure  many of you have stumbled upon articles and lists of presentation tips. I have found the following list during my preparation for a recent client presentation. I always search for articles like this right before I present  in hopes that at least one thing will stick.

This Forbes articles mentions the following simple tips:

1. Ask for interaction– simply tell your audience that you want their participation and questions during your presentation (if it’s appropriate, of course).

2. Ask a great question early to get people talking– “if you suffer the silence for a couple of seconds- someone will answer you”.

3. Ask for your audience opinion– it can be a specific/random person if you’re presenting to a small group or just a general answer from the audience if the group is large. This will help you tailor the tone of your presentation.

4. Build in audience discussion and reporting– ask your audience to divide into small group and share their conclusion on a question. Mostly relevant to large-audience presentations.

5. Get moving– don’t be afraid to walk around and use hand gestures, it’s the easiest way to captivate your audience.

All of these tips involve some sort of interaction with your audience and I think that this is the biggest point. Make your audience believe like you care about the presentation and about their opinions and you will win their attention.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/work-in-progress/2014/01/28/five-easy-tricks-to-make-your-presentation-interactive/

We all had some frustrating experiences with customer service representatives in our lives. Fortunately, I did not experience anything as severe as the one recorded example below by with a Comcast representative.

How much of the recorded conversation is the employee’s fault and how much is it the company’s? Obviously the representatives are not trained to react this way, but surely the “let’s-keep-a-customer-at-any-cost” strategy influences the representative’s behavior.

Why, in 2014, some companies are still able to differentiate themselves from the competition by providing great customer service? I would think that in our day and age, good customer service should be the standard, especially with the viral effect social media has on extreme customer experiences (good or bad). Why don’t Comcast’s management provide a better set of guidelines and solutions to their representatives? Why can’t you get the best deal (from any service provider) without dropping the “I’m leaving” bomb?

The switching costs are decreasing in the TV-provider industry. I now have an option to choose from four different providers, up from one (guess who) four years ago. Do you think Comcast is going to revamp their customer service strategy soon? Or can they keep it as long as they still have a monopoly in many markets?

Any part of the recording will do the trick, but to get the full effect please listen to the entire thing.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/14/the-comcast-call-from-hell_n_5586476.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

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:

http://www.amazon.com/Presentation-Zen-Simple-Delivery-Edition/dp/0321811984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404828019&sr=8-1&keywords=Presentation+Zen%3A+Simple+Ideas+on+Presentation+Design+and+Delivery%2C+2nd+Edition