Presentations
Presentations
There are many different kinds of presentations that you see in the business world today. PowerPoint, a speech, a pitch, collateral, and so on.
But what did we remember about them? Anything?
You were sent to hear this presentation, either internally or at an event (or somewhere), and did they impress you? Did they gain your attention? Hey, even a sales pitch is a presentation!!!
How many times did we fall asleep? Have to stab ourselves in the leg with a pen to keep awake?
If you have never figured it out, it is the person giving the presentation, and not usually the content of the presentation, that keeps our attention. The person actively got you involved - either by asking questions, by being personable, by interacting with you.
When we give presentations, we are trained on quite a few things, but, the first and foremost is to get the audience to interact!!! Either by asking questions of the audience (or feedback) or getting the audience to particpate (by calling on companies or divisions of companies to give the answer).
Get them involved - make them stay awake.
There was one presentation that I attended, almost 20 years ago, and during the presentation, the speaker would throw potatoes (raw) to people who answered her question correctly. EVERYONE wanted a potato after the first few rounds. They stayed attentitive through the whole day.
You know what they got at the end of the day? Nothing. The speaker said "I have given you a start in XYZ (what the presentation was about) and a start on your dinner tonight". What a let down, but, wow, did she have our attention the whole time!!!