Give a better presentation – try this activity

This is my presentation tip for the day: From many presentations I’ve sat in on over the last decade, I know many of you struggle with this too:

I struggle with this – there’s often so much good material to share that I want to 1) make sure it gets out and 2) make sure my meeting participants have it for future reference”. However, if you use the tools you have in your meeting room – recorded meetings and slideshare with notes – you can make the most of the time you have in front of that person…instead of thinking about later and compromising the engagement levels when you’ve got a captive audience.

Whether it’s keywords, pictures, or charts – it will ALWAYS be more effective than a PowerPoint slide filled with sentences that you read verbatim and bullet points until the end of time. PowerPoint is a tool for you to use as talking points – to guide meeting and drive discussion.

Try this activity:
Presentation Zen compares Steve Jobs to Bill Gates when it comes to their keynotes here: http://bit.ly/daH0yP – Here’s one comparing Steve Jobs to Michael Dell http://bit.ly/apQPOs.

Take a slide from what you would consider an “effective” recent meeting and compare – which keynote are you closer to? In the age of content being around forever, take the time to live in the now – capture your audience while you have them in front of you. You’ll be surprised at how much more people will retain in an engaging and collaborative conversation vs. in PPT bullets.