Award Winning Presentations

Presenters face many challenges. One of the most significant is that the target audience are usually jaded because they have already attended far too many presentations. A random selection of executives were questioned on what they remembered from several presentations they had attended recently. They could only remembered isolated chunks of information - and in many cases the information was not related to the key points of the presentations.

The first issue

Suppose you can present several slides full of facts and figures. Surely all that information will convince your audience? In fact the research suggests it won't - it will do the opposite. Scientists who have worked on knowledge retention uncovered a significant issue. They found that people forget what they've learned extremely quickly, so quickly, in fact, that most of it is gone before they've made any decision about it.

The second issue

Another group of researchers researched a related issue. All that carefully prepared detail that you squeezed into your slides? They found that most audiences won't be able to absorb that level of detail - and it'll just confuse them. Less is more The more detail you use the less likely it is that anything will stick. The reason is that people can only process small amounts of information at one time. If they can hold on to seven chunks of information they're doing well. (You can put all the information in a handout and distributed it after the presentation.)

The issues

So, to recap, decision makers are never going to absorb all the information you give them. Most of it will pass them by and what little they do absorb will be forgotten before they can act on it. So it's no wonder that the presentation failure rate is as high as it is. All this is bad news for the traditional presentation but it's good news if you know what works because then you have an advantage over the competition.

The solutions

Here are solutions to the issues raised in the previous paragraphs. These principles have implications for all types of presentations and they are based on scientific research.

The First Principle

You have to use graphics. But the graphics are not there to look nice. They have a vital role to play in getting the audience to understand and retain your message. Don't use clip art or off-the-shelf images because they can actually reduce your effectiveness.

The Second Principle

Your presentation has to look different. It has to stand out. If it doesn't - no matter how good it is - it'll be forgotten. There are many things you can do to make your presentation different. For example, have a look at our software on the following pages.

The Third Principle

You have to use visual metaphors in your presentation. A metaphor compares apparently unrelated subjects. For example, you might say: "it's raining cats and dogs ". Visual metaphors do the same thing with images. Some researcher believe that this is the single most important step a presenter can take in getting people to remember and act on their message.

The Conclusion

The conclusion from the research is that presentations are very bad at delivering information. However, presentations can be very effective at convincing people at an emotional level. That might seem to be a limitation but it's not. In fact it's the most important conclusion possible. It redefines the role of the presentation. That's because researchers now believe that almost all decisions are first made at an emotional level.

Emotion

Emotion is the key to action. Logic is used only to justify the decision. What it means for your presentations What they're saying is this - if you can convinced your audience emotionally then all you have to do is provide the supporting information to satisfy their logical needs. If you follow up you're almost certain to get the result you want from your presentation.