How to prepare for a successful slides presentation
Business presentations are often stressful tasks both to prepare and to execute. A lot of pressure is on you because the evaluation of your work for past weeks, or even months will be based on your short presentation outcome.
With the help of some easy tasks you can improve your chances of delivering a smooth and successful presentation.
1. Make slides straight to the point
Make few and simple slides. There is no presentation that cannot fit a 10 pages slide deck, not even if you are proposing the next mission to Mars. Keyword is synthesys. Do not put too many details in a single slide, just write down the main statement or result, and try to stick to it. You will explain more during your presentation, offering your audience to come and talk with you afterwards if they would like clarifications or additional details on any topic.
2. Exercise your speech
Going through the slides with the help of friends or co-workers is the best way to practice your speech before the presentation day. If nobody is available to help you with this task, don't worry: you can still practice on your own, ideally in front of a mirror. This will help you notice how you move and talk, and at the same time you will be forced to keep your focus on the audience (or yourself), removing the temptation to constantly look at your slides. Remember to keep eye contact with the audience, and to keep track of the elapsed time, especilaly if you have a specific schedule.
3. Prepare 'speaker notes' to use while presenting
Practicing is essential, but having some good notes with the main points of your speech can be a life saver, especially if you tend to forget everything just before it is your turn to speak. SlideTrick app is a precious tool, as it automatically shows speech notes on your smartphone as soon as you started projecting your slides. Just remember to set up your notes on the presentation in advance using the on your SlideTrick Web Dashboard.
Pro tip: using SlideTrick your smartphone also turns into the presentation remote control, so it will even feel more natural both for you and for your audience if you keep it in your hands and look at it while talking.
