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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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How to Create an Engaging 5-Minute Presentation

Published: September 15, 2023

A 5-minute speech can feel both incredibly short and infinitely long.

While this short format encourages audiences to pay more attention, presenters often struggle to fit everything into five minutes even as they navigate nervousness that seems to stretch out each second.

As a result, preparation is key for 5-minute speech success.

But how can you ensure your presentation accomplishes everything it needs to within just five short minutes? We’ve put together an (appropriately condensed) guide on five-minute presentations to help you get started.

How many words are in a 5-minute presentation?

A five-minute presentation is approximately 700 words long. The average person speaks 120 to 160 words a minute, which means the average five-minute presentation is 600 to 800 words.

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To calculate your own personal speaking speed (words per minute, or WPM):

• Make an audio recording of yourself speaking for one minute.
• Use a free transcription service to generate a text version of your speech.
• The number of words you spoke in that minute is your personal WPM.

When constructing a longer presentation, you might be more concerned about transitions and keeping the audience engaged with more extensive narrative elements.

In a short presentation, everything you say should directly tie back to your central premise and further advance your main point.

Keeping a tight scope and using your words carefully ensures your time isn't wasted and the audience leaves with a clear, singular takeaway.

How many slides are in a 5-minute presentation?

Five or six slides, or about one per minute, is a good baseline for a 5-minute presentation. Depending on your subject matter, however, you might use up to 20 slides and spend about 10 or 15 seconds on each.

More important than your slide count is what each slide contains. It‘s a good rule of thumb to keep your slides simple and focused on visuals instead of text for a presentation of any length.

This becomes especially important when you’re dealing with a condensed presentation window.

Trying to cram in as much information as possible within a short time frame can be tempting. Resist the urge. Instead, focus on simple, clean visuals that all tie back to your central premise.

You can also use these free presentation templates to arrange your slides in a way that makes the most sense for your delivery and the content of your presentation.

Don't forget to share this post!

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Presentation

• Written By Gregg Rosenzweig
• Updated: November 8, 2023

We’re here to help you choose the most appropriate content types to fulfill your content strategy. In this series, we’re breaking down the most popular content types to their most basic fundamentals — simple definitions, clarity on formats, and plenty of examples — so you can start with a solid foundation.

What is a Presentation?

A communication device that relays a topic to an audience in the form of a slide show, demonstration, lecture, or speech, where words and pictures complement each other.

Why should you think of presentations as content?

The beauty of content creation is that almost anything can become a compelling piece of content . Just depends on the creativity used to convert it and the story that brings it to life.

The long and short of it

Although the length of a presentation in terms of time can depend on the overall approach (Are you talking a lot? Are you referring to the screen in detail or not?), consider the number of informational content slides when tallying the overall presentation length. For instance, don’t include title slides in your tally when conveying length to a content creator.

A general guide to presentation length:

• Short Form (5 content slides)
• Standard Form (10 content slides)
• Long Form (20+ content slides)

Popular use cases for presentations…

Let’s consider TED Talks for a minute: one of the best examples (bar none) of how words, pictures, and a narrative can make people care about something they otherwise might not.

These “talks” pre-date podcasts and blend a compelling use of language and imagery in presentation format to spread ideas in unique ways.

TED Talks have been viewed a billion-plus times worldwide (and counting) and are worth considering when it comes to how you might use video-presentation content to connect with your customers in creative, cool, new ways.

Business types:

Any company that has a pitch deck, executive summary , sales presentation, or any kind of internal document that can be repurposed into external-facing content pieces — without pain.

Presentation Examples – Short Form

Presentation Examples – Standard Form

Presentation Examples – Long Form

Understanding Content Quality in Examples

Our team has rated content type examples in three degrees of quality ( Good, Better, Best ) to help you better gauge resources needed for your content plan. In general, the degrees of content quality correspond to our three content levels ( General, Qualified, Expert ) based on the criteria below. Please consider there are multiple variables that could determine the cost, completion time, or content level for any content piece with a perceived degree of quality.

Impress your clients, co-workers, and leadership team with exceptional content for your next presentation, product demonstration, and more. If you need help getting your message across in a succinct, attention-grabbing, and persuasive way, talk to one of our content specialists today.

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What Is a Digital Presentation & How to Get Good At It

Learn the basics of presentation decks and how to create one. Explore examples and tips to make your own deck more effective and engaging.

Dominika Krukowska

16 minute read

Short answer

What is a presentation.

A presentation is a slide-based visual storytelling aid. It’s used for transferring information and emotion to an audience with visual, vocal, and textual communication.

The purpose of a presentation is to help the audience understand a subject matter. Presentations are used in business, academics, and entertainment. They can be made in PowerPoint, PDF, or webpage format.

You will lose your audience with static presentations.

Have you ever sat through a digital presentation that felt like it was dragging on forever? Or worse, have you been the one giving the presentation when people’s eyes glazed over? This feeling of agonizing boredom is called Death by PowerPoint.

Failing to give an engaging presentation will make you lose your audience's attention , and as a result, their ability to remember anything you have to say.

If you’re wondering how exactly you avoid this fate, you’re not alone. Everyone struggles with this. It’s not you - it’s PowerPoint.

The solution? I’m going to show you how to never again suffer from Death by PowerPoint by avoiding the common PowerPoint pitfalls and much much more.

By the end of this blog post, you’ll learn to create digital presentations that immediately engage your audience, capture their interest, and make them care.

Spoiler - the key is to ditch your static slides for interactive experiences.

Let's dive in!

What is the main purpose of a presentation?

The purpose of a presentation is to communicate information or ideas to an audience in a clear and effective manner. The reasons for making a presentation can be to inform, persuade, motivate, educate, entertain, or simply share knowledge or experiences.

The goal of a presentation can be to help your audience understand complex concepts, make informed decisions, or take action based on the information you present.

In business settings, presentations are often used to pitch products or services, report on progress or performance, or make recommendations to stakeholders.

What are the 2 main types of presentations?

When it comes to creating a presentation, there are 2 primary types: (1) speech presentations and (2) digital presentations (made for reading). There are key takeaways for nailing each presentation type. Take note of them if you intend to get good at both.

Reading presentations

Speech presentations

Digital presentations (Reading presentations)

Digital presentations, on the other hand, are presentations that the audience can access on their own computer or phone without the presenter being physically present. These presentations require a different set of skills and techniques to keep the audience engaged.

Essentials for improving your digital presentations:

• Written clarity is critical: Since your audience will be reading your presentation, it's essential to keep your content clear and concise. Say more with less.
• Show, don't tell: Use supporting visuals to help illustrate your points and make your presentation more engaging.
• Animation and annotation: Use animations and annotations to direct your audience's attention to the right place at the right time, keeping them engaged throughout. there are plenty of free animation software to help you create these.
• Personalization: Make your audience feel like you're speaking directly to them by personalizing your presentation. Use inclusive language and address their pain points, needs, and interests.

Speech presentations (Face to face)

Speech presentations are the classic type of presentation where a speaker presents to an audience in person. These presentations are usually given at conferences or meetings, and can now also take place virtually through platforms like Zoom, Google Meet, or Skype.

Essentials for improving your speech presentations:

• Less written, more spoken: Speech presentations are all about the spoken word, so it's crucial to avoid cramming too much text onto your slides. Focus on speaking to your audience instead.
• Body language and voice: In a speech presentation, your body language and tone of voice are essential to engaging your audience. Use humor, sarcasm, or suspense to keep your listeners interested.
• Rapport: Making eye contact and using real-time communication can help you build rapport with your audience and make them feel involved in your presentation.

What are the main types of digital presentations?

Digital presentations come in all shapes and sizes, but understanding the main types can help you choose the right format for your message.

Business presentations

Marketing presentations, sales presentations, education and training presentations, personal presentations.

Education & training

Business presentations are used for showcasing company performance updates, introducing new products or services, discussing future plans with clients and partners, or briefing investors.

Whether it's an internal meeting or an external one with stakeholders, business presentations are all about delivering a clear and compelling message that drives the company forward.

Marketing presentations are visual decks used to present your target audience, marketing strategies, and campaign outcomes to prospective clients, ad agencies, or stakeholders.

Sales presentations are decks that contain details about the features, pricing, and main benefits of your offering, and are used during in-person meetings or online sales calls. They’re designed to help sales reps close deals or land new clients.

Education and training presentations are slide decks designed to teach new concepts and best practices to a variety of audiences, including students, employees, or clients.

A personal presentation is used during networking events, business conferences, or public speaking engagements. It’s used to share your key accomplishments and demonstrate your passion and the main values you stand for.

What makes a good presentation?

A good presentation captivates by establishing trust, engaging the audience with interactive elements, and weaving data into an enthralling narrative that sparks emotions and inspires, leaving a lasting impact.

There are 3 things any good presentation must do:

1. Establish trust and credibility

Without your audience trusting you and your authority you will never get them to listen. And to really listen, some say, they have to like you.

To establish yourself as a credible source of information, use relevant visuals, stories, and examples that showcase your expertise and experience, earning the trust of your audience.

2. Interact with the audience

Static PowerPoint slides are no longer enough to engage anyone. Presentations need to be informative but also entertaining.

Therefore, incorporating interactive elements into your presentations like animations, videos, calculators, quizzes, polls, and live infographics is now essential to grab attention and keep your audience engaged start-to-finish .

3. Tell a good story

When it comes to digital presentations, it's not just about the information you share, but how you share it. That's where storytelling comes in! It's all about weaving a relatable narrative that resonates with your viewers, leaving them eager for more.

By blending your data and facts into an enthralling tale, you're not only dishing out knowledge but also sparking emotions and inspiration. It's a game-changer for grabbing your audience's attention and getting your message across effectively.example

How to create a good digital presentation?

To create a great digital presentation, you need to think beyond the slides and consider the experience you want your audience to have.

Think of your presentation as a journey that takes your audience from point A to point B - you need to ensure that every step of the way is memorable and captivating.

When creating a digital presentation, there's more to it than just putting together a few slides.

You can make it real-pretty, but to make it truly effective you need to have a clear understanding of where you want to take your audience, and tailor your content accordingly.

Good presentation example

This example shows how interactive content can make a presentation that pulls you in and makes you feel part of the journey.

What should a presentation include?

Most decks contain the following 3 elements:

• Introduction (the objectives and agenda of your presentation)
• Main body (key talking points that you want to cover)
• Conclusion (followed by a single, actionable call to action)

The specific outline of your presentation will depend on your particular use case.

Check out our dedicated guides for particular business presentations:

• What to Include in a Pitch Deck (Slides 99% of Investors Want)
• 7 elements of a great sales deck structure
• What should a one-pager include?
• What does a marketing deck include?

How to start and how to end a presentation?

Start your presentation with a strong hook that captures your audience's attention and makes them interested in what you have to say.

You can end your presentation with a thank you slide, but that would be too bad. For your words to carry beyond the last slide you’ll need to give your audience the next step.

And so, you should end your presentation with a singular, clear call to action that inspires your audience to follow through on your message.

What are the essential building blocks of a successful presentation?

Almost everyone nowadays makes beautiful presentations. But that’s not enough to make them successful.

5 key elements that every successful presentation includes:

1. Compelling (human) story: Your presentation should tell a story that connects with your audience on a personal and emotional level, making your message relatable and memorable.

Here are 5 quick storytelling tips to deliver engaging presentations:

2. Clear structure: A clear structure helps your audience follow along and understand the flow of your presentation. This can be chronological, sequential, before-after, problem-solution-resolution, or any other simple and easy-to-follow structure.

3. Problem and solution: Your presentation should address a problem that your audience faces and offer a solution that your product or service can provide.

4. Actionable takeaways: Your presentation should leave your audience with actionable steps or insights that they can use to apply the information you've presented.

5. Supporting visuals (product demo) and data visualization (graphs, charts, and infographics): Using visuals to support your presentation can reinforce your message and help your audience retain the information you presented.

6 biggest mistakes to avoid when creating a presentation

It’s easy to forget that the presentation is for your audience rather than for you. You may want to tell them everything from A to Z, but they may only want to know ABC.

It’s even easier to take for granted that the things you understand are clear to others. But for them, these things are horribly complex (look up the curse of knowledge).

1. Using too much text: Overloading your slides with text can cause your audience to lose interest and detract from your main points. Keep your text to a minimum and use visuals to reinforce your key takeaways.

2. Going too much into detail: attention is a limited resource so you can’t fit everything in a single presentation. Tell your audience only what they really want (and need) to know. Avoid any technical details or complex jargon that does not contribute to the core of your message.

3. Neglecting interactivity: Failing to include interactive elements can cause your audience to disengage. Use polls, quizzes, and other interactive tools to keep your audience engaged.

4. Ignoring the power of storytelling: Telling a compelling story is critical to capturing your audience's attention and leaving a lasting impression. Use relatable stories and examples that support your key points.

5. Poor use of visuals: Using low-quality visuals, irrelevant images, or poorly designed charts and graphs can detract from your presentation and cause confusion. Use high-quality visuals that reinforce your key ideas and are easy to understand.

6. Lack of personalization: If you don’t tailor your presentation to your audience's needs, interests, and level of understanding, your message will fall flat. Make sure to consider your audience's perspective and adjust your deck accordingly.

You don't want your presentation to end up looking like this:

How to design a presentation?

Designing a presentation is a bit like decorating a cake - you want it to be visually appealing but also yummy to consume. You want it to leave your audience with a taste for more rather than a bad taste in their mouth.

Lucky for you there are practical steps for designing a presentation that truly wows your audience every time.

Practical presentation design tips:

1. Choose a color scheme: Just like choosing the perfect icing color for your cake, selecting a color scheme that complements your brand can make your presentation feel more coherent. Or, if you’re pitching to a client, you can use their brand colors instead in order to impress them.

2. Use high-quality images: Using high-quality images is like adding a layer of delicious, rich frosting to your cake. It makes your presentation more visually interesting and helps support your key message.

3. Use consistent fonts: Using consistent fonts throughout your presentation can make it easier to read. Stick to two or three fonts that complement each other and use them consistently.

4. Incorporate visual aids: Visual aids like colorful sprinkles and creative cake toppers can take your cake to the next level. Similarly, graphs, charts, and infographics can help break text patterns and, therefore, make your presentation more memorable.

Check out our use-ready slide design with every type of slide you can think of designed according to our tips and best practices.

Where to find presentation templates?

Scouring the web for presentation templates can be a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack - it's time-consuming, frustrating, and can leave you feeling a bit lost. Most designs available look dull and samey, and are not optimized for engagement.

But don't worry, we've got you covered! Here are the best interactive presentation templates for different use cases:

Choose template by:

What tools to use to create presentations?

Unfortunately, there's no one-size-fits-all tool for creating a digital presentation. And with so many presentation tools out there, it can be hard to know where to start looking.

That’s why we've done the research for you - check out our article rounding up the best presentation software to pick the right one for your needs!

And, if you want to learn more about creating effective digital presentations, check out these posts:

• How to Make Effective & Impactful Presentations (12 Steps)
• How to Make a Multimedia Presentation (5 Easy Steps)

How to give a presentation?

Giving a presentation can be intimidating, but it's an excellent opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise. To deliver a successful presentation, you need to focus on engaging your audience, keeping their attention, and providing valuable information.

9 tips to help you give a memorable presentation:

1. Start with a strong hook

A strong opening is crucial to grab your audience's attention and pique their interest. Begin with a bold statement, a surprising fact, or a personal anecdote that relates to the topic of your presentation. This will immediately grab the audience's attention and make them want to listen to what you have to say.

2. Make your objectives and agenda clear

Engage your audience right from the start by letting them know what's in store for them. Outlining your objectives and agenda early on will keep your audience focused and ensure that they don't miss out on any crucial information. Let them know why it's important to pay attention to your presentation and what they can expect to learn from it. By doing this, you'll build anticipation and get them excited about what's to come!

3. Leverage storytelling

People love stories, and they are an effective way to connect with your audience. Use anecdotes, metaphors, and examples to illustrate your points and make your presentation more relatable. This will help the audience understand the concepts you're presenting and retain the information up to 60-70% better .

4. Ask questions, use humor, give simple directions that prove a point

Engage your audience by asking questions, using humor, and giving them simple tasks to perform that illustrate your point. This will keep their attention and make the presentation more interactive.

5. Direct the audience's attention

Use a pointer or built-in animation to draw the audience's attention to critical information. This will help them focus on what you're saying and avoid distractions.

6. Work on the delivery

Speak slowly and clearly, use positive language, and avoid reading from notes as much as possible. Use humor and engage with your audience to make the presentation more enjoyable. Ensure your body language is confident and relaxed, and maintain eye contact with your audience.

7. Add interactive elements

Incorporate interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or surveys to involve your audience and gather valuable feedback. This will make your presentation more engaging and ensure your audience retains the information presented.

8. Close with a CTA

End your presentation with a strong call to action (CTA). Inspire your audience to take the next step, whether it's signing up for a newsletter, buying a product, or visiting your website. Make it clear what you want your audience to do after the presentation.

9. Leave time for a Q&A session

Finally, leave ample time for a Q&A session. This will allow your audience to clarify any doubts and ask questions. It's also an excellent opportunity for you to engage with your audience and get valuable feedback on your presentation.

Create amazing digital presentations from templates

Creating a digital presentation that grabs your audience's attention and drives results may feel like a daunting task.

After all, a strong digital presentation can be the difference between leaving a lasting impression on your audience or falling flat and losing their attention.

It's like trying to teach a class without proper preparation - you're not giving your knowledge and expertise a chance to shine, and your audience might not retain the information you're presenting.

To make things easier, try using our customizable digital presentation templates that will help you create an engaging and impactful digital presentation in no time!

Where can I see examples of good presentations?

If you’re looking for real-life examples that drove results for other companies from different industry sectors, check out highly effective presentation examples by our clients .

Alternatively, if you want to see the best presentation examples that you can replicate to create your own, here are our dedicated guides:

• 10 Perfect Presentation Examples That Win Over Anyone
• 9 Unique Sales Deck Examples that Outsell the Rest
• 10 Top Pitch Deck Examples to Inspire Your Fundraising Efforts
• Top Product Presentation Examples That Wow Everyone
• Marketing Deck: What It Is & How to Make It Win (Examples)
• 6 Elevator Pitch Examples for Any Scenario (Ready for Use)

Where can I find good presentation templates?

If you’re looking for snazzy presentation templates, Storydoc should be your go-to place. We offer a fantastic selection of visually stunning designs to make your digital presentation pop.

All components have been designed with best practices in mind and optimized for engagement. Thanks to the built-in analytics panel, you can also check how your presentations perform in real-time.

Click on any of these categories to see the best presentation templates for your specific use case:

• One-pager templates
• Sales deck templates
• Pitch deck templates
• Business proposal deck templates
• Marketing decks templates
• Case studies templates
• Report templates
• White paper templates

What are common types of business presentations?

The most common types of business presentations are:

• Sales decks
• Pitch decks
• Business proposal decks
• Marketing decks
• Case studies

Is a presentation the same as a slideshow?

Technically, a slideshow is a type of presentation, but not all presentations are slideshows.

A presentation can take many different forms, from a speech to a product demonstration, and can use various tools, including slideshows, to deliver the message. So while a slideshow is certainly a popular choice for presentations, it's not the only option out there.

What is death by PowerPoint?

Death by PowerPoint is the phenomenon of boring, uninspired, and ineffective presentations that use an overabundance of bullet points, text-heavy slides, and monotonous delivery. It's a surefire way to put your audience to sleep and leave them counting down the minutes until your presentation is over.

To avoid death by PowerPoint, aim to create presentations that are visually engaging, incorporate storytelling, and use multimedia elements like images, videos, and interactive features. Remember, a presentation should be a tool to enhance your message, not a crutch to lean on.

What are common types of presentation delivery formats?

There are 5 popular types of presentation delivery formats to choose from:

• Powerpoint: A classic choice, PowerPoint offers a range of design and animation options to create static slide-based presentations.
• Google Slides : As a cloud-based tool, Google Slides makes it easy to collaborate with others in real-time. It's an excellent option for static team presentations and remote work situations.
• Keynote : Exclusive to Apple devices, Keynote is known for its sleek and elegant design options. It's an ideal choice for visually appealing presentations on Mac or iOS devices.
• PDF: For a simple, static, and easily shareable format, PDF presentations are a reliable option. They ensure consistent formatting across different devices and platforms.
• Storydoc : Taking presentations to the next level, Storydoc provides immersive and interactive templates that are sure to captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression.

What are common types of presentation speech formats?

There are 4 common types of presentation delivery formats:

• Memorized: In a memorized delivery, the presenter memorizes the entire presentation word-for-word and delivers it without notes. This format can be effective for short presentations or speeches but can be challenging to execute for longer presentations.
• Manuscript: In a manuscript delivery, the presenter reads from a written script or teleprompter. This format is great for delivering complex or technical information but can come across as less engaging.
• Impromptu: In an impromptu delivery, the presenter delivers a presentation without prior preparation or planning. This format is often used in situations like interviews or meetings and requires quick thinking and adaptability.
• Extemporaneous: In an extemporaneous delivery, the presenter delivers a presentation using notes or an outline, but not a fully scripted presentation. This format allows for flexibility and engagement with the audience while still maintaining structure.

Why is a presentation important for my business?

Here are the main reasons why presentations are essential for your business:

• Be the expert: Presentations provide a platform to showcase your expertise and share your unique perspectives with your audience, establishing you as a thought leader in your industry.
• Build connections: Presentations provide an opportunity to connect with your audience, building relationships that can lead to future business opportunities.
• Leave a lasting impression: An engaging and memorable presentation can leave a lasting impact on your audience, increasing brand awareness and improving message retention.
• Achieve your goals: Presentations can be used to achieve business goals, from generating leads to securing funding or closing deals.

How to measure the effectiveness of a presentation?

Measuring the effectiveness of a presentation is crucial to ensure it hits the mark with your audience and achieves its goals. Here are some ways to measure the effectiveness of a presentation:

Ask for feedback: Don't be afraid to ask your audience for feedback after the presentation, either through surveys or live feedback. This feedback can provide valuable insights into what worked well and what could be improved, helping you refine your approach for future presentations.

Monitor engagement: Keep a pulse on engagement metrics such as views, shares, or the average reading time if the presentation is delivered online. These metrics can give you a sense of the level of interest generated by the presentation and which parts resonated with your audience. Our own presentation maker comes with built-in analytics tracking and reporting .

Track business outcomes: If your presentation is designed to drive business results, track metrics such as lead generation, sales, or conversion rates to assess its effectiveness in achieving these goals.

Hi, I'm Dominika, Content Specialist at Storydoc. As a creative professional with experience in fashion, I'm here to show you how to amplify your brand message through the power of storytelling and eye-catching visuals.

Perfect Presentation Examples That Win Over Anyone

Top Product Presentation Examples That Wow Everyone Sales and Marketing Presentations Statistics Marketing Presentation Examples that Engage & Convert

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Can Presentations Be Too Short?

Hrideep barot.

• Presentation

Have a gut feeling that your presentation is too short? Or is your presentation shorter than what was asked out of you? Short presentations aren’t such a bad thing. This article will help you understand the effectiveness of short presentations. Read along to find out how to deliver effective short presentations or make your short presentation longer. 

How long are Short Presentations?

Why are short presentations better, how to make effective short presentations, time management, should i make my presentation longer, how can i make my presentation longer, words that make presentations longer, what should you include in a short presentation, thesis winning short presentations, in conclusion.

Short Presentations are also called Lightning Talks or Data Blitz. Any presentation or speech that lasts less than 10 minutes can be classified as a short presentation. The main goal of any presentation is to put forth an idea. If your presentation conveys everything it was supposed to, it is a successful presentation. The effectiveness of a presentation is not proportionate to its length.

Your presentations cannot be too short. If they’re properly delivering the message, they are called concise presentations. 

“Nobody ever complained the presentation was too short”

• Saves Time: Time is money. The more time you save, the more you have to allot to valuable endeavours. Everybody would love to catch a five minute break without compromising on productivity.
• Efficient: Short presentations leave out all the content that’s not absolutely critical. When all the major points are covered without beating around the bush, it is much more efficient. Your audience will definitely thank you in their minds. After all, As students, we all loved it when the teacher left us early.
• Attention Span: The maximum attention span of an average adult according to studies is 20 minutes. Short presentations cut this to half. This means, the attention of your audience will remain fresh throughout the presentation. 
• Clear, Concise, Compelling: Lesser the time frame, more the effort. You have a big idea to convey in a small time. This will force you to become clear, concise and compelling. 

Less is more. Minimalism is the phenomenon that revolutionised the post world war era. It has taken over all aspects of life, presentations too! How do you then apply the principles of minimalism into making stunning presentations?

• Fine Filter: Short presentations mean you cleanse your information thoroughly. Only and only the most important content must make it to the speech. The slides should then be even briefer. 
• Context: Cleansing unnecessary information does not include forgoing your contexts. Your presentation is not a mystery novel. Keep everybody on the same page, let them know what you’re talking about. 
• Series of Three: Steve Jobs gave his presentations in the series of three. He concluded that most people remember things in the series of three. Therefore, he would break a big topic into three main core ideas. Three is a small number, enough to form clear short presentations. For example, while giving a speech about waste management, your three main takeaways would be Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. When your three main ideas are addressed clearly in your presentation, its effectiveness is greatly amplified. 
• Stories: Stories teach better than lectures. You can ask somebody to separate their waste, or you could narrate a story that shows the consequences of doing so. You can also highlight what happens when you don’t do so! We as a civilization succeeded with the power of stories. Short stories in your short presentations can convey way more than you are estimating. Be metaphorical.

• No Time For Introductions: This does not mean you skip the introduction ofcourse. Follow the standard introduction-body-conclusion formal but keep in mind that you cannot have a 3 minute introduction in a 10 minute speech. Start boldly with a short controversial statement, be fearless. This will involve your audience too! Precision is the key to any short presentation.
• Passion: You know the twinkle in somebody’s eyes when they’re talking about something they’re passionate about? Everybody loves listening to them. Presentations become greater when delivered with passion. Short presentations driven by passion receive an insurmountable attention. 
• Show, Don’t Tell: A single picture speaks a thousand words. When your short presentations make it hard to incorporate long explanations, use pictures! Good images are not only self-explanatory but also impeccable when it comes to delivering concepts. As cavemen, we used images to communicate. Tap into the evolutionary instincts of humans and deliver your presentations.
• Structure: The presentation cannot stand out without structure. Have a good order in the presentation, don’t let anything go haywire. Nobody likes getting confused. It loses the audience in the snap of your fingers. 
• Minimum: Pertaining your presentation slides, try making them bare minimum. This does not mean not putting effort into them. It means that the content of your slide must not have a lot of information. For a presentation of 10 minutes, try minimising your presentation to a maximum of 5-10 slides. This adds up to not more than 1-2 slides per minute.
• Vocabulary: Keep your thesaurus away, this is not a research paper. Writing fancy long words and speaking them are two very different things. Keep it simple. Talk to your audience like it is a conversational pitch, not philosophical preaching. Remember, you do NOT have the time to be complicated. Work your flair in simplicity.

The defining factor of short presentations is the time period. Only when they get over within a small time are they called “short presentations”. Going over the time limit will frustrate your audience and disengage them.

How to then manage time in short presentations? You can use the Series of Three method mentioned above to ensure you complete the presentation on time. Apart from that, set benchmarks to ensure better time management within a presentation. 

Benchmarks or milestones are cues to move on from point to point to ensure you cover all the topics before the alarm goes off. You may or may not have a ticking clock at your disposal. In this case, your best shot would be to practice and practice and practice. 

Practising your presentation will make it run smoothly. When practised enough, the words will come out almost effortlessly. It’s not the same as rote learning your speech. You’re supposed to know the correct order of your subject matter, and its contents. Worst come worst scenario, if you don’t have enough time to prepare and practise your presentations, this can help you out.

If you are reading this article, you might be afraid your presentation is too short. While short presentations are quite effective, sometimes you have no other choice but to make your presentation longer. Following are a few reasons why you might be feeling the need to make your presentations longer. 

• Unpreparedness: While short presentations have nothing to do with the presentation being underprepared, it can make you anxious. What if they don’t find it convincing? What if it doesn’t last long enough to be memorable? Et cetera. 
• Unconvincing: You should trust your gut. If your instincts don’t find the presentation long and convincing enough, extend it. After all, you can’t persuade other people if you have not satisfied yourself. 
• Not Memorable: If you feel your presentation won’t be memorable enough it’s most likely to do with the content you have put into it. If your content is engaging then even the shortest presentations are memorable. Nevertheless, if the presentation is legitimately getting over in a blip, you can perhaps make it last a little longer. 
• REALLY short: If your content should ideally last for three times more time than what it has turned out, elongate it. Covering just the critical bits also involves elaborating on them a little. 

Speak Slowly: Intelligent, innit? I mean, it’s an obvious hack to make any presentation longer. But sometimes we tend to l subconsciously speak faster. The slow and deliberate enunciation of every word can increase the duration of any presentation.

Fast speakers tend to cut their speech short. In such cases, use pauses. Silence is often unexpected during speeches. It makes the environment more interesting and garners attention from the public.

Add More Information: Now that you know the 10% of the information you can absolutely not do without, you can start expanding. Keep adding information in descending order of importance. After the most important stuff, you can add up to 25% of important stuff to make your speeches longer. 

By adding more information you can have more content at your disposal. You don’t have to necessarily talk about it but you can still have a backup plan if needed. Over-preparing will do you no harm. It will increase your prospects to do good. 

Engage With Audience: When you don’t have anything else to say, turn your monologue into a dialogue. Interacting with the audience can not only increase the duration of your presentation but also serve as a tool of better engagement. It will make your presentation memorable since there is a transactional format of communication taking place there. Check out the best interactions TED speakers had with their audiences to engage and elongate their presentations.

The Structure: When you write your presentations, you follow the standard structure – Introduction, Body and Conclusion. The entire speech answers five questions. These questions are: Why? What? Where? When? How? 

While writing short presentations, start your presentations by answering “Why?” Then in the body answer “What?” “Where?” “When?” And “How?” In the conclusion part, answer your “Why?” again, a little clearer this time, and then end the presentation. If you cannot answer all four questions in your body, ask “What?” three times and answer it. This will successfully make short presentations longer.

Media Products: Showing clips in the middle of your presentation can easily buy you 2-3 minutes of extra presentation time. They can serve you as a break from speaking and also give you extra data to talk about. You can always analyse the video after. This will add a few more minutes of discussion. 

Story Time: Writing your presentation in the form of a narrative and telling stories in the middle are two different things. Use your teacher’s tactics and tell stories in the middle of your presentations. Make sure your stories are not irrelevant though, time is a valuable resource. If your stories revolve around the key concept of your presentation, it will add the necessary razzle-dazzle to your speech.

These tips can easily add 3 to 5 minutes to your presentations. Obviously, you can employ one or more of these tips for how much time you need to add. 

I always emphasise this fact: The written word and the spoken word are two very different things. A common mistake presenters make to make their presentation sound longer (and maybe smarter) are complicated words and extensive vocabulary. You cannot recite your academic paper and call it a presentation. You might intend to sound smart, but at the end of the day it will come across as a product of less effort. Presentations are meant to educate the masses in the layman’s language.

Never use the word ‘emolument’ when you mean ‘tip’. You might have seen a list of words and jargon to make essays longer. I would stand by my claim and not offer you a list of words to extend your presentation. Instead, here are a few phrases you can use that may catch your audience’s attention. You can use these phrases and idioms universally in any presentation you like. 

• Good morning/afternoon/evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am extremely grateful to you all for offering me a piece of your valuable time today.
• It is an honour to be delivering my keynote to such a distinguished audience today. 
• Before we delve into the topic for discussion, I would like to introduce you to myself and speak a few words about my own background. 
• I sincerely hope that this discussion will act as a springboard for ideas. 
• In this talk, I would like to convey to you a set of ideas which will be divided into…
• The focus of today’s discussion/talk/speech will be…
• I feel this talk will be of particular relevance to a significant portion of this audience since we will be focusing upon… and (relate your topic to the audience)…
• My plan to structure today’s speech is…
• I hope you leave the conference with an abundance of takeaways and cues to your new big projects.
• I hope this presentation can inspire you enough to get your ball rolling.
•  Please know that I am open to and quite inquisitive about knowing your thoughts and questions for the next half an hour. 

Short presentations follow no special pattern of delivery. Their formatting is similar to that of any presentation with one exception: time crunch. 

The Introduction of short presentations must be brief. It shouldn’t exceed 10-15% of the total time frame of the presentation. For example, if your presentation ought to be 5 minutes long then the introduction is approximately 15-30 seconds long. 

The Body of short presentations only focuses on 1-3 major points. If you try to cover too many pointers then the focus lifts from each of them. You won’t be able to deliver any of the subtopics with enough emphasis. Storytelling is powerful. If you use the five minutes to tell a story rather than enlisting facts for your audience, chances are that you will actually deliver your message.

The Conclusion is indeed a flexible part of the speech. But experts say you retain it in your content. Conclusion summarises the content that you spoke about. It sums up what you expect out of your audience now in 2-3 sentences. Understand that repetition retains information. Your audience will remember the main idea if you repeat and drill it into their heads enough times. 

You can check out our complete guide to delivering short presentations to gain in depth knowledge about how to write powerful 5 minute presentations.

Emily Johnston is currently a professor at the University of Tasmania. The above presentation was a three minute summary about her long thesis that talked about how she developed a novel mosquito-borne virus detection technique that puts nucleic acid-preserving paper coated in honey into mosquito traps made of pantyhose, paperclip and recycled milk cartons. A detailed overview of her work can be found here . 

Out of all the short presentations I went through, this one is particularly stunning. Emily spent years researching, analysing and formulating a theory which she was then asked to encapsulate within three minutes. She did a remarkable job too. She started off with a joke which accounted for a good introduction. Then she slowly divulged into the topic.

They followed The Structure format of short presentations, starting off with answering Why she is presenting this. Then she slowly divulged into the details of it carefully and strategically covering all the pointers. In conclusion she mentioned her cause again, drawing attention towards the poorer, more infected countries that need her invention. 

She was calm and composed throughout her speech, neither speaking too fast nor too slow. She was confident while speaking and her body language expressed it greatly. This was only possible because she knew all her material well. She knew what she was talking about and did not stutter. The speech was clear, brief, concise and respected the time of her audience. 

You never knew you could learn so much in three minutes. It was not only an excellent presentation but also an excellent preparation. I can’t begin to imagine how much she had practised it. The takeaways from this speech are immaculate for anybody striving to deliver excellent short presentations. 

All the pitches from Shark Tank can also be considered as Short Presentations.

In a world where our attention span keeps decreasing every day, presentations can never be too short. As long as you are delivering your presentation well, be assured that your presentation is enough. The best advertisements often last for 10 seconds and fetch the company millions of dollars after all. Be confident in yourself and deliver a killer short presentation. Size does not matter. 

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How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

By Krystle Wong , Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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presentation

Definition of presentation

• fairing [ British ]
• freebee
• largess

Examples of presentation in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'presentation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing presentation

• breech presentation

Dictionary Entries Near presentation

present arms

presentation copy

Cite this Entry

“Presentation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/presentation. Accessed 13 Mar. 2024.

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Meaning of presentation in English

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presentation noun ( EVENT )

• talk She will give a talk on keeping kids safe on the internet.
• lecture The lecture is entitled "War and the Modern American Presidency."
• presentation We were given a presentation of progress made to date.
• speech You might have to make a speech when you accept the award.
• address He took the oath of office then delivered his inaugural address.
• oration It was to become one of the most famous orations in American history.
• The presentation was a collaborative effort by all the children in the class .
• The charity invited the press to a presentation of its plans for the future .
• The magazine asked its readers to send in their comments about the new style of presentation.
• Jenny's retiring and I think there's going to be a small presentation this afternoon .
• Graduates must be in full academic dress at the presentation of certificates .
• call for papers
• extemporize
• maiden speech
• talk at someone

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

presentation noun ( APPEARANCE )

• adverse conditions
• have it in you idiom
• stock-in-trade
• unaffiliated
• undercurrent

presentation | Intermediate English

Presentation | business english, examples of presentation, collocations with presentation, presentation.

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Word of the Day

white chocolate

a sweet, cream-coloured food made from cocoa butter, sugar, and milk, that is usually sold in a block

Renowned and celebrated (Words meaning ‘famous’)

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience.

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

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Business Jargons

A Business Encyclopedia

Presentation

Definition : A presentation is a form of communication in which the speaker conveys information to the audience. In an organization presentations are used in various scenarios like talking to a group, addressing a meeting, demonstrating or introducing a new product, or briefing a team. It involves presenting a particular subject or issue or new ideas/thoughts to a group of people.

It is considered as the most effective form of communication because of two main reasons:

• Use of non-verbal cues.
• Facilitates instant feedback.

Business Presentations are a tool to influence people toward an intended thought or action.

Parts of Presentation

• Introduction : It is meant to make the listeners ready to receive the message and draw their interest. For that, the speaker can narrate some story or a humorous piece of joke, an interesting fact, a question, stating a problem, and so forth. They can also use some surprising statistics.
• Body : It is the essence of the presentation. It requires the sequencing of facts in a logical order. This is the part where the speaker explains the topic and relevant information. It has to be critically arranged, as the audience must be able to grasp what the speaker presents.
• Conclusion : It needs to be short and precise. It should sum up or outline the key points that you have presented. It could also contain what the audience should have gained out of the presentation.

Purpose of Presentation

• To inform : Organizations can use presentations to inform the audience about new schemes, products or proposals. The aim is to inform the new entrant about the policies and procedures of the organization.
• To persuade : Presentations are also given to persuade the audience to take the intended action.
• To build goodwill : They can also help in building a good reputation

Factors Affecting Presentation

Audience Analysis

Communication environment, personal appearance, use of visuals, opening and closing presentation, organization of presentation, language and words, voice quality, body language, answering questions, a word from business jargons.

Presentation is a mode of conveying information to a selected group of people live. An ideal presentation is one that identifies and matches the needs, interests and understanding level of the audience. It also represents the facts, and figures in the form of tables, charts, and graphs and uses multiple colours.

Related terms:

• Verbal Communication
• Visual Communication
• Non-Verbal Communication
• Communication
• 7 C’s of Communication

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• PRESENTATION SKILLS

Search SkillsYouNeed:

Presentation Skills:

• A - Z List of Presentation Skills
• Top Tips for Effective Presentations
• General Presentation Skills
• What is a Presentation?
• Preparing for a Presentation
• Organising the Material
• Writing Your Presentation
• Deciding the Presentation Method
• Managing your Presentation Notes
• Working with Visual Aids
• Presenting Data
• Managing the Event
• Coping with Presentation Nerves
• Dealing with Questions
• How to Build Presentations Like a Consultant
• Self-Presentation in Presentations
• Specific Presentation Events
• Remote Meetings and Presentations
• Giving a Speech
• Presentations in Interviews
• Presenting to Large Groups and Conferences
• Giving Lectures and Seminars
• Managing a Press Conference
• Attending Public Consultation Meetings
• Managing a Public Consultation Meeting
• Crisis Communications
• Elsewhere on Skills You Need:
• Communication Skills
• Facilitation Skills
• Teams, Groups and Meetings
• Effective Speaking
• Question Types

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Presentation Skills

Presenting information clearly and effectively is a key skill in getting your message across. Today, presentation skills are required in almost every field, and most of us are required to give presentations on occasions. While some people take this in their stride, others find it much more challenging.

It is, however, possible to improve your presentation skills with a bit of work. This section of SkillsYouNeed is designed to help.

Many people feel terrified when asked to talk in public, especially to bigger groups. However, these fears can be reduced by good preparation, which will also lay the groundwork for making an effective presentation.

There are Different Types of Presentations, but They’re All Presentations

There are any number of occasions when you may be asked to speak in public or to a group of people. They include:

• Presenting or making a speech at a conference or event.
• Objecting to a planning proposal at a council meeting.
• Making a speech at a wedding.
• Proposing a vote of thanks to someone at a club or society.
• On behalf of a team, saying goodbye and presenting a gift to a colleague who is leaving.
• Seeking investment or a loan to help you set up a new business.

These can all be considered presentations.

They do not, however, all require the same approach. You would not, for example, use PowerPoint to thank a colleague who was leaving. It would be unusual (though it has been done) to use it in a speech at a wedding. However, a conference audience would be somewhat surprised NOT to see slides projected onto a screen.

It follows, therefore, that there is no single set of rules that apply to all presentations. There are, however, some things that every presentation opportunity has in common. These include:

You will present better if you have prepared effectively . This does NOT necessarily mean that you have written out your speech verbatim and rehearsed it until you know it off by heart—although that might work for some people. It does, however, mean that you have to be confident that you are saying the right thing, in the right way, to the right people.

You need to be clear about your audience and your message . Every presentation will be better if you have clearly considered the message that you want or need to convey, and how best to convey it to your audience. These two pieces of information drive your style, structure, content, and use of visual aids.

You must never overrun your allocated time .  In other words, don’t outstay your welcome. Almost every speech or presentation is better if it is shorter. Nobody minds going for coffee early or finishing before they expected to do so. Everybody minds being held up.

Generally speaking, your audience starts on your side. As a rule, your audience is there (more or less) voluntarily. They have chosen to listen to you, and they want to enjoy your presentation. The occasion is yours to lose.

An Important Point

There is one very important point to remember: if what you’re doing or saying is not working, do something else.

One of the worst feelings as a presenter is that you have lost your audience. You know that’s happened, but you continue to stumble through your remaining PowerPoint slides for the next 15 minutes, as your audience checks their phones and wishes it was coffee time. You think you have no choice, but that’s not actually true.

When you present, you are in charge of the room . The audience has effectively handed you control and is sitting back waiting for you to do something. You may have prepared a specific talk, but if you see that isn’t working, you can always change it. You are, after all, the expert.

You can, for example:

• Skip through some slides to a section that they may find more interesting;
• Ask your audience whether there is particular information that they were expecting that you are not providing;
• Suggest that everyone looks a bit sleepy, and maybe it would be better to start questions early, or have a discussion; or
• Ask the audience at the start of the presentation what they are expecting and what they want you to cover. That way, you can tailor the presentation to fit their expectations.

Just as when you are facilitating, you want to help your audience get the most out of your presentation. The best way to do that is to accept feedback—which may include smiles, nods of interest, or people getting their phones out.

Quick Guide to Effective Presentations

If you need to improve your presentation skills quickly, then a really good place to start is with our Top Tips for Effective Presentations .

This will give you some ‘quick wins’ that will help you improve your presentations. If you’re already an experienced presenter, this page should be a useful refresher, or even take your skills from good to great.

Our tips include general ideas about connecting with your audience, information about the importance of voice and body language, and detailed tips about preparing slide-shows.

The most important tip of all, however, is to remember that it's all about your audience.

Keep that in mind, and your presentation skills will almost instantly improve.

If you have more time to develop your presentation skills…

…then the Presentation Skills section of SkillsYouNeed is designed to help.

Our Presentation Skills section is split into two parts.

• The first gives you a step-by-step guide to putting together and delivering a professional and effective presentation .
• The second provides more detailed information about presenting and communicating in particular circumstances .

You can either use our step-by-step guide to walk you through the presentation preparation and delivery process, or you can focus on particular areas that are an issue for you.

Preparing for Your Presentation

The guide starts by explaining What is a Presentation?

We define a presentation as a means of communication that can be adapted to various speaking situations, such as talking to a group, addressing a meeting or briefing a team. Effective presentations usually require careful thought and preparation—although this preparation need not take very long.

Preparation is the most important part of making a successful presentation.  Our page on Preparing For A Presentation explains what information you need before you can really start to plan your presentation and decide what you are going to say. The most important aspects include the objective of the presentation, the subject, and the audience.

Irrespective of whether the occasion is formal or informal, you should always aim to give a clear, well-structured delivery. To do so, you need to organise your presentation material . You can either do this in your head, or use a technique like mind-mapping to help you identify links and good flow.

By the time you come to write your presentation , you should know exactly what you want to say and the order in which you want to say it. You may want to use one of the standard presentation structures, such as ‘What, Why, How?’. You will also find it helpful to consider how to tell your story most effectively, and to use stories in your presentation to illustrate points. There is more about this in our page on writing your presentation .

You also need to decide on your presentation method . Presentations range from the formal to the informal. Your choice of presentation method will depend on many factors, including the audience, the venue, the facilities, and your own preferences.

Visual aids can add another dimension to your presentation, helping to hold your audience’s attention, and also act as a reminder of what you wanted to say. However, they need handling with care. Only use visual aids if they are necessary to maintain interest and assist comprehension . If visual aids are not used well, they can ruin a presentation.

See Working with Visual Aids to avoid falling into the trap of the dreaded ‘ Death by PowerPoint’ .

A particular case of visual aids is the use of data in a presentation.

There are times when using data in a presentation can really help you to tell the story better. It is, however, important not to blind your audience with statistics. You also need to remember that many people find numbers difficult to understand. Our page on Presenting Data gives some hints and tips about using data effectively in a presentation situation.

On the Day of the Presentation

There are a number of aspects to delivering your presentation on the day.

The practicalities of how you manage your presentation can make a significant difference to its success, and to your nerves! For example, turning up early means that you have will have a chance to see the room, and ensure that you can operate all the necessary equipment. There is more about how to cope, including managing sound systems, audio-visual equipment and lecterns in our page on Managing the Presentation Event .

Many people also feel very nervous before and during a presentation. This is entirely normal, and can even be helpful if you can channel it in the right way. There are some tried and tested strategies and techniques to manage your nerves so that you can concentrate on delivering an effective and engaging presentation.

See Coping with Presentation Nerves for some ideas that will help.

How you present yourself can also affect how your audience responds to your presentation.

You need to fit with your audience's expectations if they are not going to spend quite a large chunk of your presentation dealing with the differences between expectations and reality.

For more about aspects of self-presentation, see our page on Self-Presentation in Presentations .

You also need to consider how to manage your presentation notes .

Few people are able to give a presentation without notes. You will need to know your own abilities and decide how best to make the presentation. You might manage your talk by using full text, notes on cue cards, keywords on cue cards, or mind maps. There is more about this in our page on Managing your Presentation Notes .

After the presentation, you may be faced with a question-and-answer session. For many people, this is the worst part of the event.

Decide in advance how and when you wish to handle questions. Some speakers prefer questions to be raised as they arise during the presentation whilst others prefer to deal with questions at the end. At the start of your presentation, you should make clear your preferences to the audience. See our page on Dealing with Questions for more ideas about how to make the question session pleasant and productive, rather than something to dread.

Presenting Under Particular Circumstances

You may find that you need to give a presentation under certain circumstances, where your previous experience is less helpful.

Circumstances that may be new to you include:

• Giving a Speech , for example, at a wedding.

One particular special case is attending public consultation meetings.

Our pages on Attending Public Consultation Meetings , and Managing Public Consultation Meetings provide information to help whether you are a concerned member of the public, or responsible for organising a public meeting.

You may also find yourself required to organise or manage a press conference.

Although this may not strictly be what you would describe as a ‘presentation’, it is nonetheless an event at which you are required to present your organisation in a particular light.

Our page on Managing a Press Conference gives some ideas about how best to do that.

Finally, should you be unlucky enough to be involved in a serious crisis or disaster that affects your organisation, our page on Crisis Communications gives some ideas about how to manage press and public relations on these occasions.

Start with: What is a Presentation? Top Tips for Effective Presentations

See also: Personal Appearance Interpersonal Communication Skills

Oral Presentations

Presentation basics, key elements of good presentations.

There are three key elements of good presentations: Content, Organization, Delivery.  Your audience needs interesting and appropriate content in order to pay attention, especially at the start of a presentation.  Logical organization helps retain your audience’s attention – they need to be able to follow your train of thought and predict where you are going with your ideas.  Delivery also is important, as your own engagement with the information helps your audience engage.

Content deals with the substance of your presentation. Your ideas and information should be original and significant.  Use accepted and relevant sources in your research, and reference those sources as needed.  Offer a clear analysis that’s comprehensive and concise at the same time – strive for the right amount of information for your audience’s needs and the allotted presentation time. Make sure that your content is relevant to your audience, so that they understand immediately why they should pay attention to your presentation.

Garr Reynolds, in his book Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery , identifies characteristics of presentation content that create what he calls SUCCES(s): [1]

• Simplicity – reduce information to key points and essential meanings
• Unexpectedness – pose questions, offer interesting statistics, “make the audience aware that they have a gap in their knowledge and then fill that gap”
• Concreteness – use specific language, provide real-life examples
• Credibility – use sources, facts, statistics to back up your content; deliver information confidently; know your information well
• Emotions – engage your audience to feel something about your content
• Stories – use examples and illustrations to create a “story element” to the presentation

Finally, to make your content effective, repeat key information throughout your presentation. A memory research pioneer, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus, found that we forget approximately 50 percent of new information within 18 minutes, with retention falling to 35 percent after a week. However, Ebbinghaus also discovered that repetition of the new information at key intervals can change this trajectory, a discovery known as the spacing effect. The lesson for presenters: work repetition into your presentation content.

Organization

Good organization requires a clear beginning, middle, and end. Link your ideas logically throughout the presentation to lead to an ending that resolves the problem or summarizes the situation you presented at the start. If you’re presenting based on a formal report or proposal, you may want to follow the order of the longer written document, but you don’t have to; as long as you include main ideas, it’s up to you to determine your presentation’s organization based on your audience and purpose. Strive for clear transitions between individual points, slides, and topics.

Delivery involves a range of factors from body language and word choice to vocal variety. A good presenter has a passion for the subject and an ability to convey and perhaps elicit that emotion in the audience. Audience engagement through eye contact, facial expression, gestures, and/or vocal tone contributes to an effective presentation. Delivery also deals with the confidence and professionalism with which you deliver the presentation.  Hesitations, “ums,” and other types of vocal fumbling will distract your audience, while a clear, confident presentation helps to engage them.

Content, organization, and delivery work together and are equally important aspects of presentations.

The following two videos provide basic tips for creating effective presentations in terms of content, organization, and delivery.  As you view them, consider their similarity of information and dissimilarity in presentation style. What can you infer about the presenter and intended audience of each presentation?  Which video resonates more fully with you personally, and why?  In terms of conveying information to a general audience, which video do you think is most effective, and why?

Planning Presentations

As you can see based on the video examples, presentations always require a situational analysis in the planning stage.  Identify your audience, purpose, context, and all of the communication variables that you need to consider in order to make choices that will result in an effective presentation for your purpose and audience. For example, your purpose – the one, main idea that you want to convey through your presentation – can influence your content, organization, delivery, and overall approach.  Identifying your audience can help you with what may be the most critical aspect of your presentation, making your information relevant to your audience.  Analyzing communication variables for your presentation also will help you determine if you need supplemental materials or handouts, how to arrange a room for an in-person presentation, how best to structure a virtual presentation, and more.

Even if you are creating a presentation based on a formal report or proposal for which you have already done a situational analysis, do another situational analysis for your presentation, as your audience, organization, language, and overall approach may differ based on the different communication mode.

Planning Online Presentations

In addition to doing a situational analysis, online presentations may require some additional planning time in terms of how you present information.  A real-time, in-person audience may pay attention to your presentation simply because you are present, and you may be able to adapt your presentation to audience reaction.  However, it’s more difficult to capture the attention of a virtual audience, either real-time or asynchronous, so online presentations need to be thought through very deliberately in terms of their content, organization, look, and approach.

The following video, while written for online instructors, nonetheless offers important points to consider for any type of virtual, online presentation.

Understanding Presentation Audiences

Audiences are egocentric, meaning that they operate under the principle of WIIFM: what’s in it for them. Don’t expect your audience to meet you where you are; meet them where they are and then take them where you want to go together. According to Lucas, audiences “pay closest attention to messages that affect their own values, beliefs, and well being. Listeners approach speeches with one question uppermost in mind: ‘Why is this important to me?’ … What do these psychological principles mean to you as a speaker?  First, they mean that your listeners will hear and judge what you say on the basis of what they already know and believe.  Second, they mean you must relate your message to your listeners–show how it pertains to them, explain why they should care about it as much as you do.” [2]

Also, audiences have relatively short attention spans, and often decide whether or not to give you their attention within the first minute or so of a presentation. Various research studies indicate a five – twenty minute attention span for any type of presentation (note that results of studies vary). An article titled “ Neuroscience Proves You Should Follow TED’s 18-Minute Rule to Win Your Pitch ” discusses the concept of “cognitve backlog,” or the idea that the more information you provide, the more information your audience will tune out and not remember. [3]

These audience characteristics lay the groundwork for presentation strategies identified in the videos, strategies such as starting with and continuing a story, engaging attention with an interesting statistic, and more.  The point to remember is that you need to make conscious, reasoned decisions about ways to engage your audience.  Keeping audience attention span and egocentrism in mind, strive for the following presentation basics:

• Conciseness
• Connection with audience

Expectations for Presentations

The 10/20/30 rule, generally attributed to venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki, is a good guideline to help you achieve a “just right” balance in your presentations. Geared for entrepreneurs pitching their business, his advice is a discipline that would improve the quality—and, effectiveness—of most presentations. In brief, 10/20/30 translates to a maximum of 10 slides, a maximum of 20 minutes and a minimum of 30 point font. [4]

While this rule is a good starting point, it does not overrule your audience analysis or understanding of your purpose. Sometimes, you may need more slides or have a more involved purpose—like training people in new software or presenting the results of a research study—that takes more than 30 minutes to address. In that case, go with what your audience needs and what will make your presentation most effective. The concept behind the 10/20/30 rule—to make new learning easy for your audience to take in, process and remember—should still be your guide even if you don’t follow the rule exactly.

One last way to gauge presentations is to consider most audiences’ expectations for good presentations:

• main ideas are compelling and relevant
• information is organized with a clear beginning, middle, and end; audience can follow where the ideas are leading
• delivery shows the presenter’s enthusiasm and engagement
• visuals apply good design practices
• presentation length is appropriate for audience, purpose, and context

The following video summarizes characteristics that create effective presentations.

[1] Reynolds, Garr. (2012) Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. 2nd ed. New Riders, Pearson Education. Information from pages 78- 81. http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780321811981/samplepages/0321811984.pdf

[2] Lucas, Stephen E. (2020) The Art of Public Speaking (13th edition).

[3]  Gallo, Carmine. “Neuroscience  Proves You Should Follow TED’s 18-Minute Rule to Win Your Pitch.”   Inc. ,  https://www.inc.com/theupsstore/small-biz-ings.html

[4] Kawasaki, Guy.  The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint . December 2005.  ↵

• Presentation Basics, original material and material adapted from Business Communication Skills for Managers, see attributions below. Authored by : Susan Oaks. Project : Communications for Professionals. License : CC BY-NC: Attribution-NonCommercial
• Making a Presentation for a Meeting. Authored by : Nina Burokas. Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-businesscommunicationmgrs/chapter/making-a-presentation-for-a-meeting/ . Project : Business Communication Skills for Managers. License : CC BY: Attribution
• image of professional making a presentation. Authored by : rawpixel. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/agreement-brainstorming-business-3408113/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• video Create an Effective Business Presentation. Authored by : Nick Morgan. Provided by : Harvard Business Review. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTRt0zkD73M . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video How to Give a Great Presentation - 7 Presentation Skills and Tips to Leave an Impression. Provided by : Practical Psychology. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnIPpUiTcRc . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• video Teaching Tip: Designing Online Lectures and Recorded Presentations. Authored by : Greg Steinke and Jill Zimmerman. Provided by : CCAPS Teaching Tips, University of Minnesota. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCAaRZJFJAU . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video
• image of businesswoman presenting to an audience. Authored by : rawpixel. Provided by : Pixabay. Located at : https://pixabay.com/photos/analyzing-audience-board-3565815/ . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved
• Visual Aids. Authored by : Nina Burokas. Provided by : Lumen Learning. Located at : https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wmopen-businesscommunicationmgrs/chapter/visual-aids/ . Project : Business Communication Skills for Managers. License : CC BY: Attribution
• video Five Simple Rules for Creating World Changing Presentations. Authored by : Nancy Duarte. Provided by : Duarte Inc.. Located at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hT9GGmundag . License : Other . License Terms : YouTube video

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Article • 10 min read

How to Structure a Presentation

Choosing the best format for your audience.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Have you ever sat through a rambling, disorganized presentation? If so, you probably found it hard to follow what the speaker was saying.

When presentations don't flow well, it's easy for audiences to get lost. This is why it's important to think carefully about the structure and organization of your presentation.

In this article, we'll explore some common structures that you can use next time you speak in front of other people.

The Importance of Structure

Without a defined structure, your audience may not be able to follow your presentation. When this happens, your opportunity is lost, the communication fails, and your reputation takes a hit. For example, if your aim is to persuade people, you'll want to use a different approach from the one you'd use if you wanted to demonstrate how a product works.

Many factors can influence your choice of structure, but the most important consideration is your presentation's purpose or goal. You need to identify what you want to achieve – do you want to inspire, motivate, inform, persuade, or entertain people?

Your audience's needs also affect the structure you choose. For example, those who are new to your topic need more background information than people with more expertise and experience. So, in this case, you'd want to choose an approach that gives you ample time to explain the context of your subject, as well as to reinforce your main points.

Structures to Consider

Below, we outline several structures that you can use to organize your presentation.

1. Open – Body – Conclusion

The Open – Body – Conclusion approach is one of the most practical structures you can use for presentations. (Click here to download a worksheet that helps you use it.)

People often call it the "tell 'em" approach, because you:

• Tell audience members what you're going to tell them (introduction).
• Tell them (body).
• Tell them what you told them (conclusion).

This structure is simple, effective and easy to remember. Its repetitive nature allows you to reinforce your points, which helps others remember them. It is also flexible: you can adjust the introduction and body to persuade, motivate, educate, or entertain them.

One downside, however, is that repetition can quickly bore people. The approach is also "old hat" to many, which can cause them to lose interest. If you choose to use it, balance repetition with plenty of interesting facts, images, anecdotes, or stories to hold your audience's interest.

Let's look at each stage of the Open – Body – Conclusion structure in detail and discuss the elements that you need to include in each. We'll start with the body, rather than the introduction, because the rest of your presentation will be based on that.

The body of your presentation needs to contain your key points. You should present these in a logical order, so that your audience can follow them easily.

Keep in mind that the body should comprise a limited number of ideas: the more you try to include, the fewer people will remember. A good guide is to cover three to five main points, but no more.

When organizing your ideas, use the chunking principle to put the information into specific units. This will make the concepts easier to grasp, and help people remember what you have told them.

Make sure that you back up your main points with facts. Use good information-gathering strategies in your research, and consider citing the sources that you use. To add credibility to your presentation, consider using the following information to support your ideas:

• Data, facts or statistics.
• Images or diagrams.
• Stories and examples.
• Quotes or testimonials from experts or industry leaders.

Reliable sources will strengthen your credibility , and build trust with your audience.

Your opening, or introduction, has two main purposes: to grab your audience's attention, and to cover the key points that you intend to talk about.

Instead of telling people what you plan to say, you can use a different approach and explain why they are there. What will they learn from your presentation, and how will the content benefit them?

It's also important to get their attention right from the beginning. You can do this in several ways:

• Tell a story.
• Ask a rhetorical question.
• Play a short video.
• Make a strong or unexpected statement.
• Challenge your audience.
• Use a quotation or example.
• Appeal to people's self-interest.
• Request a specific action.
• Use suspense.

If you plan to answer questions at the end of your presentation, it's a good idea to mention this in the introduction, so people don't interrupt you mid-flow.

Many presenters overlook the importance of a conclusion – but the statements you finish with are what many audience members will remember best.

With the "tell 'em" approach, your conclusion summarizes the main points in the body of your presentation. If you want people to take action, be specific about what you want them to do.

Think carefully about how you want them to feel once you've finished; your conclusion is a great opportunity to reinforce this. Why not inspire them with a great story, a quote or a compelling call to action?

2. The Sandwich Approach

The Sandwich Approach is a variation of the Open – Body – Conclusion structure. This three-part structure covers:

• Advantages and/or benefits of your message or idea.
• Risks and concerns.
• How the benefits manage or eliminate those risks.

This approach is effective when you want to persuade audience members, or change their minds.

Having evidence to support your position is critical. However, factual data and reams of spreadsheets and charts are not highly persuasive. What people respond to is "vivid" evidence that brings your concept or argument to life.

To brush up on your persuasion skills, look at The Rhetorical Triangle . This tool asks you to consider your communication from three perspectives: those of the writer, the audience and the context. It's a method that builds credibility, and helps you ensure that your arguments are logical.

3. Monroe's Motivated Sequence

Monroe's Motivated Sequence is another good structure to use when you need to motivate or persuade. This sequence consists of five key steps:

• Getting your audience's attention – Use an interesting "hook" or opening point, such as a shocking statistic. Be provocative and stimulating, not boring and unemotional.
• Creating a need – Convince the audience there's a problem, explain how it affects them. Persuade them that things need to change.
• Defining your solution – Explain what you think needs to be done.
• Describing a detailed picture of success (or failure) – Give people a vision; something they can see, hear, taste, and touch.
• Asking the audience to do something straight away – Get them involved right from the start. If you do this, it's then much easier to keep them engaged and active in your cause.

4. Demonstration Structure

Use a simple demonstration structure when you are unveiling a new product or service.

Start by explaining why the product or service is so good. What makes it special? What problem will it solve for people?

Next, demonstrate what it does. How you do this will depend on your product but, whatever you do, make sure it works! Bring any important points to the audience's attention and provide helpful tips, where appropriate. Show them the results, and finish by giving them useful information, a good understanding of your topic, and something to remember.

Don't get too wrapped up in the detail; remember to keep it simple. Your presentation will be more powerful and your audience will remember more if you highlight just a few of the most important features. This will whet their appetite, and leave them wanting to know more.

5. Opportunity, Benefits, Numbers Structure

The Opportunity, Benefits, Number (OBN) structure is useful when you face busy people who want to hear what you have to say in the shortest time possible.

To use this structure, give audience members a quick summary of the opportunity that they need to consider, and outline the benefits that they can expect. Then, show them the numbers that back up your claims. [1]

For example, imagine you are explaining why your company should implement a new performance management system. First, you might give some background on the proposal – for example, you want to drive a high-performance culture. Then, you could explain the benefits, such as improving organizational performance and profits. Finally, you could compare the cost of bringing the system in with the predicted return on investment, based on a similar system at another organization.

Presentations that lack a clear flow are confusing and ineffective. This is why it's important to pay careful attention when choosing the most appropriate structure.

Different structures fulfill different purposes. Before you begin, think about why you are giving your presentation. Do you want to inform, persuade, inspire, or entertain your audience?

The most common structure for presentations is Open – Body – Conclusion. This is often effective because it gives you the opportunity to repeat your key points a number of times. However, other structures can be more appropriate, depending on the circumstances, such as when you're trying to persuade an audience, demonstrate a product, or provide information in the most time-efficient way.

Download Worksheet

[1] Martinuzzi, B. (2013). '11 Ways to Structure a Knockout Presentation,' from American Express OPEN Forum [online]. Available here . [Accessed 7 August 2014.]

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Presentation Definition: A Comprehensive Guide

Table of contents, unraveling the presentation definition.

Presentation – a word frequently used in English, Spanish, Latin, French, and Arabic contexts, but what does it exactly mean? In this article, we delve into the definition of presentation , exploring its various facets and applications in different fields.

The Essence of Presentation: A Definition

What is a presentation.

A presentation is the act of presenting information or ideas to a group of people in a structured and deliberate manner, often with the aid of visual aids like PowerPoint, Keynote, or multimedia tools.

Presentations are a ubiquitous part of the professional, educational, and social landscape. The act of presenting, essentially communicating information and ideas to a group of people, has evolved significantly over time. This article explores the definition of a presentation, its various formats, the skills required to make it effective, and the nuances of a great presentation, all while weaving in an eclectic mix of keywords.

Historical Roots: From Latin to Modern Day

The Evolution from ‘Praesentātiō’ to ‘Presentation’

In its essence, a presentation is the act of presenting or displaying information or ideas to an audience. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “the action or process of presenting something to someone.” In Latin, the term stems from ‘praesentātiō’, denoting the action of placing before or showing. This definition has broadened in modern English to encompass various methods of showcasing information, whether it’s a business pitch, an academic lecture, or introducing a new product.

The term has its origins in Latin (‘praesentātiō’), evolving through various languages like French and British English, symbolizing the act of presenting, displaying, or giving something to others.

Types and Formats of Presentations

Diverse Formats for Different Needs

Presentations can vary in formats – from formal PowerPoint presentations to informal Prez (an informal abbreviation of presentation) discussions, each tailored to suit specific requirements.

Enhancing Presentation Skills: A Guide

Mastering the Art of Presentation

Presentations come in various formats, from the traditional speech to more contemporary multimedia showcases. PowerPoint, a widely used tool, allows the integration of text, images, and graphs to create visually appealing slides. Similarly, Apple’s Keynote offers tools for creating impactful multimedia presentations. The inclusion of visual aids, like graphs and charts, enhances comprehension and retention. For those interested in learning Spanish, Arabic, or French, incorporating these languages in presentations can broaden audience reach.

Effective presentation skills involve a blend of clear communication, eye contact , engaging visual aids , and a confident delivery. These skills are crucial in both business and educational settings.

Presentation in the Digital Age: Multimedia and Keynote

Embracing Technology for Impactful Presentations

In the era of digital communication, tools like multimedia presentations and Apple’s Keynote software have become indispensable for creating dynamic and interactive presentations.

The Art of Visual Aids: Graphs and More

Using Graphs and Visuals Effectively

Effective presentations often include graphs and other visual aids to convey complex information in an easily digestible format, enhancing the audience’s understanding.

Presentation in Different Languages

A Multilingual Perspective

The concept of presentation transcends languages, from English to Arabic , each offering unique nuances in the art of presenting.

Presentation in Literature and Culture

Presentation Copy and Beyond

The term also appears in literary contexts, such as a “presentation copy” of a book, and in cultural scenarios like a “breech presentation” in childbirth, where the baby is positioned to exit the birth canal feet first.

Effective Presentation: Tips and Techniques

Crafting an Impactful Presentation

An effective presentation is more than just delivering facts; it involves engaging storytelling, structured key points , and the ability to connect with the audience.

To deliver an effective presentation, certain skills are paramount. English, being a global lingua franca, is often the preferred language for presentations. However, the ability to present in multiple languages, like Spanish or French, can be a significant advantage.

Eye contact is a crucial skill, establishing a connection with the audience and making the presentation more engaging. Additionally, the ability to read the room and adjust the presentation accordingly is vital.

Incorporating Quizzes and Group Activities

Interactive elements like quizzes can transform a presentation from a monologue into a dynamic group activity. They encourage participation and can be especially effective in educational settings. Quizzes can also be used in business presentations to gauge audience understanding or to introduce a new product.

Presentation in Educational Contexts

Learning Through Presentations

In educational settings, presentations are used as a tool for teaching and assessment, often involving quizzes and interactive sessions to enhance learning.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Exploring Synonyms and the Thesaurus

The thesaurus offers a range of synonyms for ‘presentation,’ such as exhibition, demonstration, and display, each with slightly different connotations.

The Thesaurus and Vocabulary Expansion

Utilizing a thesaurus can enrich presentation language, offering synonyms and example sentences to clarify points. The ‘word of the day’ concept, often found in English learning resources, can be an interesting addition to presentations, especially in multilingual contexts.

Historical and Specialized Types of Presentations

The term ‘presentation’ also has specialized meanings. In historical contexts, a ‘presentation copy’ refers to a book or manuscript gifted by the author. In obstetrics, ‘breech presentation’ denotes a situation where the baby is positioned to exit the birth canal feet or buttocks first. Understanding these specialized definitions enriches the overall grasp of the term.

Presentation in Business: Introducing a New Product

The Role of Presentation in Business

In business contexts, presentations are crucial for scenarios like introducing a new product , persuading investors, or communicating with stakeholders.

Word of the Day: Presentation

Expanding Vocabulary with ‘Presentation’

In language learning, ‘presentation’ can be a word of the day , helping learners understand its usage through example sentences and pronunciation (notated as /ˌprez.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/ in English).

Key Points and Summarization

An effective presentation distills complex information into key points, making it easier for the audience to remember the most important takeaways. Summarization skills are critical in achieving this clarity.

Cultural Influences and Adaptations

The concept of presentations varies across cultures. In Arabic-speaking countries, the style of presentation might differ significantly from that in English-speaking contexts. The benefice of understanding cultural nuances cannot be overstated, as it can significantly impact the effectiveness of a presentation.

The Role of Technology

Technology, particularly multimedia, plays a pivotal role in modern presentations. From PowerPoint slides to advanced software like Keynote, the use of technology has revolutionized the way information is presented. The integration of videos, sound, and interactive elements makes presentations more engaging and memorable.

Eye Contact and Body Language

In delivering a presentation, non-verbal cues like eye contact and body language are as important as the spoken content. Maintaining eye contact with the audience establishes a connection and keeps them engaged. Similarly, confident body language can convey authority and enthusiasm.

The Art of Storytelling

A great presentation often resembles storytelling. It’s not just about relaying facts; it’s about weaving a narrative that resonates with the audience. This involves understanding the audience’s needs and interests and tailoring the content accordingly.

Innovation and New Products

Presentations are often the first introduction of a new product to the market. The effectiveness of these presentations can make or break the product’s success. Highlighting the unique features and benefits in a clear, compelling manner is crucial.

The Power of Presentation

Presentations are a powerful tool for communication and education. Whether in a formal business setting or an informal educational environment, mastering the art of presentation can lead to more effective and impactful communication.

1. Oxford English Dictionary

2. Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

3. Apple Keynote User Guide

4. Presentation Techniques in Educational Literature

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## Frequently Asked Questions About Presentations

### What is in a presentation?

A presentation typically includes a combination of spoken words and visual aids such as PowerPoint slides, graphs, or multimedia elements. It’s an organized way to convey information or ideas to a group of people.

### What is meant by giving a presentation?

Giving a presentation refers to the act of presenting information or ideas to an audience. This act, known in various languages including English, Spanish, and French as ‘presentation’ (or ‘praesentātiō’ in Latin), involves communication skills, visual aids, and sometimes interactive elements like quizzes.

### What makes a good presentation?

A good presentation effectively communicates key points, engages the audience through eye contact and clear speech (often practiced as a ‘word of the day’ in English classes), uses visual aids like graphs, and is well-structured. Effective presentation skills are crucial for this.

### What are the types of presentation?

There are various types of presentations, including formal business presentations (often using PowerPoint or Keynote), educational lectures, sales pitches for a new product, and informal talks. Each type uses different formats and approaches.

### What are the 4 parts of a presentation?

The four main parts of a presentation are the introduction, the main body, the conclusion, and the Q&A session. Each part plays a vital role in delivering an effective presentation.

### What are the three things that a good presentation should do?

A good presentation should inform, engage, and persuade or inspire the audience. It’s about more than just delivering facts; it’s an act of communication that can change perspectives or encourage action.

### How is a presentation linked with multimedia?

Presentations often use multimedia elements like videos, audio clips, and animated graphs to enhance the viewer’s understanding and engagement. Multimedia tools like PowerPoint and Keynote are widely used in creating dynamic presentations.

### How long should a presentation be?

The length of a presentation can vary, but it’s typically between 15 to 30 minutes. The duration depends on the context and the amount of information to be covered. It’s important to keep presentations concise to maintain the audience’s attention.

These answers incorporate various aspects of presentations, including their definition, formats, and the skills required, in multiple languages and contexts, as seen in resources like Oxford dictionaries and thesaurus.

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• Presentation Skills
• Skills & Tools

Presentation skills can be defined as a set of abilities that enable an individual to: interact with the audience; transmit the messages with clarity; engage the audience in the presentation; and interpret and understand the mindsets of the listeners. These skills refine the way you put forward your messages and enhance your persuasive powers.

The present era places great emphasis on good presentation skills. This is because they play an important role in convincing the clients and customers. Internally, management with good presentation skills is better able to communicate the mission and vision of the organization to the employees.

Importance of Presentation Skills

Interaction with others is a routine job of businesses in today’s world. The importance of good presentation skills is established on the basis of following points:

• They help an individual in enhancing his own growth opportunities. In addition, it also grooms the personality of the presenter and elevates his levels of confidence.
• In case of striking deals and gaining clients, it is essential for the business professionals to understand the audience. Good presentation skills enable an individual to mold his message according to the traits of the audience. This increases the probability of successful transmission of messages.
• Lastly, business professionals have to arrange seminars and give presentations almost every day. Having good presentation skills not only increases an individual’s chances of success, but also enable him to add greatly to the organization.

How to Improve Presentation Skills

Development of good presentation skills requires efforts and hard work. To improve your presentation skills, you must:

• Research the Audience before Presenting: This will enable you to better understand the traits of the audience. You can then develop messages that can be better understood by your target audience. For instance, in case of an analytical audience, you can add more facts and figures in your presentation.
• Structure your Presentation Effectively: The best way to do this is to start with telling the audience, in the introduction, what you are going to present. Follow this by presenting the idea, and finish off the presentation by repeating the main points.
• Do a lot of Practice: Rehearse but do not go for memorizing the presentation. Rehearsals reduce your anxiety and enable you to look confident on the presentation day. Make sure you practice out loud, as it enables you to identify and eliminate errors more efficiently. Do not memorize anything as it will make your presentation look mechanical. This can reduce the degree of audience engagement.
• Take a Workshop: Most medium and large businesses allow their employees to take employee development courses and workshops, as well-trained employees are essential to the success of any company. You can use that opportunity to take a workshop on professional presentation skills such as those offered by Langevin Learning Services , which are useful for all business professionals, from employees to business trainers and managers.

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

Why John Cena presented award nude at 2024 Oscars

John Cena presented the award for best costume design.

Why was John Cena naked at the Oscars ?

In a bit alongside Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel, Cena was called to run across the stage naked, like the 1974 Oscars streaker.

MORE: Oscars 2024 live updates: Biggest moments from the 96th Academy Awards

Cena joked that he didn't actually want to do such a thing, so he proceeded to walk delicately across the stage holding the card with the names of Oscar nominees.

This showcased the importance of costumes: Cena presented the award for best costume design to "Poor Things" designer Holly Waddington. Kimmel helped Cena by dressing him quickly in a makeshift robe.

"Thank you to the Academy, thank you to my fellow nominees," Waddington began. "It's an amazing privilege to be in the same room as you all. You're the people who inspired me to be a costume designer in the first place."

She went on, "'Poor Things' was a very rare opportunity to be really free and artistic in a creative process as a costume designer. Thank you, Yorgos [Lanthimos], for that and for making such bold and brave work."

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Other nominees in the category included "Barbie," "Killers of the Flower Moon," "Napoleon" and "Oppenheimer."

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Ramadan 2024: Here are the 10 best messages, wishes and quotes to share

Ramadan 2024: ramadan or ramzan is a very special month for muslims across the world. here are the top 10 messages, wishes and quotes to share ahead of the beginning of the month.

Ramadan 2024

Ramadan 2024 Best Messages

• "May this Ramadan bring you peace, prosperity, and spiritual fulfilment. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "As the holy month of Ramadan begins, I pray that Allah blesses you with strength, patience, and wisdom. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "Wishing you and your loved ones a blessed Ramadan filled with joy, harmony, and countless blessings. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "In this sacred month of Ramadan, may your prayers be answered, and your heart be filled with gratitude and devotion. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "As we fast and pray during Ramadan, let us remember the less fortunate and strive to spread kindness and compassion. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "May the spirit of Ramadan illuminate your path and lead you to righteousness. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "As we embark on this journey of fasting and reflection, may Allah shower His blessings upon you and your family. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "In the midst of this holy month, may your faith be strengthened, your mind be enlightened, and your soul be purified. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "Ramadan is not just about abstaining from food; it's about purifying the soul and nourishing the spirit. May this Ramadan bring you closer to Allah. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "Sending you warm wishes for a blessed Ramadan filled with love, forgiveness, and spiritual growth. Ramadan Kareem!"

Ramadan 2024: Best Wishes

• "May the holy month of Ramadan bring you and your family endless blessings, peace, and joy. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "Wishing you a Ramadan filled with faith, love, and the strength to overcome any challenge that comes your way. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "As the crescent moon appears, may Allah shower His countless blessings upon you and your loved ones throughout this sacred month of Ramadan. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "May this Ramadan be a time of reflection, self-discipline, and spiritual growth for you. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "Sending you warm wishes for a blessed Ramadan filled with forgiveness, kindness, and abundant blessings. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "In this month of fasting and prayer, may your heart be filled with peace, your soul with serenity, and your mind with clarity. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "Wishing you and your family a Ramadan illuminated with the light of faith and guided by the wisdom of Allah. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "May the blessings of Ramadan fill your life with happiness, success, and prosperity. Ramadan Kareem!"
• "As we observe fasting and engage in acts of worship, may Allah accept our prayers and grant us His mercy and forgiveness. Ramadan Mubarak!"
• "May the spirit of Ramadan inspire you to be a better person, to spread kindness, and to serve humanity with compassion. Ramadan Kareem!"

Ramadan 2024 10 best quotes

• "Ramadan is not just about fasting. We need to feed the hungry, help the needy, guard our tongue, not judge others and forgive. That is the spirit of Ramadan." - Anonymous
• "Fasting is, first and foremost, an exercise for identifying and managing adversity in all its forms. With faith, in full conscience, fasting calls women and men to an extra degree of self-awareness." - Tariq Ramadan
• "When the month of Ramadan starts, the gates of the heaven are opened and the gates of hell are closed and the devils are chained." - Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
• "The philosophy of fasting calls upon us to know ourselves, to master ourselves, and to discipline ourselves the better to free ourselves. To fast is to identify our dependencies, and free ourselves from them." - Tariq Ramadan
• "A fast is not a hunger strike. Fasting submits to God's commands. A hunger strike makes God submit to our demands." - Edwin Louis Cole
• "It was Ramadan, the month of fasting; It was believed that the Holy Quran was sent down to Earth this month. Ramadan is a time to practice self-restraint; a time to cleanse the body and soul from impurities and re-focus one's self on the worship of God." - Dr. Bilal Philips
• "When you fast, no frown should come on your face. Let the beauty of your heart shine with the light of fasting." - Rumi
• "The key to success is reflected in the Qur'an. May we find blessing and guidance as we recite it altogether in the Ramadan days." - Anonymous
• "Fasting is a shield, it will protect you from the hellfire and prevent you from sins." - Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him)
• "Ramadan is the month to fast, pray, read Quran and do charity and in return receive rich rewards from Allah." - Anonymous

Happy Pongal 2024: 20 best wishes and messages to share with friends

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First Published: Mar 11 2024 | 10:41 AM IST

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Texas Fires Span Over 1.2 Million Acres. Here Is What We Know.

The largest fire, Smokehouse Creek, burned over one million acres but is now 74 percent contained.

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By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs ,  Jacey Fortin and Anna Betts

The Smokehouse Creek fire, the largest on record in Texas, has burned more than one million acres in the state’s Panhandle and continues to pose challenges for firefighters, who have not yet been able to contain it fully.

The blaze is 74 percent contained, fire officials said on Thursday, meaning that they believe a majority of the fire’s perimeter is hemmed in and that the fire will no longer spread. Much of the fire had been put out, but firefighters were worried that strong winds could still fuel powerful flare-ups.

The fire is already one of the largest in U.S. history . It has devastated cattle ranches, killing thousands of cows and other animals, and it has killed at least two people as it has raced across dry grasslands and consumed homes.

On Thursday, Xcel Energy, a utility company, said that its power equipment appeared to have caused the fire. A lawsuit had claimed that one of the company’s utility poles, near Stinnett, Texas, had been blown over by strong winds and then sparked the initial blaze.

Firefighters are stretched across three active wildfires with a combined acreage of more than 1.2 million acres, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service. They have put out several smaller blazes.

Here is what we know so far.

When did it begin?

The Smokehouse Creek fire was ignited on Feb. 26, near Stinnett, a small town about an hour’s drive northeast of Amarillo.

The fire spread to the town of Canadian, a cattle-country community of about 2,200 people near the Oklahoma border, and, within a couple of days, spread further to vast swaths of ranchlands in the Panhandle.

Melanie Lee McQuiddy, a homeowner in Hemphill County, which includes Canadian, sued Xcel Energy, saying her home was burned in the blaze and Xcel was responsible.

While Xcel acknowledged being the most likely cause of the fire, it denied that it acted negligently in maintaining its equipment.

Where has the fire been spreading?

The fire has been burning across a sparsely populated area of Texas that is home to most of the state’s cattle: millions of cows, calves, steers and bulls. Its sprawling ranches are not always easily traversable by road.

Wildfires are nothing new for Panhandle ranchers, many of whom know how to transform their pickups into makeshift fire trucks to fight a blaze. But the scale of this fire is without precedent in Texas.

In addition to the ranchers, residents of the small communities that dot the landscape, like Fritch and Canadian, have seen their homes, cars and churches reduced to rubble.

Two deaths have been connected to the fires so far. Joyce Blankenship, an 83-year-old woman living on the outskirts of Stinnett, perished in her home when flames overtook her property on Feb. 27. Cindy Owen, 44, died from burns after flames surrounded her company truck the same day as she drove home to Amarillo from Oklahoma. She died at a hospital.

Gov. Greg Abbott said on Friday that early assessments suggested that about 400 to 500 structures in the region had been destroyed by the fire, and he cautioned that the number could rise as surveys continued. Officials also said that several firefighters and other emergency workers had been injured.

Is the blaze being contained?

The Smokehouse Creek fire was 74 percent contained as of Thursday afternoon, the authorities said.

The rugged terrain of the Canadian River Valley, where the fire started, has been a major obstacle for firefighters because fire trucks cannot navigate some of the area’s cliffs, valleys and steep hills.

Residents and firefighters are hoping for rain, but fire officials said on Thursday that high winds were expected to blow across dry grass and other vegetation, potentially powering wildfires.

“New ignitions may be resistant to firefighters’ suppression efforts,” the Texas A&M Forest Service warned.

What about the cattle?

The Panhandle is home to about 85 percent of the roughly 12 million cattle in Texas, the state agriculture commissioner, Sid Miller, said. But most of them are kept concentrated in feedlots and dairy farms, and those operations have been largely unaffected by the fires.

Still, wide swaths of the grassland that Texas cattle rely on for food have been charred. Thousands of cattle may have already died or been so injured in the blazes that they would have to be killed, Mr. Miller said.

Even those ranchers whose cattle had survived were left scrambling to find a place for their herds to eat. Scorched grazing land means their surviving cows may starve if left alone. Mr. Miller said a rancher he knew had 1,500 head of steer but “no grass and no water” and was in a desperate situation, adding that the rancher might have to move the cattle across state lines.

The fire and smoke could also cause health problems down the road or lead pregnant cows to give birth prematurely.

For many ranchers, the tasks ahead feel gargantuan. They face burying dead cattle, mending broken fences and distributing bales of hay trucked in from hundreds of miles away.

Starting over will not be easy, ranchers say, as cattle prices have shot up amid dry conditions in recent years and interest rates remain high, making loans less appealing, especially as many ranchers are facing a stack of bills this time of year as they prepare for spring.

Is this fire unusual?

In most of Texas, wildfires happen in the summer. But in the Panhandle, the fire risk is highest around March, when temperatures rise, strong winds blow over the flat landscape and dry grass can easily catch fire.

Climate change is most likely making fire season start earlier and last longer by increasing the number of days in a year with hot and dry weather conditions that enable wildfires, said John Nielsen-Gammon, the Texas state climatologist and a professor of atmospheric science at Texas A&M University.

Temperatures in Texas have risen by 0.61 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1975, according to a 2021 report by the state climatologist’s office. The relative humidity in the Panhandle region has been decreasing as well.

Reporting was contributed by Colbi Edmonds , Delger Erdenesanaa , Christopher Flavelle , J. David Goodman , Lucinda Holt and Miglena Sternadori .

Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs reports on national stories across the United States with a focus on criminal justice. He is from upstate New York. More about Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs

Jacey Fortin covers a wide range of subjects for the National desk of The Times, including extreme weather, court cases and state politics all across the country. More about Jacey Fortin

Anna Betts reports on national events, including politics, education, and natural or man-made disasters, among other things. More about Anna Betts

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Al Pacino’s Best Picture Presentation Was ‘Peak Performance’ and You Can’t Convince Us Otherwise

• By Jon Blistein

Jon Blistein

Al Pacino , known for his absolutely seismic performances , turned in one at the Oscars so brilliant it seems unfair to call it understated instead of barely interested. The actor was tapped to announce the night’s biggest prize, Best Picture , and did so with such anticlimactic energy it seemed to confuse not only everyone watching, but the people running the Academy Awards telecast.

Pacino seemed to totally ad-lib his category introduction, joking about doing some Shakespeare before slipping into a boilerplate spiel about how “10 wonderful films were nominated, but only one will take the award for Best Picture.” Normally, this is probably where a presenter would remind everyone in attendance the names of those 10 films, but not Pacino (we have to assume that he, too, was aware that this year’s show was on track to end a stunning five minutes ahead of schedule).

The fact that Pacino sounded like he was asking a question led to a brief bit of uncertainty — we are still living in a post- La La Land / Moonlight world , after all — as some scattered claps arose from the crowd. By way of confirmation, Pacino took a careful look at the card and declared, “Yes, yes.”  Only then was there enough confidence for the orchestra to start to swell and the cameras to cut to the Oppenheimer cast and crew. 

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He added, “I realize being nominated is a huge milestone in one’s life and to not be fully recognized is offensive and hurtful. I say this as someone who profoundly relates with filmmakers, actors and producers so I deeply empathize with those who have been slighted by this oversight and it’s why I felt it necessary to make this statement.”

Sadly, some online were befuddled by Pacino, especially his decision to not list all the nominees. This was described by many media outlets and individuals as awkward, while the Daily Mail even went so far as to declare it a “blunder.” Others were dismayed at Pacino’s apparent failure to inject a bit of verve and suspense into the proceedings (as if everyone in the world didn’t know Oppenheimer was about to win, anyway).

“Think of how amazing Jane Fonda was at presenting Best Picture—how well she understood the gravity of the moment and gave the appropriate pause before announcing Parasite as the winner,” one X user stated. “And now think about Al Pacino presenting the award.”

Kristen Stewart Uncensored: 'I Want to Do the Gayest Thing You've Ever Seen in Your Life'

Andrew tate was arrested after adin ross blabbed about his escape plans, the royals have totally lost control of the narrative, will congress ban tiktok here's what's going on.

Al Pacino stumbled out of bed, walked onstage, opened an envelope, and said the name of the winner. This is the ideal award presenter. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. — sreekar (@sreekyshooter) March 11, 2024

This is also a good excuse to return to what Al Pacino once said about attending the Oscars in an interview years ago. We won’t print it out here because it’s better to just watch the video of John Mulaney reading it in full at this year’s Academy Governor’s Awards. Just as a teaser, though, it’s a story that does not involve artistic glory or grandeur but valium, confusion over how long the Oscars actually are, and really needing to use the bathroom.

This article was updated on March 11 at 6:07 p.m. E.T. to include a statement from Al Pacino.

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Watch CBS News

Donald Trump roasted Jimmy Kimmel on social media during the Oscars. Then the host read it on air.

By Christopher Brito

March 11, 2024 / 11:29 AM EDT / CBS News

After former President Donald Trump posted a scathing review of Jimmy Kimmel's performance as host of the 2024  Oscars , Kimmel read it on air during the ceremony — and threw a dig at the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner. 

In a post on social media, Trump asked rhetorically if there was ever a "worse host" than Kimmel at the Oscars and criticized his opening monologue. He also made the sarcastic suggestion that ABC, which broadcasts the Oscars, should have replaced four-time host Kimmel with "Good Morning America" co-anchor George Stephanopoulos (or, as Trump called him, "George Slopanopoulos"). 

Kimmel, who has long criticized Trump on his late night show, took notice and read Trump's take live on air during his concluding remarks — much to the delight of the Hollywood crowd.

"See if you can guess which former president just posted that on Truth Social?" said Kimmel. "Anyone? No?"

"Thank you, President Trump," he continued. "Thank you for watching. I'm surprised you're still up. Isn't it past jail time?" The crack — which referred to Trump being charged in  four criminal cases at the state and federal levels — received a round of applause at the awards show.

At this year's Oscars,  "Oppenheimer" took home awards in major categories including best director, best actor and best picture after coming in with 13 nominations . Another big winner at the 96th Academy Awards was "Poor Things," which won four, including best actress for Emma Stone.

More highlights:

• Who won Oscars for 2024? See the full list of Academy Award winners
• Oscars 2024 red carpet fashion and key moments from Academy Awards arrivals
• Who did the Oscars 2024 In Memoriam include? Full list of those remembered at the Academy Awards
• Donald Trump
• Academy Awards
• Jimmy Kimmel

Christopher Brito is a social media manager and trending content writer for CBS News.

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• Government efficiency, transparency and accountability
• Government spending

Spring Budget 2024

This is the Spring Budget 2024 in full. You can find supporting and related documents below.

Spring Budget 2024 (web)

Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-4697-0, HC 560 2023-24

PDF , 1.1 MB , 98 pages

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Spring Budget 2024 (print)

PDF , 1.53 MB , 204 pages

Spring Budget 2024 (HTML)

Impact on households: distributional analysis to accompany Spring Budget 2024

PDF , 194 KB , 17 pages

Spring Budget 2024: Policy Costings

PDF , 412 KB , 56 pages

Spring Budget 2024: Data Sources

PDF , 276 KB , 34 pages

Table 5.1 Spring Budget 2024 Policy Decisions

MS Excel Spreadsheet , 52.8 KB

Table 5.2 Spring Budget 2024 Measures announced at Autumn Statement 2023 or earlier that will take effect from April 2024 or later

MS Excel Spreadsheet , 86.1 KB

The Chancellor of the Exchequer presented his Spring Budget to Parliament on Wednesday 6 March 2024.

Distributional Analysis

This document sets out the estimated impact of changes to tax, welfare and public service spending policy that carry a direct, quantifiable impact on households. It also presents estimates of the overall level of tax paid and public spending received by households.

Policy costings

This document sets out the assumptions and methodologies used in the government’s costing of policy decisions announced since Autumn Statement 2023.  For each decision it contains a description of the measure, the base, and the methodology for the costing (including relevant adjustments for behavioural responses). It highlights main areas of additional uncertainty.

Data sources

This document sets out the data sources used in charts, tables and text in the Spring Budget 2024 document. This should be read in parallel to the references contained in the Spring Budget 2024 document.

Table 5.1 shows the cost or yield of all government decisions accounted for at Spring Budget 2024 which have a direct effect on Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) in the years up to 2028-29. This includes tax measures, changes to aggregate Departmental Expenditure Limits (DEL) and measures affecting annually managed expenditure (AME).

Table 5.2 shows the cost or yield of all announced government policy decisions that will take effect from April 2024 or later, with a direct effect on Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB), costed using the determinants from the OBR’s March 2024 forecast in the years up to 2028-29. This includes tax measures, and measures affecting annually managed expenditure (AME).

Also publishing alongside Spring Budget 2024:

Spring Budget 2024: Personal Tax Factsheet

Spring Budget 2024: Non-UK domiciled individuals - Policy Summary

Changes to the taxation of non-UK domiciled individuals

Debt Management Report 2024-25

Vaping Products Duty consultation

UK ISA: Consultation

Reserved Investor Fund - Summary of Responses

Business Rates Avoidance and Evasion: Consultation response

Seizing the Opportunity: Delivering Efficiency for the Public

Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES): Policy Paper

NatWest Retail Offer

Memorandum of Understanding for the “Trailblazer” Single Settlements for Greater Manchester and West Midlands Combined Authorities

Taxation of environmental land management and ecosystem service markets: Consultation response

Technical Note on New UK Independent Film Tax Credit

Investment Zones update

Spring Budget 2024: Overview of tax legislation and rates (OOTLAR)

Stamp Duty Land Tax: mixed-property purchases and Multiple Dwellings Relief

Stamp Duty Land Tax Relief for Multiple Dwellings Evaluation

Raising standards in the tax advice market: strengthening the regulatory framework and improving registration

Understanding the Vaping Market

Cryptoasset Reporting Framework and Common Reporting Standard

Operational reforms to the Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP) consenting process: Government response

An Accelerated Planning System Consultation

North East Deeper Devolution Deal

Investment Opportunity Fund Prospectus

Buckinghamshire Level 2 Devolution Framework Agreement

Surrey Level 2 Devolution Framework Agreement

Warwickshire Level 2 Devolution Framework Agreement

The Case for Cambridge

Addressing Water Scarcity in Greater Cambridge: Update on Government Measures

Joint Statement on Addressing Water Scarcity in Greater Cambridge

Community-Led Housing

A Vision for Leeds

Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund Round 2

Written statement to Parliament - Revised National Networks National Policy Statement

Consultation outcome -  Draft revised National Networks National Policy Statement

National Networks National Policy Statement

Appraisal of sustainability for National Networks National Policy Statement

National Networks National Policy Statement habitats regulation assessment

Government response to Transport Committee report on draft revised National Networks National Policy Statement

Contracts for Difference Allocation Round 6 Statutory Notices

Alternative Provision Free Schools Application

Access HMRC’s collection of tax documents.

The following documents have been added: Written statement to Parliament - Revised National Networks National Policy Statement, Consultation outcome - Draft revised National Networks National Policy Statement, National Networks National Policy Statement, Appraisal of sustainability for National Networks National Policy Statement, National Networks National Policy Statement habitats regulation assessment, and Government response to Transport Committee report on draft revised National Networks National Policy Statement

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