“How To Shred Bumps in 5 Easy Moves”
“12 Ways To Add More Ride Time To Your Schedule”
“How to Get Back In-Shape in 8 Weeks” (aka 8 Weeks to Super Human You)

These titles clearly articulate the steps it takes to get you from point A to point B, or from a place of unfamiliarity to mastery. The messages are clear and concise. For the most part, the opposite is the norm with training events, regardless if they are web seminars (live or recorded), multi-day training sessions or quick-hit technical overviews. Typically, a high level agenda is communicated by the instructor or organizer outlining the high-level goals of the communication and not much else.

Audiences deserve more. Moreover, your audience deserves more. Their time is precious and the more detailed map you give them the more engaged they will be. This being the case, upgrade the agenda by adding time stamps to it. For instance, rather than plainly pointing out the sections of the presentation, communicate that in (1) hour they’ll be able to hand-idly complete ‘X’ task. In (2) hours they’ll be able to complete ‘X’ and ‘Y’ task and so the story goes.

This method benefits the audience, the content deliverer and content developer. Addressing the audience first, this method breaks the task of learning into smaller, predictable chunks of data that aren’t overwhelming. If maintaining your audience’s attention is important to you, this is one of the simplest and easiest tactics to implement. As it relates to the content deliverer and developer (because they aren’t always the same person) it puts them on the hook to be mindful of communicating intelligible, cohesive thoughts in a timely fashion. Tangents are a natural and powerful part of conversation however they also have the power to derail an otherwise well organized presentation. Knowing that by a certain the time the audience needs to be able to do ‘X’, helps in reining in sidebars that often have a mind of their own.

Time stamps…use them liberally, your audience will love them.

When your presentations are clean, clear and coherent, you will:

• Make it easy for your audience to focus on the idea, opposed to the tool being used
• Be able to more easily mobilize your audience
• Make better use of the allotted time

I’d like to share a few practices I’ve found beneficial when creating and delivering presentations:

1. Keep the Presentation Lean

This has nothing to do with slide count or duration. Deleting slides is not the objective. When analyzing your presentation, reengineer or remove overly wordy slides. Case in point: if your audience is able to read your presentation and garner 90% of its meaning, there is no point showing up.

You are the voice. Your frame of reference and your anecdotal stories are the show. The actual slide show is a framework to work from.

Effective presenters use the presentation as way of introducing talking points and providing the audience with visual stimuli. By all means, use graphs and charts where appropriate but don’t let them take over. Where appropriate, think about using descriptive pictures or even video or audio.

In a previous life, I had the pleasure of working with John Dragoon, who is the CMO of Novell Inc. He is a master of the keynote. Granted, being a great orator is part of his job but he’s also adept at communicating complex stories using slides with minimal text.

His level of proficiency is high, but achievable. The first step is assessing, honestly, the quality of your presentation. Use these questions to start things off:

• Is your presentation designed to be read or presented?
• Does the audience ask questions about points you haven’t addressed yet?
• Role-reversal: Would your presentation bore you to tears?

2. Leave something meaningful

All too often, the leave behind is the exact same presentation that was just delivered. Don’t do this; you’’ll be squandering the opportunity to leave the audience with supportive information . Post-presentation supportive information is essential to the communication of your idea. Reason being, the average audience will only retain 25% of your information on the first pass. The implication, then, is that 75% of the information you present will be lost on the audience without an additional effort on your part. It’s essential to bolster the initial learning experience with supportive information if your ideas are to take root. (This fact alone sells the reason why on-demand or self-paced video-casts and recorded webinars are so powerful.)

Provide a digital copy of the presentation. The format and feel can remain the same but pack it full of links to case studies, articles and videos. You might even want to consider offering it as a podcast or self-paced video.

3. PowerPoint is not the Holy Grail

Microsoft PowerPoint has become the standard for presentations far and wide. Rather than attempt to sell you on why you shouldn’t use it, I’d like to introduce you to some alternatives I’ve used effectively.

OpenOffice Presenter:

Think of it as an application with a similar look and feel to MS PowerPoint but at 10% of the cost. I enjoyed the ability to open PowerPoint presentations without jumping through hoops. I especially liked the ability to create a presentation in OpenOffice Presenter and save it as a PowerPoint presentation. Lastly, I was pleased to not have to re-learn shortcut keys as they all translated from MS PowerPoint to OpenOffice Presenter.

Prezi:

Prezi is not a MS PowerPoint wannabe. MS PowerPoint is designed for a linear conversation. Rarely does a conversational presentation happen linearly. Prezi was designed for the non-linear presentation. I’ve used it in environments where the audience is looking for a brain-dump of information but is unsure what they want to cover first or where they want to end up.

MindMeister:

Mindmeister is a brainstorming application otherwise known as a mind map. Using MindMeister as a presentation tool can be a stretch for the linear thinker or for less conversational presentations. There are no secrets when using it. The audience can see your intentions and thought process. I enjoy this style of presenting, however this platform is not for the meek. If your presentation is less about volleying ideas and more about communicating a precise path, don’t’ use MindMeister.

Own The Content:

“But I didn’t design or create the content”. Frankly, no one cares if you created the content or not. If your voice is behind it, it’s yours and you own it, plain and simple. It’s best to visit with the author(s) of the courseware to get a better feel for the message they are trying to convey and to whom they’re targeting. Not gathering this information puts you at risk of misinterpreting key points, contradicting previous communications or worst yet, being off brand.

Command the Environment:

As a baseline, understanding the courseware is the first half of being prepared for a virtual teach. Understanding how the course will flow within the presentation application (Elluminate, WebEx, Saba Centra) is the second half. Situations that affect the presentation software of choice as well as flow are;

• Is instruction being delivered via PowerPoint only
• Are technical labs which include virtual machines (VMs) being used
• Does the presentation have slide builds (animations)
• Will an application be demonstrated
  • Is the application web based
  • Is the web based application secure (https)
  • Will the audience be expected to participate
    • How are the expected to participate (labs, quizzes, surveys)

These are some of the parameters that require consideration when scoping a presentation platform as well as understanding how the platform will be used. Regardless, it’s imperative you’re comfortable with the environment. Why? Simply, because you won’t have the time or the brain-power to concentrate on the presentation at hand and stumble around the environment trying to figure out how to share the desktop, take control of an application or start a lab exercise.

Lose the Distractions:

Everyone multitasks. No one multitasks when standing in front of an audience. When you’re presenting to a virtual class, treat the situation accordingly. Turn off instant messenger, the ringer on your phone, and close your email. Have in front of you the objects that are pertinent to the presentation, such as reference material or diagrams. ESPN.com won’t help you when some asks a question about extending the schema in generic LDAP.

Present in Manageable Bites:

Your audience will revolt if your plan is to lecture to them straight for 4 hours. This never happens, right? Think again, it does and somewhere there’s a soon to be unemployed instructor who’s planning to assassinate a class with PowerPoint. Don’t be that guy.

Content is consumed best when it’s broken into 15-20min chapters. Weaved into these chapters should be the corresponding demonstrations that enrich the conversation. Try out different sequences to determine where labs and demonstrations make the most sense.

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this 3 part series where we’ll talk though points five through eight.

5. Don’t skimp on equipment
6. Location, present in a quiet one
7. Be a student
8. Have a personality