There are only two reasons for making a presentation

There are really only two reasons you make a presentation. One is to inform and the other is to persuade. You make a presentation to tell people about something – such as your ideas. You also make presentations to convince people to do certain things – like hire you as a consultant. In both cases, you need to make your ideas succinct and to the point. You don’t want to cluster up your slides with bullet points. If you cram 10 bullet points onto a single slide, your audience will not hear you or see you. They will be spending all the time trying to decipher those tiny words on the slide.

Brevity is the key to any presnetation. If you can say it in 5 words rather than 20 words, do so. Make your presentation more like a conversation with your audience. Afterall, isn’t that how you share ideas with your friends and convince others to do things? By having a conversation.

One response to “There are only two reasons for making a presentation

  1. I could say the only reason to present is to persuade… if I have an idea then when I present it I want something to happen… approval, a critique, backing to carry on working on it….. etc.
    but in both cases the fog of complication should give way to simplicity and brevity… what is the core idea that you want people to sign up to? Back my idea? Hire me to do something? as Tom Peters says “It is all selling” and to use a cliche how do you know thay have bought into it, where it is the action or response your prsentation is supposed to catalyse?

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