Good Presentations Are Like Good Theater Great theater is one of the great pleasures in life. It is more than a simple event; we hope that it will be an exceptional event, a memorable event, an experience that moves the audience to identify with the story and characters. Similarly, great presentations are like good theater. Both have 3 basic components that are essential. 1. You need a good script. It should be a story that draws the audience in – and keeps them interested until the final moments. 2. You need good actors who can bring the roles to life. They not only know their lines, but they are natural in their characters who merge completely with their roles. This makes them so believable that the audience can no longer see the actor behind the role. And finally, the eye needs to “see” the story supported by a good set, good props and appropriate costumes – all of which reflect the story being told and the roles being played by the actors. All three components need to work in harmony as one – so that the performance is convincing at every level. Likewise, a great presentation needs to be well structured and written. Every presentation is a kind of story – andshould be written, similar to a script for the theater, using the thousands-year old story structure. At the beginning it should introduce the problem or issue that will be addressed in the core of the talk. Just like every play (or novel and film), the audience needs to know what the problem is. This raises tension – and creates an emotional need from the audience to know how the problem will be solved. It should then proceed to go through the steps of how the speaker came to a solution, with occasional drawbacks to keep the tension up. It’s a basic formula, but one that few business presentations follow. Unfortunately, what often happens instead, in many business presentations, is that the presenter completely skips the problem description and background context for how a situation came to be as it is. As a result, the audience has no idea what is trying to be solved. They then tune out due to confusion or lack of interest, and begin to look at their smartphones or notebooks. Therefore, the script (or story you’re going to tell) is really the key factor when developing your presentation. The second factor in a presentation is learning to deliver it well. That means using your voice (flow, intonation, pitch, tempo and pauses), gestures, body language, and eye contact in a way that makes you authentic and interesting – but not exaggeratedly so. Many presentations skills training seminars make “delivery” the focus their training workshops, often to the exclusion of learning how to finely structure and write your presentation. . And finally, you need to have attractive and visual friendly PowerPoint slides – which would be like the props on a stage. The 90% rule for using slides is that they should make complex or complicated information easier to understand. They should not simply repeat in printed form what the speaker is saying. They should be pictures, diagrams or graphs – or something the eye can process quickly (i.e. usually less than a second). In other words, text slides are a no-go. Why? Because reading anything more than short bullet phrases engages a different part of the brain than that used to process true visuals. At the International Presentation Academy, we offer a Public Speaking Seminar in Munich(online or inhouse) that will guide you through a step-by-step process in developing your structure and written content. We will show you how to write the different components of a talk and then connect them so it flows naturally.We’ll also work with you to deliver your talk authentically and with impact. Our methods
are very hands-on, with lots of practice (and feedback). If you’re interested in an Advanced Presentations Training in Munich - or an online Presentation Skills Training, feel free to contact us at: info@ip-academy.de