The Presentation Flu

Presenting is a skill/art that everyone seems to need but that is rarely taught. Across my travels over the past month, I attended several entrepreneurship minded events including the Cornell Entrepreneur Conference - a great get together of entrepreneurs, investors, academics and wanna-be's of all three (myself included). And so, I attended a fair number of presentations, largely back to back.

I was shocked at the massive variance in presentation skills. There were some stunning ones and some miserable presentations. Interestingly some of the best were done by the undergrads in their business plan competition - and some of the worst were done by industry veterans. Maybe 20 years in a cubicle exposes you to "presentation-itis."

Whenever I found myself bored to tears, I started taking notes of all things that bothered me so I don't repeat the same mistakes. Here's the list I've compiled for myself as a vaccine against "presentation-itis:"

• Establish a connection with the audience through varying emotions
  
• Build tension and then break it (repeat)
  
• Smile at some points (if not often), even if it's a serious topic
• Vary tone of voice and emotions
• Seth has a great post on this
  
• Visuals - make each slide count
  
• Have them elicit one emotion a piece
• Have them organized for maximum impact
  
• View questions as a conversation
  
• Use "Judo" with tough questions - defensiveness just makes you look weak
• Anticipate questions and be ready to work them into your point
  
• Short on time?
  
• Don't speed through the rest - have a 'closing punch line' ready
• When moderating a panel, always be in control
• Don't waiver or ask procedure questions (you're in charge...that's why your moderating)
• Keep the questions on target and kindly cut off those who are using it as a soap-box