The art of presentation: an unforgettable motivating story

Case study from Eduson.TV course

Alexei Kapterev | lecturer at MSU Business School

never let

the audience be bored

never let

the audience be bored

If your speech is dull, then within a few

minutes people will start checking their

mail or their tablet PCs, look out the

window, chat, drowse… If you want them to listen to you and

remember what you have said and

showed, then it is vital for you to make

your presentation catchy.

take into account

people’s real needs

Take into account

people’s real needs

Your audience may want one thing, but

be in need of something absolutely

different (for example, people wished

for faster horses, while what they

needed were cars). Likewise, you have to offer your potential customers something that

they really need.

structure is the most

important aspect of a

presentation

structure is the most

aspect of a presentation

Your narration must not be monotonous and evenly ‘’loaded’’; it

has to include conflicts and problems.

For example, while making a presentation, you may follow the ‘’Cinderella’’ plot: grave beginning,

improvement, peak scene, another

difficulty, solution and happy ending.

Regard the style

of speech as one

of communication

tools

Regard the style

of speech as one

of communication

tools

It is important to understand that a

presentation is not an official document

or a scientific publication in an professional magazine. Your address to

the audience should be an emotional

story.

Avoid

data pileup

avoid

data pileup

Extremely complicated arguments with lots

of voluminous calculations, valuations and

columns will scare away the majority of

people by their mere sight. The information provided in a presentation

should be as simple as possible. Complex data and long texts may be

provided in handout materials.

Motivate you audience

to act

Motivate your audience

to act

It is not sufficient just to tell people

something and convince them that your

conclusions are right. Ideally, as a result of your presentation,

they will start buying your product and

use your company’s services; they will feel

that they have to do something in

connection with the discussed problems.

Strike a balance between

information and motivation

strike a balance between

information and

motivation

You cannot ‘’warm up’’ your audience

and motivate them to act if you do not

provide them with any data - what,

how, where and how much. At the

same time, you cannot provide them

with information only. To find a balance between them is one

of the principal and most difficult tasks.

do not concentrate

on «decorations»

do not concentrate

on «decorations»

It is not the font beauty or background color that matters. The important thing is whether the

text, tablets and diagrams help to

achieve the goal of your presentation.

In most cases, a simple slide design is

the best solution.

finish your presentation

with flair

finish your presentation

with flair

The final is the most difficult and the most

important part of the presentation. The

conclusion has to provide a resume of

spoken ideas, call for action and, the same

time, influence the audience at the level of

emotions and values. For example, what Steve Jobs «sold» to his

audience with the help of a presentation

was not so much the iPod itself as the

feeling of being forward-minded and cool

that this gadget brings.

do not fear

using humor

do not fear

using humor

Timely jokes ad self-irony will help you to

create a positive mood for presentation

perception among the audience. The best example is Al Gore’s «Inconvenient Truth», for which he got

the Nobel Prize and that became a subject

for an Oscar-winning documentary film.

Gore spent 6 out of 16 minutes on a

standup performance to create a positive

impression.

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