What is important when planning a presentation

What is important when planning a presentation?

10 questions to ask yourself before you begin preparing your presentation

Before you begin preparing your presentation visuals, stop and fill out the Presentation Planning Worksheet.

Your answers to the questions it asks will help you choose and organize presentation content, choose the appropriate presentation format and work as efficiently as possible. The Presentation Planning Worksheet will save you time and contribute to a successful presentation.

Let's take the questions one-by-one:

1. What is the purpose of your presentation?

Presentations gain impact to the extent that you can identify their purpose and state it in a single sentence. By forcing yourself to identify the purpose of your presentation, you can make sure that every word, every chart and every illustration is focused on the desired result.

Ask yourself: "What is the action I want my audience to take?" This will help you immediately focus on the goal of your presentation.

2. What is the single most important idea you want to communicate? Think of your presentation as a series of arguments leading up to an inescapable conclusion. Start by identifying your most important argument, the one that does the best job of supporting your presentation's goal. Then, list other arguments in order of importance. Prioritizing your arguments helps you focus on the most important ones and prevents you from wasting time on unnecessary detail.

Your presentations will gain in strength to the extent that you focus on content rather than appearance! "Empty arguments," no matter how beautifully presented, are rarely enough to motivate an audience to action.

3. What obstacles must be overcome?

Next, identify the obstacles that must be overcome to achieve your goal. By identifying the obstacles, you can show your audience they are not as formidable as you might have thought. For example:

Resources. If money is an obstacle, show how there are untapped revenue sources or money can be saved in other areas.

?Competition. If the obstacles are competitive, focus in detail on how your product or service is superior to that of your competitor's.

?Unfamiliarity. If unfamiliarity is an obstacle, describe your staff's qualifications and include case studies and testimonials from satisfied

customers.

Once you have identified the obstacles to your success, you can muster the arguments necessary to overcome them.

4. How much does your audience already know?

Next, relate your presentation's goal and arguments to your audience's knowledge level. The amount and type of detail you include to support your arguments should be influenced by your audience's knowledge level. A presentation on nutrition to first-time dieters requires far less detail than a presentation on the same topic to heart surgeons. Ask yourself:

?Familiarity. How familiar is my audience with the topic of my presentation?

?Comprehension. Is my audience likely to understand the terms I'm using, or should I explain new terms?

Remember: it's as bad to talk over your audience's head as it is to talk down to your audience.

Most important, "What are the likely attitudes of those in your audience?" Are they likely to be:

?Supporters in favor of your ideas?

?Opposed to your ideas?

?Undecided or uncaring?

The more you know about your audience's makeup and attitudes, the better you'll be able to plan your presentation.

5. Who is your audience?

Next, look closer at the makeup of your audience. Answer questions like these:

?How formal is your audience? A presentation to your firm's board of directors or investors requires a different presentation media—in this case, 35mm slides—whereas you can get by with black and white overhead

transparencies for informal departmental briefings.

?How many are going to attend? The size of your audience should also influence your choice of presentation media. An informal presentation to a few co-workers can be comfortably presented on a computer monitor, but

larger audiences require from overhead transparencies or the use of a liquid

crystal projection panels. Large audiences call for 35mm slides or large

projection monitors.

6. Where will you deliver your presentation?

Whenever possible, familiarize yourself with the presentation environment before your begin creating your presentation.

The most important question is: "How much control over room lighting will I have?" Although overhead transparencies can be viewed in normal, or slightly-reduced, room lighting, 35mm slides and electronic presentations require darker rooms.

7. Are there any time or budget limitations?

Your choice of presentation media should also be influenced by the amount of time before your presentation and your production budget. It doesn't make sense to prepare 35mm color slides if you're going to have to pay overnight delivery charges on top of imaging costs. When budgets and deadlines are tight, overhead transparencies prepared on your color ink-jet printer make more sense. Electronic presentations, of course, are ready to deliver the minute you complete them and incur no outside charges. (Assuming the necessary hardware is already available.)

8. How much audience interaction do you desire?

Do you want to "preach" to your audience or engage them in a dialogue? The desired level of audience presentation should play a key role in determining the presentation media you choose.

?35mm slides. These are very linear and inflexible. Once the slides have been loaded in the carousel, it's virtually impossible to skip slides or jump to

a selected slide.

?Overhead transparencies. These offer you more freedom, because you can casually omit overheads if time is running short. You can also jump to selected overheads, (if they're clearly identified)and you can prepare extras to address audience concerns which may, or may not be, raised.

?Projected. Electronic presentations offer maximum audience interaction.

You can jump from slide to slide in any order on the basis of audience

comments and questions and hide slides unless they're needed. You can also add emphasis by circling important points or drawing arrows to highlight

important information. You can also modify visuals on the basis of audience input, for example, updating charts and graphs.

9. How much time do you have to state your case?

The number of arguments you present should be determined by the length of your presentation. It's better to cover a few, important, points in detail than present so many points that nothing is remembered.

Always try to end a little ahead of time. This leaves you room to fully answer

audience questions and concerns. Never, never, run longer than your allotted time.

This is unfair to other presenters and quickly leads to audience discontent.

The length of your presentation should also influence presentation format. Avoid

using 35mm slides for long presentations, as audiences don't like being held captive

in a darkened room for long periods of time. Color overheads allow a more

comfortable room lighting levels.

10. What possible questions and objections might your audience bring up?

When reviewing your presentation, anticipate possible questions and objections.

It's better to address them before your presentation than during your presentation!

By anticipating questions, you can prepare your answer in advance, rather than

trying to think on your feet.

By anticipating possible objections, you can locate and organize the information you

need to refute the objection. Instead of "arguing," you can calmly introduce a new overhead transparency or electronic slide that defuses the objection and supports

your argument.

Conclusion

Prior planning can prevent disappointments. Your presentations will improve in

quality, to the extent that you take the time to analyze your message and your audience, then fine-tune it to the environment where you'll be presenting and the

length of time you have available.

Success comes from presenting the right information in the right format to the right audience in the right amount of time. No amount of glitzy special effects can compensate for a lack of planning.

Presentation Planning Worksheet

Purpose

The best way to produce an effective presentation is to have a clear statement of your goals and the obstacles necessary to achieve them. You also have to take your audience into consideration as well as their attitude towards your presentation goals. The size of your audience and the length of your audience should also be considered.