I’ve been really lucky to see some of the best presenters out there. These are people that can get your pulse up and make your mind spin. They’ve honed their craft and can keep you engaged for an entire day. Sadly though, this  has become a bit of a curse for me. I now find myself critiquing everyone that presents something to me. But that’s where you can benefit by reading this post to learn how to improve your presentations.

One of the best ways to improve is by practicing. The more you do it the better you will become. But why do it by trial and error. Save yourself some time and use my tips below.

Your primary focus is to keep everyone‘s attention.

Immediately I can pick out the presenter that is going to be great. They are prepared, they make good eye contact and they engage with me.

Here’s my do’s and don’ts:

• Move around. You need to take command of the stage. Nothing is more boring to watch than a person just standing there.
• Get there early and make sure everything is setup. Nothing will cause your heart rate to go up faster then having a failure with your equipment.
• Incorporate personal stories. This helps us to connect on a personal level and make you more real and memorable.
• Learn Power Point or Key Note. I mean really learn it. You want to know these programs inside and out.
• Don’t read a slide. If you are just gong to read a slide why be there.
• Don’t talk in a m_o_n_o_t_o_n_e voice. Change your inflections. People key in on the changes.

• Don’t use animated text. Just put all the text up there. It’s just distracting.
• Don’t be too comfortable up there. Leaning against a wall or slouching over looks really bad and sends out a poor message to audience. To me, it looks like you are not engaged in the conversation and yes it should be a conversation.
• Don’t say a slide is great. This one is really bad. What this is saying to me is that your other slides are mediocre.
• Don’t show a slide and say nothing. Again why are you there? You are there to engage with us, remember we could do this online and save everyone a lot of time.
• Don’t be silent for an extended period of time. I’d say more then 5 seconds of silence is to long. Try it, count out 5 seconds and imagine yourself giving a presentation and pausing for that long.
• Get a remote. You shouldn’t be tied to your hardware. You want to move around. Some of the best presenters don’t even use a slide presentation. But for most us we have to present some kind of technical data and slides are a convenient way to show the information.

Also be a good presentee.

• Ask questions.
• Don’t yawn in there face.
• Take notes.

Are you doing a presentation in the near future? Let me know on Twitter.