The best business presentations come from more than just using the right words.
Vladimir Gendelman, CEO of Company Folders
2. Use (but don't overuse) PowerPoint.
Multimedia is a great way to engage your audience's senses on multiple levels. A PowerPoint display during your presentation can help viewers to follow along and keep them interested, especially when blended with graphics, photos or music.
Again, don't make this an exact transcript of your speech; stick to general bullet points and be sure to illustrate them with charts, diagrams or other images whenever possible. Your PowerPoint media should support the rest of your presentation, but you should avoid making it the absolute center of attention.
You should also avoid going overboard and flooding your audience's senses with too much media at once. A wall of text or an overabundance of cheap clip art is only going to turn people off. Keep it simple and only use multimedia when it will enhance the effectiveness of your message.
Restrict your total number of slides to a minimum; the longer each slide is available for your audience to observe, the more time you'll have to reinforce your point (and allow it to sink in for your audience).
3. Incorporate video.
Video clips can help you to make your point in ways that words can't. After all, simply hearing about how great your product is won't have the same impact as actually seeing it in action. You could videotape a demonstration of your product or service, record testimonials from satisfied customers or even interview experts who can provide further insight.
Keep your video clips relatively short, especially if they're part of a longer multimedia presentation. You don't want to upstage yourself when you have a chance to engage with your audience in person. Video is a nice change of pace, but audiences are aware that it can be edited and polished and many observers will be suspicious of too much "hype." The more you can demonstrate in person, the more trustworthy you'll appear.
