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Planning a flash presentation involves much of the work that you’re going to do before you actually deliver the flash presentation. This is a very important area for improving your flash presentation techniques and it’s also one that many people should consider improving their skills in.
Skills for Planning & writing a flash presentation
A key part of this planning is to research your flash presentation audience, since the more you know your flash presentation audience, the more you can understand them and what their preconceptions might be during your flash presentation meeting.
You also need to get to grips with the purpose of the flash presentation – so that you are very clear about what you are trying to achieve from the flash presentation. (This is a skill in itself.)
Then it’s down brainstorming what you’re actually going to say in the flash presentation and then structuring this into “digestible” slide chunks within the beginning, middle and end.
Using flash presentation slides effectively
Once you’ve done your flash presentation planning, you need to consider what visual aids you’re going to be using. (aka slides or presentation software such as PresentiaFX or the dreaded PowerPoint!)
Think about what you want to do here – why you actually need the slides in your flash presentation and what they are going to be used for.
Often badly designed slides can be fairly redundant – people put them in the flash presentation for the sake of it. So some key flash presentation skills we’ll be looking at are associated with reducing your slides to the minimum you need to support your flash presentation message and to make your flash presentation more effective.
So we are going to look at how to make slides engaging and what types of slides are going to help you with your flash presentation.
If your flash presentation has a clear, succinct message:-
• you’ll be able to remember it better,
• you’ll also be less nervous when you come to present it,
• and your audience will be able to understand it better.
The best way to create a clear, succinct and well designed flash presentation is to take a structured approach to planning and writing it. And this is one of the key steps to achieving excellent flash presentation skills.
Establish the purpose of the flash presentation
There are lots of different types of flash presentations.
You might be trying to sell something; you might be trying to persuade your audience about a certain way of thinking – to influence them. Or you might just be trying to inform them about something.
So the first thing you need to do is to work out the purpose of your flash presentation. What are you doing there? What do you want to achieve from your flash presentation?
So having got a good idea of your flash presentation purpose, it’s important to write that down – so it’s clear in your mind. So that whatever you do you are able to refer back to the flash presentation purpose, you know what you want to achieve out of the flash presentation.
Build a flash presentation audience profile
The next thing you want to do is think about your flash presentation audience.
This is something that is going to affect your flash presentation slide content that you are going to put into the flash presentation. So it’s worth spending time trying to analyze your audience before you actually present your slides.
It’s useful to put together a flash presentation audience profile – covering the type of people who will be at your flash presentation.
• Where are they coming from?
• What level of expertise do they have?
• Are there any decision makers in the audience for your flash presentation?
• What is their attitude towards the topic that you are presenting on?
• Do they have any preconceived ideas or expectations about what you will be presenting on?
• etc etc
So brainstorm as much as you can about your audience. The more you understand about them beforehand the more you’ll be able to adapt your slides to make it relevant to them.
Establish the key message of your flash presentation
The next thing to think about is your key message. Every flash presentation should have one key message which everything else ultimately links to.
The key message should have a very strong benefit for the audience to listen to you in your flash presentation. One way of identifying this is to brainstorm the main benefits to the audience that come from your flash presentation.
Ask yourself what’s in it for them when you are presenting.
Once you’ve been able to answer this question – you should also have identified your key message for your slides. Once you’ve established what this is – create slides.
Develop and structure the content of your flash presentation
You now need to start developing the ideas for the flash presentation content. Putting that content into a strong clear structure is very important to help you stay on track and also to help the flash presentation audience to follow the flash presentation clearly.
Think in terms of THREEs.
1. Beginning
2. Middle
3. End
Split your middle section of slides into three sections as well. In each section have 3 further points you want to make and expand on to reinforce things.
And ensure that as you create the slides for your flash presentation you remember:-
1. Your purpose – what you want to achieve from the flash presentation
2. The key message – what is in it for the audience
If you don’t have a strong flash presentation structure, you’ll find that’s when you start to wander off topic, your mind can go blank or you’ll head off at a tangent. And then you lose your flash presentation audience!
Edit your flash presentation content
Once you’ve got a flash presentation draft, it’s then important to edit that. You need to consider the type of language you’re using on your slides, to help you keep the audience’s interest during the flash presentation.
Identify ways of grabbing their attention. Ways of actually helping the audience to listen to your flash presentation. Don’t use long winded sentences on your slides, or words that may not be relevant to the audience, or that they might not even understand.
So edit the slide content and adapt the language that you are going to use in the flash presentation.
Flash Presentation Software Tips
For many people, the flash presentation content is seen as the PowerPoint Slides.
But slide after slide of bullet points with lots of different transition effects is an absolute turn off for most audiences. And this is only made worse when the presenter is just reading the bullet points on the slides or has their back to the audience much of the time!
That’s where PresentiaFX comes into its own as an alternative to PowerPoint.
PowerPoint was never designed to be the flash presentation content itself – nor was its slides supposed to be the prompts for the presenter.
What’s the purpose of your slides?
Slides can be a great way of enhancing a flash presentation VISUALLY – when they are used sensibly and with a clear purpose.
You need to relate flash presentation slides to your audience and to the type of flash presentation you are designing. It needs to be suited to that flash presentation audience.
For example, if it’s just a small intimate flash presentation you might just want to use a few slides. If it’s an interactive flash presentation / discussion you’re having – then with PresentiaFX the audience can partly own the flash presentation with you and hence buy into overall process more easily.
Obviously if it’s a bigger more formal flash presentation then it’s probably expected that you’ll be using slides in your presentation software. But remember it’s there to enhance your flash presentation message – not just your slide prompts!
Designing flash presentation slides
If you are designing slides using PowerPoint then you need to make sure that they are not just going to turn your audience off. Consider working with a specialist flash presentation agency such as Plus Two.
Slides should be there to enhance the flash presentation message. Not to take over from you – the presenter – or your message.
Keep slides as visual as possible. Wherever possible use images, graphs, diagrams etc on your flash presentation slides that will help your flash presentation audience understand what you are talking about. Connect with your flash presentation emotionally – if that’s what you are trying to achieve. Images can be a great way of doing that on your slides.
Keep bullet points to a minimum on slides – for example – key facts – but where possible add some visual metaphor on the same slide.
Few of us are professional designers – so if it’s a very important flash presentation – get some professional help from Plus Two if you have the budget available. But if you have to do it in-house keep things simple and don’t end up spending up 80% of your time on the slides and 20% on the actual flash presentation content!
Managing your flash presentation slides
It’s also important to think about how you are going to manage your slides.
• Where to place them in the room.
• How to work around them physically.
• How visible will they be to the audience.
All these sorts of practical things are best thought through ahead of when you are actually standing there ready to present.
Pitfalls of flash presentation slides
You’ve probably already heard the phrase “Death by PowerPoint”. You might already have experienced this yourself – as part of a flash presentation audience.
Use the KISS rule (Keep It Simple and Succinct), as far as your use of slides is concerned.
• Don’t overdo things on your slides
• Don’t use too many different slide transition effects.
• Don’t use too small font sizes
• Keep the number of slides to a minimum
• Keep it as visual and text free as possible throughout your flash presentation
Alternatives to PowerPoint for the best flash presentations
There are other alternative software packages to MS PowerPoint out there. The market leading alternative for business flash presentations is PresentiaFX.
There are also other tools that you can use that might well be more suited to your flash presentation that a software tool and data projector.
Flash presentation slides vs Flash presentation handouts
When do you use flash presentation handouts or just stick to your on screen slides.
Again it’s thinking about your flash presentation, the type of audience and what do you want to achieve and what’s going to be most suitable.
If you need to give the audience more information to support your flash presentation message, then you may want to produce some slide handouts for the audience to take away.
Backups – when it all goes wrong
Finally you need to think about what happens if something goes wrong with the flash presentation. The data projector or pc stops working
What’s your backup plan? How do you cope with that?
One simple way is to make sure that you at least have some hard copies of your slides. Be prepared! Ask the organiser beforehand wherever possible.
To sum up; slides – can be a great tool – but you need to use them appropriately so that they help you and they enhance your flash presentations.
Using slide mind-maps is a great way to structure your ideas and enhance your flash presentation skills to power up your flash presentations and cut down your bullet points!
Skills for overcoming flash presentation nerves
We’re then going to look at You Yourself! To start considering your personal flash presentation skills.
When most people when they hear the words flash presentations – previously built “presentation skills” are often forgotten about and nerves kick in. So we’re going to help you overcome your nerves and become more confident in your personal flash presentation skills.
There are lots of techniques and things you can do to help you to control your nerves and build your confidence even before you actually start your flash presentation as well as while you’re speaking and delivering it.
So those flash presentation nerves can kick in the minute you start to think about having to present. It’s important to think about why people get nervous before flash presentations and the effects nerves can have on you when you present. There are all sorts of symptoms that can be created through nerves. And sometimes they can manifest themselves quite a lot when people present.
So the more you are aware of them and aware of the fact that it’s quite normal to feel nervous then the more that you can actually start to overcome them and make your flash presentations more effective.
Preparing yourself to present
The first thing is to think about is preparing yourself well for your flash presentation.
We’ve already covered preparing your flash presentation – ie the planning, structuring, the visual aids etc but there’s also you – the presenter and how best to prepare yourself.
Obviously the benefits of proper flash presentation planning are very important – and will certainly help to reduce flash presentation nerves. However there are other things that you can do to fully take control of the nerves before you present.
Physical flash presentation techniques
The benefits of breathing are often overlooked but this one simple technique can really help to calm you and slow you down in your flash presentations.
When you are nervous you probably also speed up your speech in your flash presentation. So controlling the speed that you speak at is a good way to help control your flash presentation nerves.
There are lots of other physical strategies that people employ to help reduce flash presentation nerves and focus their minds and we’ll cover several more in a later article.
Psychological flash presentation techniques
There are also some key psychological flash presentation techniques that you can apply to help you to kick out those negative flash presentation thoughts that can creep into your mind and reduce your flash presentation confidence.
These techniques can help you to maintain a positive mental attitude towards your flash presentation and help you remain in control if any negative thoughts start to creep into your mind during the flash presentation.
One technique is to imagine that the flash presentation has just taken place – and it that was a very successful flash presentation.
Spend time imagining that flash presentation success – and how you feel at that time. Imagine the voices and other sounds that you hear at the end of the flash presentation and what the audiences’ faces look like and what else you can see in the flash presentation room. Take time to imagine all of the positives about the flash presentation that made it a success.
A lot of the time our imagination focuses on the negatives – so forcing it to focus on the positive can help to turn things around and will help build your flash presentation confidence.
Finally, rehearse rehearse rehearse the flash presentation
Skills for delivering the flash presentation confidently
After that, it’s important to think about how you’re actually going to deliver your flash presentation.
We will look at some of the key techniques and skills you can call on to help you speak confidently, keep the audience’s interest, really engage with them and create the presence that want to have in front of your audience.
So your personal resources are very important when you come to deliver your flash presentation.
A good delivery of your flash presentation can give you a certain uniqueness and extra edge.
The audience will make judgments about you even before you start to present. They will do this by way you come across and how you look. They will continue to form opinions about you by the way you speak during the flash presentation.
So the way in which you use your own personal resources is going to have a large impact on the way your audience receives you during the flash presentation.
Flash presentations first impressions
Flash presentation first impressions are very important.
You need to look confident and look like you know what you are talking about right at the start of the flash presentation in order for your flash presentation audience to take you seriously.
If you take time to ‘warm up’ into it you may well ‘lose’ your flash presentation audience even before you’ve got to your key message.
Building rapport with the flash presentation audience is an essential ingredient in making a good impact. The more confident you feel, the easier it is to connect with your flash presentation audience.
There are many ways you can generate this confidence by developing your flash presentation delivery skills – the way you use your voice, body language and space so that you fully engage with your audience from the beginning right until the end of the flash presentation.
Speaking confidently during your flash presentations
Speaking confidently is one of the key areas that you need to look at in order that you get your flash presentation message across clearly.
It’s important to speak at the correct pace and not to rush, so you have to think about speaking a little more slowly than usual during your flash presentation.
It’s also important to speak clearly – so that you don’t slur your words together – as this will make you sound hesitant during your flash presentation.
So, by speaking at the correct pace and pronouncing your words clearly – especially the ends of words, you will sound more confident and convincing to your flash presentation audience.
Sounding interesting in your flash presentation
The ability to sound interesting in your flash presentation is also really important because, although you might be passionate about what you are saying, if this doesn’t come across well to your flash presentation audience, then they won’t be convinced.
To sound interesting and enthusiastic you need to use more expression in your tone of voice so that you avoid a monotone style. You may also emphasize key words which will help to influence the overall meaning of your flash presentation messages.
Injecting pauses into your flash presentation speaking also helps to create an impact as well as helping you to control your speed so that you don’t race ahead in the flash presentation too quickly making it hard for the audience to follow.
You can use all these flash presentation techniques to help change the tone and dynamics of your flash presentation and this will help keep the interest of your audience throughout your flash presentation.
Looking confident in your flash presentation
The ability to look confident for your flash presentation is important especially as you might be feeling nervous which can unfortunately have a rather negative impact on your overall flash presentation presence.
The ways in which you use your posture, gesture and eye contact in flash presentations can help you to control any bad habits created by nerves and create a much stronger flash presentation presence. Make sure that you are standing evenly on two feet with a strong but relaxed posture.
Take a few seconds before you start to speak to take in your flash presentation audience. This will help you feel more in control and more confident and you will be less likely to fidget or look uncomfortable.
Make sure that you also feel comfortable in the flash presentation space that you are presenting, so that you look like you have ownership of the space and that you can move around appropriately. It really helps if you can walk around the space before your flash presentation – before the audience arrive to help you get used to it.
Engaging with the flash presentation audience
Eye contact is also very important to help you engage with your flash presentation audience.
If you just stare at them blankly, you won’t get the right connection with them. So you need to use confident eye contact so that you really connect with individual members of the audience while you are speaking with them.
And although it might sound a bit daunting to look directly at flash presentation audience members, it actually has the opposite effect and helps you to feel more confident.
Flash presentation stamina
It takes a lot of energy to present in front of an audience, even if it’s just for 5 minutes.
So it’s important to use the flash presentation voice and body language techniques we have discussed in this article and to practice them so that you build up your vocal stamina. You don’t have to wait until your next flash presentation; you can practice the vocal and body language techniques on the telephone or in a meeting.
Once you are used to using these flash presentation techniques you can rely on them to help you maintain the energy you need to keep your flash presentation audience interested throughout your flash presentation no matter how long you are talking for.
Answering flash presentation questions competently
Finally it’s important that you have the confidence to interact with your audience and deal with any questions that your audience might throw at you during your flash presentation.
So we’ll give you techniques to help you deal with the difficult flash presentation questions – the different scenarios that you might face when you actually have to interact with the flash presentation audience.
Taking questions is an integral part of your flash presentation and requires the same preparation as the flash presentation content in order for you to manage the flash presentation with confidence. There are different ways of taking flash presentation questions from the audience and this will depend on the type of flash presentation scenario.
If you are giving a more interactive flash presentation, with PresentiaFX, you may be taking questions throughout the flash presentation and it can become more of a discussion with the audience. If it is a more formal flash presentation, you may have a Q&A session at the end of the flash presentation.
The importance of flash presentation preparation
Whatever type of flash presentation it is, it’s important that you prepare for the questions from the audience.
You don’t want to just rely on being able to think on your feet on the day of the flash presentation and hope that it all goes well. You can do some specific preparation, just as you do with your flash presentation.
Flash presentation audience baggage
It’s good to think about the flash presentation audience again and what attitude or pre-conceived ideas or opinions they may have when they come to the flash presentation.
This is what we call ’Audience Baggage’. If you consider the Audience Baggage beforehand and think about the types of questions the flash presentation audience may ask, you are going to be more prepared.
Preparing for difficult questions at the end of your flash presentation
It’s good to write down some of the most difficult questions you may be asked and prepare slides you could use to answer them if needed.
Then take the time to decide how best to answer these. Write down your answers. Then practice answering them out aloud. If you’re unhappy about your response, rework it.
The responses that you have prepared will then help you if you do actually get asked these (or similar) questions on the flash presentation day by giving you a set of phrases and words you have already formulated in your mind that you can now draw upon.
Controlling the flash presentation audience
You want to be in control of your flash presentation audience and not let anyone take over in the question section of the flash presentation.
There are some key flash presentation techniques that you can use to help control your flash presentation audience. For example setting ground rules and how to do this effectively so that the audience follows them in the flash presentation.
Also it’s important to fully understand the questions first before responding. Often we go into panic mode when we hear the question rather than staying calm and taking time to listen to the question to make sure that we fully understand it. So taking time to listen and understand the question first is a good calming technique and will help you stay in control of your flash presentation.
Avoiding flash presentation audience traps
The ability to deal with difficult questions and being able to respond with ease, without losing face is very important in order for you to maintain your confidence during your flash presentation.
It’s therefore important that you are succinct in your responses and say what you want to say rather than what the flash presentation audience might try and trap you into saying. Again – the more you have prepared beforehand and anticipated difficult or trap questions, the more you will be able to handle them effectively on the flash presentation day.
Ending your flash presentation confidently
It’s also important that you know how to end the question and answer session confidently.
It can be sometimes hard to bring the session to an end if people have got more questions to ask. The last thing you want is to lose control of things right at the end of your flash presentation, so plan how you want to end the Q&A session beforehand. Make sure you stick to the time allocated for your flash presentation and have a closing statement or strategy at hand, ready to use when you want to end the flash presentation.
The ability to take questions effectively is all about good flash presentation preparation and planning, so that you have the ability and confidence to be able to tackle any question that you have thrown at you during flash presentations.
In Summary
So these are the 5 key elements (or flash presentation skills areas) for building and delivering a successful flash presentation.
Get to grips with each of them, build your skills and then apply them to your next flash presentation – and you’ll be surprised just how much you’ve progressed… and how great your flash presentations become!