How to build a great presentation: Part I

I'm reading a book titled Presentation Secrets by Alexei Kapterev which was sent to me to review. It's got such great content and information, I thought I'd share it here in a series of posts. [affiliate link]

A lot of the members in our BlogPaws Community do presentations - either at conferences, to small, local chambers, even to clients. Knowing the best way to create a presentation - one that will do a lot of the work for you, is key to using your time effectively when sharing information in front of a crowd. The 'crowd' can be 2 people, 5 people, 10 people, or a whole room of people.

Standing up in front of anyone, knowing your presentation is going to represent the core of who you are and what you're about, can be nerve-wracking, if you aren't really prepared.

This book is outstanding! And, I'm not yet half-way through. Which begs the question - why am I talking about this now? It's because there is a lot to share and I wanted to get started right away.

Let's start with an assumption - the best way to get your audience's attention is to hit them in the heart, right? We're emotional beings. We need to feel connected. Here's what Kapterev writes on page 5, in the chapter on Story: "Nelson Mandela said, 'Don't address their brains. Address their hearts.' However beautiful this phrase is, I don't fully agree with it. I don't think we should avoid addressing the brains. As scientists, businesspeople, and activists, we have to deal with facts and logic."

He goes on to note that facts are vital to your credibility. And, here's the clincher - the line that made me stop and ponder for a few minutes, "Storytelling is and always was the essence of business presenations. Storytelling is nothing but putting facts into sequence and making connections."

So, if you can tell a good story, you have the beginnings of a great presentation.

More from the book -

• Stories aren't just facts; stories are facts with souls.
• Stories unite multiple disjointed facts and concepts into one solid experience.
• Stories are the logic of life. Stories are convenient to tell, pleasant to listen to, and easy to remember.

And, the best way to tell a story is, "Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop." As noted in Alice in Wonderland.

Stay tuned for more from this book.

Comments

[Kari]

Great info

[Mary Anne Shew]

Sounds like a great book, Yvonne!

Two others that have had a huge impact on me (which means I'm still experimenting and learning :-) are:

Resonate: Present Visial Stories That Transform Audiences by Nancy Duarte. (She also wrote Slide:ology, which I haven't read.)

Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson.

Happy presenting!
Mary Anne