by Gilda Bonanno LLC
At the end of my session at a conference, one
of the audience members came up to tell me about a terrible session she had
attended earlier in the day. She said, "The presenter vomited his content on
the audience. It was awful. I would have walked out if I wasn't sitting
in the front row." That's
pretty strong language! Of course, I had
to ask for the details of what made her feel "vomited" on by the
presenter.
Here are that presenter's top four mistakes,
as described by the audience member - and what you can do to avoid them:
Presenter
Mistake #1: "The content was
disorganized."
Your presentation should have a clear
beginning, middle or end. It sounds so
simple, yet so many presenters fail to organize their material clearly. Follow the old adage, "tell them what
you're going to tell them, tell them, and tell them what you told them."
It should be easy for the audience to follow you and understand how your points
relate to each other and your overall message.
Presenter
Mistake #2: "The slides were crowded
and hard to read."
If the audience has to struggle to read your
slides, they will struggle to understand your presentation. For the sake of your audience
members' eyesight, use large font (larger than you think you need to use) and only
a few bullet points on each slide. If
you find yourself saying, "I know some of you can't read this…," then
your slides are too crowded. Or go one
step better and use only high-quality photos or images (not cheesy clip art)
and a few words in very large font. Or
be radical and don't use slides at all; remember, you are the message and the
slides are just the visual aids.
Presenter
Mistake #3: "He only used examples
from one area, which wasn't applicable to many in the audience."
The first rule of presentations is to know
your audience, and in this case, the presenter doesn't seem to have done
that. Be sure that some of your examples
come from the industries or fields represented in the audience. For example, if you are speaking to an
audience of accountants, avoid using examples only from sales. Or if you're presenting to small business
owners, don't just use stories from the corporate world. To find relevant examples and stories, check
out the industry websites, read the publications and talk to people in that
field. If there is an attendee list,
interview a few audience members ahead of time
Presenter
Mistake #4: "He said he wanted to
make it interactive, but there was no opportunity for interactivity."
I've seen many presenters make this same
mistake and the solution here is simple: don't claim that you want your
presentation to be interactive unless you really mean it and have planned for
the interactivity with specific questions, exercises or activities. And just asking, "Is everyone with
me?" does not count as being interactive – and anyway, it's rare that
anyone will speak up and say "no."
If you avoid these four common presenter
mistakes, you will be less likely to "vomit" your content on your
audience!