A great presentation does two things — it keeps the spectators on the edges of their seats, and transforms their perspectives with new ideas or information. But even the most informative speech will fail at these two tasks if it’s structured and delivered poorly.
If you want the audience to lock their eyes on you and not the wall clock (or the exit), you have to up your game and make your presentation both captivating and memorable in the long term. Below, we share a few tips on how to do just that.
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Tips for delivering a compelling and memorable presentation
Here are a few tips for giving a standout presentation that will resonate and stick with your spectators for time to come.
Use an amazing slide deck to support your speech
The slideshow appearing behind you as you speak is an indispensable presentation companion. The slide content boldly reinforces your spoken words, while the visuals both illustrate your ideas and keep a hold on the viewers’ attention.
The quality of the slides is paramount. Bland backgrounds, irrelevant imagery, and walls of text can make a negative first impression on the audience that will, alas, persist even if your delivery is on-point. To design great slides, follow these 3 simple strategies:
- Limit each slide to a single message: This keeps your presentation clean and easy to digest, as slides change along with each successive idea you introduce.
- Include only the most vital info: The content should comprise a brief summary of your most important points. Ideally, these should be presented as succinct, highly visible bullets (think large fonts). Whatever you do, do not make your audience read full sentences (they won’t), and please do not read the slide content yourself.
- Spruce up the slides with graphics: Graphics invite some fun into the presentation and help avert death by PowerPoint in those with particularly short attention spans (more on effective slide visuals below).
There’s one caveat here. Although your slideshow should leave as much of an impression as you, the presenter, creating and polishing the deck should not consume all of your preparation time before the big day.
Luckily, the days of wrestling PowerPoint into submission are long gone. Now, there are sleek, user-friendly tools that use AI technology to make and format slides quickly. For example, Plus AI lets you create an entire, presentation-ready slide deck in minutes. This way, you can spend less time formatting bullet fonts and focus on structuring and practicing your speech.
Construct the narrative as a story
Imagine sitting through a slideshow where the presenter goes over one disjointed idea after another. At the end, if you’re lucky, you may remember the penultimate point and the general concept — but you’ll struggle to connect the dots and retell the speech if anyone asks.
Why?
Because the presenter failed to connect the dots for you. And the best way to craft a cohesive narrative that delivers all your ideas and sticks in viewers minds is to structure it as a story.
The story could be based on a real example or you can just make it up. For instance, if your presentation reveals the findings of scientific research, frame the studies, challenges, aha-moments, and — crucially — your passion into a narrative arc. If there’s no real-life tale to tell, don’t despair. Simply imagine a hypothetical scenario where the subject matter of your presentation makes a difference for a made-up protagonist.
Regardless of the method, enjoy this creative aspect of preparing your presentation. The more fun you have injecting story-like elements into your speech and slideshow, the more enduring of a mark you’ll leave on the viewers.
Use examples to illustrate concepts and ideas
A data-rich presentation is meant to leave viewers with new and valuable info. It won’t — not unless the audience can visualize your points in practice or relate to them somehow. Examples are your most powerful tool for aiding comprehension. What’s more, they break up the monotony of information delivery and help you keep the viewers on their toes.
That said, use examples should be used sparingly in your speech. Stuffing each and every slide with an example will disrupt the presentation flow. If you overdo it, you’re bound to see folks eye-rolling, or worse — nodding off. Instead, use practical anecdotes strategically to illustrate the most essential concepts of your speech.
Keep your viewers captivated with relevant visuals
Along with practical examples, carefully curated visuals both clarify your talking points and maintain viewers’ interest. But you must choose graphics carefully. Stock images or videos that are barely relevant to the subject matter will come off superficial, and your intent to use them as filler won’t evade the audience.
Instead, find graphics that pertain directly to the slide content or parts of your speech. You can even use fun visual aids like GIFs to capture a sentiment at a certain point in the presentation — this will make your speech more relatable for the viewers.
Plan and rehearse your speech
Even seasoned public speakers plan out their speech delivery well in advance of the presentation. Don’t be tempted to “wing it,” thinking that your slides will help guide you along. The audience will not appreciate seeing you reading from the slides! No matter how pressed you are for time, dedicate a part of your schedule to planning the delivery of your speech and practicing it a few times.
Crucially, the roadmap you come up with should include the most essential talking points, like angles for introducing your ideas and evidence to support your claims. Don’t try to memorize passages — just make sure you understand these aspects of the subject matter well enough to discuss them without falling back on the slide deck.
As the adage goes, practice makes perfect. Rehearse your speech several times to familiarize yourself with the narrative flow. If possible, ask a colleague or friend to sit in on a rehearsal and get their feedback afterward — a viewer may notice issues with delivery that have eluded you.
Engage with the audience through eye contact
Without making eye contact with the audience, you’ll appear meek and lost. In contrast, meeting your viewers’ gaze here and there gives you a compelling stage presence, and validates your conviction in the ideas you convey. Eye contact also helps you read the room and gauge the crowd’s temperature.
That said, you don’t need to lock eyes with the audience for the duration of a presentation — not unless you want to come off as a frothy mouthed dictator. Be natural — look aside when pensive; look down when ushering in a moment of reflection; look up when having a laugh. But every now and again, return your eyes to the spectators.
Be ready to adapt to changing conditions
You’ve planned your speech and delivery thinking you’ll have enough time to present and the equipment will function as designed. But the success of your presentation should not rest on external factors that you cannot control. You should still be able to deliver a powerful, lasting message even if you’re forced to start late, finish early, or present without your slides. You have to prepare yourself to handle these unforeseen circumstances ahead of time to the point where they won’t affect your delivery.
For example, you can practice giving your speech in half the time you’ve originally allotted for the presentation. Likewise, try presenting without the aid of the slideshow behind you. Identify areas where you stumble, and brush up on these speaking points — this preparation step will protect your presentation from possible technical issues.
How to create a powerful slide deck quickly
AI-based programs like Plus AI allow you to create professional slide decks quickly, often with a single prompt and minimal revisions. For example, here’s how you would generate a presentation using Plus AI:
1. Open the Plus AI extension in Google Slides. Then, choose the “New presentation with Plus AI” option.
2. Choose the input method. You can write a single prompt, upload a document (or copy-paste text) with the presentation materials, or add content slide-by-slide.
3. Input the prompt or presentation details. Then, go to the template library to select the layout and background design.
4. Find a suitable template.
5. Generate an outline. Once you’ve chosen the template, Plus AI will create an outline for the slide deck.
6. Review the outline. You can look through the slide titles Plus AI is proposing, edit them as needed, then click on “Generate Slides.”
6. Your presentation will appear soon! You can look through the slide deck and edit as needed.
Feeling nervous before the presentation? Don’t sweat it too much
Even with the best slide deck behind you, it’s completely normal for you to get the jitters before presenting in front of a crowd — even if you’re an experienced public speaker. But your spectators expect you to feel nervous, and no one will bat an eye if you show some signs of mild anxiety on the stage. So don’t fret too much about this natural nervousness, otherwise you risk amplifying the fear and drive yourself into a debilitating, full-out panic attack.
