by Gilda Bonanno LLC www.gildabonanno.com
Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com
When you are preparing a presentation, it’s crucial that you
focus on your message, the one thing you’d like the audience to remember from
your presentation. State it in one or two sentences - think of it as fitting on
a headline of a newspaper or a billboard.
And everything that you include in your presentation needs
to relate to your message. As you organize
your information, you may think of data that you like to talk about, or an
interesting story – but if it does not relate to your message by supporting it
or enhancing it in some way, do not include it in your presentation.
The culling and editing process can be difficult, but it is
worth your time and effort. If something
doesn’t relate to your message, you waste the audience’s precious time by
muddying the waters. Providing extra
material that distracts from and clouds your message will make it harder for
the audience to extract what it is you’re really focusing on.
What can you do with the extra material?- Have it ready, in case there are questions where it would be appropriate to include it.
- Provide it as a supplement either before or after your presentation – email it, post it on a website or hand it out.
Don’t make the audience dig through all your material to
unearth your message.
The more you can craft your presentation so that it is clear
and uncluttered by “extra stuff,” the easier it will be for your audience to
stay focused and understand the point you are trying to communicate.
For more on this topic, see my blog post Presentation
Skills: What is Your Message? http://www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com/2013/03/presentation-skills-what-is-your-message.html
Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com