Is your presentation more like a waiting room or a lively conversation?
It is feedback I would wish upon anyone: attendees who come up to you following your presentation to share with you how time had flown by. That really tells you they got something out of it and enjoyed it.
Time is a funny thing.
When you have to sit in a waiting room for twenty minutes without any form of distraction, it seems to last an eternity. And yet, two weeks later you have no memory of it at all.
Whereas, a lively twenty-minute conversation will prove the exact opposite: it is over before you know it, but two weeks later you can easily retrieve its funny moments or anecdotes.
How does time advance during your presentation?
As in a waiting room: dreadfully slow, with people remembering nothing afterwards?
Or as in a lively conversation: a presentation that feels brief, with vivid memories afterwards?
Unfortunately, most presentations are waiting room presentations with people in the audience sitting out their time until they can move on to a useful activity. Or where, just as in a waiting room, they reach for their smartphones for a hint of distraction. Just to make time move a bit faster.
In this type of waiting room presentation, your audience is overwhelmed with slides and an impenetrable verbiage, after which they leave the room with absolutely no takeaway messages.
In a lively conversation presentation you will find humor, a clear storyline and a straightforward message. You make more of an impact and people will continue to enjoy listening and remember more of it afterwards.
It is clear which option comes out on top.
How to turn your presentation into a great conversation instead of a waiting room experience can be found on our blog of course, or explained in our book or one of our workshops.
But let us get you started with these three tips:
Translation: Leslie Van Ael