Presentations can be a challenge for many people in the modern office. We wanted to make it a little easier to put together a great one, so we’re sharing some of our favorite tips for putting one together.

Don’t Build the Presentation Until You’ve Planned It Out

It makes sense, really: you’re supposed to create a presentation, so why wouldn’t the first thing you do be to fire up Microsoft PowerPoint or Google Slides and start building one?

However, doing that is putting the cart before the horse. Instead of putting together an empty presentation, take some time to figure out what your eventual presentation will say. You don’t have to go into detail just yet. Just give yourself a framework to follow at this point to help guide the presentation.

Use a Simple Structure

If you have any hope of your audience retaining any of the information you’re sharing, this is critical. A presentation is supposed to be simple—all it’s really doing is highlighting the information that you’re sharing. Try it for yourself by putting one of your slides together, and then ask yourself if a quick glance could communicate most of what the slide is trying to say. If not, start trimming. Make sure that you keep all text simple, sparse, and big enough to read.

In terms of your presentation as a whole, you don’t need to overcomplicate that either. All your presentation really needs is:

• An introduction, where you explain what your presentation is going to communicate.
• A few slides to highlight your main points, communicating what you’ve promised.
• A conclusion, where you review what you’ve communicated and tie it all together.

That’s really all it takes.

Look at It as a Member of Your Audience

Let’s say you wanted to learn how to fish, and a champion in the world of fishing was going to hold a talk about the sport. Would you be more likely to feel that attending the talk was worth it if the champion talked about the basic principles that they rely on every time they cast their line, or if the champ did a deep dive into how using a particular lure at a certain time in a certain region was best for catching a certain kind of fish at a certain size and weight?

Probably the former, right? When you are presenting something, you are the champion talking to amateurs. Therefore, you need to adjust your focus back to the fundamental reason that you’re talking to your audience. Figure out what exactly it is that they need to learn from you, and focus on that as you create your presentation.

Hopefully, this will make it easier for you to create an impactful presentation next time you are called on to speak. Something else that will make it easier: having the right technology.

That’s where Compudata comes in. Give us a call at 1-855-405-8889 today to find out how we can help equip your business with the technology and support you need to make the most of any of your processes.