The Last Minute PowerPoint

As anyone who works in marketing knows, you haven’t lived if you haven’t experienced the thrills and spills of a last-minute PowerPoint.

Presenting is like any type of marketing – know your audience and think carefully what you want to say to them.

Death by bullet (points)

Generally we all tend to underestimate the time it takes to develop really good narratives and presentations so we leave it to the last minute.  It’s all too easy to be seduced into thinking some fancy footwork on PowerPoint (or god forbid Prezi) can cover up a boring presentation.  It can’t.

You and the audience have different objectives

Carving out a good presentation is a balancing act between what you want to say and what your audience wants to hear.  Our starting point tends to be that we have some amazing gems of wisdom that our audience has never before heard.  And they are gonna love hearing all of them, even if we are the last speaker of the day.

A better starting point is to think about the audience first, their interests and backgrounds and create a story that resonates with them.  And make it interesting (which often requires a deviation from the brief).

A crutch for the nervous

PowerPoint is often a shield for the accidental and unconvincing speaker who focuses on the screen rather than their words (often reading from a script).  Anyone who has spoken at a big event can empathise with this – a script can be a reassuring crutch.

We aren’t all natural public speakers

I have worked with many very senior executives and very few are naturally engaging speakers.  People that are great speakers usually do a lot of speaking, often for a living. They practice so they become expert at it, as with any skill.  But they do have a certain approach.

• They always look to involve their audience early on
• They are energised
• They have carefully structured their story
• And they are usually funny (without trying too hard)

I once presented at an event when the whole a/v went down on reveal point 3 slide 2.  It was a classic sink or swim moment. As I sank, then came up for air, I realised that PowerPoint is just a distraction, and is really no more than background colour to what you are saying.

So you should never start to put together your presentation until you know exactly what your story is.  If that approach worked for Steve Jobs it can work for you too.

If you would like some help in telling your story, get in touch.