Presentation tips

Presentations are an important aspect of delivering your ideas to a group, whether you work in business, at a design firm, or on a community project. I am often in a position of presenting research at conferences or talks in artistic contexts.

I am a lecturer and so conduct dozens of classes a year. Here follow seventeen helpful pointers that I first compiled for the benefit of my students.

Along the way you will learn two secrets. Shhhh!

Creating the presentation

1. Readable text

It is always appealing to have a well-designed overhead, but don't overdue your page with graphics that detract from the content.

The main priority is readable text, even for viewers at the back of the room. Break large blocks of text down into smaller bullet points. You don't need all of your text on screen. You can expand on the short point forms while speaking. 

Some presenters can extemporise but it might help to prepare separate notes to read for each slide. 

Take more than one slide to cover material as necessary. Use an entire slide for any important graphics, with a short caption to act as prompt.

2. Giving credit

How you give credit varies with your context. For an academic paper, it is appropriate to use citations in your overhead material and provide a reference list at the end. You don't need to read that list (obviously) but it will be there for the Q&A period. You also don't need to read every citation. Having it on screen is enough. 

Do not copy material from other sources without attribution. That is plagiarism. Learn how to access creative commons material and how rights work. In today's world it's easy just to pillage websites. Be a better person. If you use images as a major part of your work, seek permission from the artist / photographer. If they are being used only as illustration, at least provide a credit slide.

As an teacher, researcher, or student, somewhat different rules apply. So long as you credit sources it is often appropriate to use them in an educational context, even without permission.

3. So-called AI

AI steals from content creators, misleads about veracity, promulgates a hyper-capitalist narrative, and consumes the world's resources. Just don't. If I attend a presentation I want to hear you speak and see your work. Not the output of a large grey prediction engine.

4. Visual effects

Applications like PowerPoint allow you to integrate transitions and animations with your slides. Forget it. Visual effects quickly become boring and detract from the material.

Preparing for a presentation

5. Rehearsal

You must rehearse your presentation by reading out loud. This is non-negotiable.

Text that looks OK on the page does not always sound right when spoken. Rehearsing makes it obvious where the text flows and where it doesn’t. Even for a written paper, I practice by reading aloud. This is my "secret weapon" for better writing!

6. Time limit

Time goes by quicker than expected when delivering a presentation. You need to carefully choose your topics and emphasis. Cover the introduction and context quickly to get to the heart of your talk. Time your practice runs and be sure you can finish within 90% of the allotted interval.

7. File format

It doesn't matter what application you used to create your presentation. Bring a PDF to the gig. If you need media clips, bring these as separate files. Name and organise files so you are not struggling to find your work.

Presentation files might not run properly on the presentation computer. Embedded videos and sounds might fail. Don't rely on Pages, PowerPoint, or any other proprietary format.

Use standard file formats and standard codecs for videos. Never expect to run content from the internet. We don't want to watch whatever ads or political content YouTube inserts into the flow.

8. Disk formats

Operating systems use different native file systems. Any external media (USB stick, hard drive) that you wish to share across different computers should be formatted as exFAT for maximum compatibility with Mac, Windows, and Linux.

9. Backups

Bring your presentation on a USB stick. Don't forget the adapter so you can use USB-A or USB-C ports. Have a safe copy backed up in a convenient place online. As a last resort, have your presentation in readable form on your phone. At the very least, should everything else fail, you can present verbally.

10. Sound-check

Always arrive in the presentation room ahead of time, so that you can ready your work and sort out any unexpected glitches. There should be time allocated to this. But if not, arrange with the organisers to set up during lunch, a coffee break, whenever. 

Delivering the presentation

11. Address

Not everyone has the same outgoing personality, but you should aim to clearly and confidently address your audience. Speak to the audience, not the screen or your computer. Vary your stance. Move around a bit. Speak up.

You may not be confident, so fake it. After a while fake confidence becomes real confidence. That's the second secret.

12. Introduction

Start by briefly introducing yourself. The audience should know your name and topic, possibly your affiliation. Do not present your biography. Your audience can read this for themselves from the conference materials, your website, socials, etc.

I once heard a 15 minute presentation where the first 13 minutes was the presenter bigging themselves up. They immediately went into the imaginary dumpster bin in my mind.

13. Languages

Presentations are often given in an international context with speakers (and listeners) fluent in different languages. Read at a steady pace with pauses for listener comprehension.

If your first language is not the same as the dominant language at the event, take into account your abilities. If your accent is thick you may want more slides than usual so people can follow and understand the written text.

14. Acoustics

Take into account the acoustics of the room. A larger hall will be more reverberant, so people near the back will have a harder time comprehending. If half the seats are empty, you can ask people to move closer. Take charge of the space.

Use a microphone if it is provided. But learn how to use a microphone! Some models are designed for direct address (speaking as closely as possible into them) while others prefer some distance. Figure this out during the sound-check. Have someone sit at the back and ask them if your speech is clear.

15. Playing media

When playing sound or video content, stay quiet. Do not attempt to speak over the media clip unless you are well rehearsed in this process. So many times I see people mouthing words while completely drowned out by background music. The sad thing is, this happens even at conferences full of (supposed) sound professionals!

16. Keep to your time

I don't care how interesting you think you are, keep to the time limit and respect the organisers and other presenters. When you are given a one-minute warning, start wrapping up. Don't start a whole new topic. 

17. That's a wrap

When all is said and done, make notes that will help you improve for next time. Jot down any comments or questions you received that deserve follow-up. Get contact details for colleagues... or get fans to follow your socials. Build a community of practice. 

Conclusions

I am sure there are other useful tips but these cover many of the most obvious shortcomings. Comment below if you have additional advice.

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