So you’ve got that big presentation coming up. For weeks now you’ve been practising and practising, making sure that you have everything down exactly as you want it. The words you have chosen to get your point across are pure gold. You will have the audience in the palm of your hand.

In fact, your words are not the only weapon you have. You’ve got the latest presentation software too. It has more bells and whistles than anything else you have ever seen. Your boss bought it for the team because he knows that the very best presentations these days have to be the corporate equivalent of a Spielberg movie. If you could have digitally created dinosaurs on that slide about budget forecasts you would. Saying that, there is a Version 3 next year…

So you arrive at the client’s offices, all ready to wow them. That’s when you realise that your software doesn’t work. You don’t know why the stuff chose today to give out on you, it just did. You turn around to face the audience and you freeze.

The problem with today’s over-reliance on slick, media heavy presentations is that they are actually starting to look very overdone. There is a vast amount of software out there that can help you to produce slides that would impress a movie audience, for example. Add to this the fact that you can record your voice to anything, and even have an Avatar presenting on screen in sync with your voice, and you can see why there is an emerging need for balance.

The art of the presentation

The art of the presentation, whether it is a sales presentation, or a job interview, is dying out. Presenters are forgetting the simple core truths about how to do the job. In the days before PowerPoint, all you had was an OHP and your voice. And it worked.

If you have a presentation to give soon, remember that we can’t hide behind technology, and the more we use ourselves as a resource, the more effective our message. If I were to offer advice on presenting to anyone, these would be the main points:

Prepare

Know your script so well that you start to enjoy delivering it. Practise in front of a mirror. Say it before you go to bed.

Use cards or paper with keywords and phrases only

Make your notes an anchor, not a prop, and you will feel more comfortable about using them. Highlight key phrases or just write them out. They are your signposts. You know your subject, so why worry?

Speak slowly and clearly

The audience isn’t going to leave. Take your time, because enunciating in a clear and measured way makes you both sound and feel better.

Breathe and smile

Look confident and you will be confident.

Too many of us rely on technology to make presentations with. Think of the great speeches of the last century, like those given by Martin Luther King and Winston Churchill, and remember that those guys didn’t even know what an overhead projector was.