Presentations Can Be Fun!

Are you frightened to death of standing up in front of people and making a presentation? A surprisingly large number of people detest this experience and avoid it wherever possible. But it doesn't have to be that way. With a little ingenuity and preparation you can easily become a competent presenter.

There are two points of confusion that should be cleared up about making a presentation. Number one: avoid 'Death by PowerPoint'! Number two: you don't have to remember your presentation line by line.

Death by PowerPoint refers to presenters who rely on the presentation software to do all the work. It typically goes like this. Turn down the lights and proceed to inflict 60 slides in 30 minutes on a helpless audience! That's one every 30 seconds. And many of these are just lists of bullet points or densely packed information.

While it isn't necessary to remember your presentation line-by-line, many poor presenters use slides as a kind of auto cue and proceed to read everything out point by point. I guarantee this will result in your audience becoming comatose.

Successful presenters become so because they let their personality and style come through in the presentation. Everything else is simply an aid in helping them project their message more effectively.

Alternative presentation software that is becoming more popular is a mind map. The presenter prepares the mind map in advance using keywords that branch to other keywords, along with color and graphics. Rather than show the entire mind map at the beginning, the presenter can set things up so the map is revealed in stages as the presentation proceeds.

The Mind Map above is available on NovaMind Connect where you can view it in large size and download it.

A fantastic way to get audience participation is by including a summary mind map as a handout. This map contains only the main presentation keywords and the audience is encouraged to add in their own as the talk takes place.

The traditional advice about making a speech is worth remembering here. First, tell them what you're going to tell them. Secondly, tell them. Thirdly, tell them what you just told them.

With a mind-mapping product like NovaMind Platinum Presenter you can easily apply that advice. At the beginning of the talk you can show a view of the map that contains only the main keywords. Then, as you go through each part of the presentation, the software will allow you to highlight the relevant keyword and branching detail - you can even edit it as you speak or from audience feedback. The other branches are shaded out. Finally, your conclusion can consist of showing the main keywords and summary ideas.

Audiences often become restless if they can't figure out how much more of your presentation remains. With PowerPoint this is often a big problem, as they don't know which slide you have reached. However, with a single mind map they can see how many keywords you have covered and how many remain. And you as the presenter can stay on track, knowing just where to speed up and skim over information.

At the conclusion of your presentation you can really impress your audience by making it available on the Internet for them to download later. And you can remind them that all of the hyperlinks in the map are available for them to click and check out.