Boldt Global Blog

The day of your presentation has finally arrived. Now to think about some logistics: what do you need to have with you? This will be somewhat influenced by what you have learned about the venue, but there are somethings you should have with you as a matter of habit. I have what I call my “Presentation Toolkit” and pack it with me, no matter if I am driving or flying to the presentation venue.

The first category we will call “Equipment”. Some of the things you want to bring are:

• Your computer (or your presentation on a thumb drive if they have asked you to use their computer).
• Portable projector (if there is any possibility, they may not have one).
• Portable flip chart with white board (even if you have asked f

At long last, it is time to prepare your content. All the information you have gathered will make the process of sitting down to prepare your presentation far easier than if you tried to prepare your content without it.

# 1: Do Your Research

Even if you are a super expert in your topic, you may need to do some research in order to prepare your presentation. You may need to check some facts, find some relevant quotes, create some new charts or graphs, or find the right images to get your message across. Doing research may involve requesting information from other people. This could be particularly true if you are presenting as part of a team.

The important thing is to leave yourself enough time to do a thorough job of finding what yo

If you’ve read my previous blog posts, you will know that we have done quite a bit of work to get to the point of being ready to prepare our content. You’ve established your goal, identified your audience, and found out as much as you could about the venue and the inner workings of the event at which you’ll be speaking. There is one more question you need to answer before you are ready to start creating your content. That is the question of time. How much time have you been given to speak? The amount of time you have to speak impacts how much you can say and how deep you can go into your topic. You also need to know if there will be a Q&A session and how much time is allocated for that.

If the organizers leave the amount of time you can speak up to you (and

Part one of “The Setting” (link to previous blog post) blog posts focuses on what you need to know about the space in which you are presenting. Now, let’s turn to the context of the presentation.

Type of Event

Knowing the context of a presentation allows you to prepare effectively. What type of event are you speaking for? There are many possibilities. You could be speaking at a professional conference, making a presentation to colleagues at an internal meeting, speaking to a group of clients at a client site, or guest lecturing in an academic setting.

Conference

Speaking at a conference is generally the most complex situation, so we will concentrat

Knowing as much as you can about the physical space you will be presenting in is great information to have as you prepare your presentation. It may not always be possible to visit the venue in person before you present but going there virtually or asking organizers about the space in which you will present is always time well invested.

 If you can’t physically visit the space in advance, you should plan to arrive early the day you present to get comfortable in the space before you go on. Some of the things of interest to you include how much control you have over the environment, and what you will need in order to present successfully in the space. Remember, it’s your reputation we are talking about here. You want to control as many factors as you can that could

In a previous post, I talked about the importance of considering your audience and their perspective(s) on your topic as you plan your presentation. In that article, we talked about all the things you need to discover about your audience. Well, not exactly “all” of the things. I left one thing off that list, and that is the topic of this blog post… what is the attitude of your audience?

What do I mean by attitude of the audience? By this I mean, how are they feeling? What is their mood? What is their mindset as they sit and listen to you? Have they come with a bias or a point of view about you or your topic?

 There are many factors that can play into how an audienc

I love speaking to groups. I especially love doing this in person. I get energy from the room, and I love the interaction with a live audience. Many of you may feel the same way, but as the novel coronavirus continues its relentless path around the world, our ways of working and interacting are having to undergo a change. We are being forced to eliminate face-to-face interaction in order to keep people safe and slow the spread of the virus.

So, how can we still get our messages out to the world? We can move our presentations to the web. We can create virtual presentations in the form of short videos, webinars, and as Seth Godin likes to say, “we can start conversations.”

Presenting virtually is different than presenting in-person on several levels. One differen

There are many reasons that we make presentations. Sometimes, we are sharing information; sometimes, we are persuading people to take an action. Oftentimes, we are doing both. We might even be inspiring others to reach for the stars! No matter the reason, being able to stand in front of a room and convey a compelling and memorable message is in invaluable skill.

I come to the teaching and coaching of presentation skills with several strong beliefs. 

1. First, I believe that being able to present well is a life-skill. Once you acquire this skill, there is no limit to the places you can employ it: at work, in the community, in professional organizations, in a religious setting… the list is literally endless.
   
   
2. A second belief of mine is