When he finished, the response was instantaneous: a sustained standing ovation. Since the first TED conference, 30 years ago, speakers have run the gamut from political figures, musicians, and TV personalities who are completely at ease before a crowd to lesser-known academics, scientists, and writers—some of whom feel deeply uncomfortable giving presentations. It typically begins six to nine months before the event, and involves cycles of devising and revising a script, repeated rehearsals, and plenty of fine-tuning.
Conceptualizing and framing what you want to say is the most vital part of preparation. Most presentations lie somewhere on the continuum between a report and a story. A report is data-rich, exhaustive, and informative—but not very engaging. Stories help a speaker connect with an audience, but listeners often want facts and information, too. Great presenters layer story and information like a cake, and understand that different types of talks require differing ingredients.
If your goal is to communicate information from a written report, send the full document to the audience in advance, and limit the presentation to key takeaways. Satisfy their analytical appetite with facts, but add a thread of narrative to appeal to their emotional side.
Then present the key takeaways visually, to help them find meaning in the numbers. Instead of covering only specs and features, focus on the value your product brings to the world. Tell stories that show how real people will use it and why it will change their lives. Anticipate questions and rehearse clear and concise answers. Formal talks at big events are high-stakes, high-impact opportunities to take your listeners on a transformative journey. Use a clear story framework and aim to engage them emotionally.
We all know that humans are wired to listen to stories, and metaphors abound for the narrative structures that work best to engage people. When I think about compelling presentations, I think about taking an audience on a journey. A successful talk is a little miracle—people see the world differently afterward. If you frame the talk as a journey, the biggest decisions are figuring out where to start and where to end. To find the right place to start, consider what people in the audience already know about your subject—and how much they care about it.
The most engaging speakers do a superb job of very quickly introducing the topic, explaining why they care so deeply about it, and convincing the audience members that they should, too. The biggest problem I see in first drafts of presentations is that they try to cover too much ground. You need specific examples to flesh out your ideas. So limit the scope of your talk to that which can be explained, and brought to life with examples, in the available time. Much of the early feedback we give aims to correct the impulse to sweep too broadly.
Instead, go deeper. Give more detail. Of course, it can be just as damaging to overexplain or painstakingly draw out the implications of a talk. And there the remedy is different: Remember that the people in the audience are intelligent. Let them figure some things out for themselves. Let them draw their own conclusions. Many of the best talks have a narrative structure that loosely follows a detective story.
The speaker starts out by presenting a problem and then describes the search for a solution. Even if the topic is important, random pontification without narrative is always deeply unsatisfying.
I was at an energy conference recently where two people—a city mayor and a former governor—gave back-to-back talks. It came off as boasting, like a report card or an advertisement for his reelection. It quickly got boring. Yes, she recounted anecdotes from her time in office, but the idea was central—and the stories explanatory or illustrative and also funny.
It was so much more interesting. There are three main ways to deliver a talk. You can read it directly off a script or a teleprompter. Or you can memorize your talk, which entails rehearsing it to the point where you internalize every word—verbatim. And as soon as they sense it, the way they receive your talk will shift. Suddenly your intimate connection evaporates, and everything feels a lot more formal.
We generally outlaw reading approaches of any kind at TED, though we made an exception a few years ago for a man who insisted on using a monitor. At first he spoke naturally.
Many of our best and most popular TED Talks have been memorized word for word. One of our most memorable speakers was Jill Bolte Taylor, a brain researcher who had suffered a stroke.
She talked about what she learned during the eight years it took her to recover. After crafting her story and undertaking many hours of solo practice, she rehearsed her talk dozens of times in front of an audience to be sure she had it down. Obviously, not every presentation is worth that kind of investment of time. If they give the talk while stuck in that valley, the audience will sense it.
Their words will sound recited, or there will be painful moments where they stare into the middle distance, or cast their eyes upward, as they struggle to remember their lines. This creates distance between the speaker and the audience. Getting past this point is simple, fortunately.
Then you can focus on delivering the talk with meaning and authenticity. Go with bullet points on note cards. Focus on remembering the transitions from one bullet point to the next. Also pay attention to your tone. Just be you. Some speakers project too much ego. They sound condescending or full of themselves, and the audience shuts down. Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards.
It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story. Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.
To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:. Focusing On Characters — People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. A Changing Dynamic — A story needs something to change along the way.
But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively. For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking. It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal. That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.
Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible. If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it. One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing.
A clicker or remote will help you face the audience and not have to keep turning back to your laptop. Sought-after public speaker Garr Reynolds says a remote is essential in order to pause and advance your presentation so you have time to be spontaneous and control the flow of your delivery. Have backup material. Not everything you say is going to resonate with your audience. Steve Jobs had standby anecdotes prepared to fill time when the technology he was using to give the presentation failed.
Preparing for every eventuality will help soothe your nerves and allow you to feel more in control. How do you wrap it up in a way that will be everlasting in their memories? The experts recommend you focus on the feeling you want the audience to take home. Leave your audience with an emotional impression. Use a pause for key takeaways.
Want the audience to remember something specific? Say it slowly and leave a pause at the end. The silence will emphasize what you said and make it meaningful.
Make it one to remember with these high-quality video presentation templates. Create an easy-to-follow structure When it comes to what you have to say, break it down into three simple sections: your presentation needs an introduction, body, and conclusion. No more than 10 slides in total. Who wants to sit through pages and pages of slides? Using concept maps before structuring your slides can help keep to the point.
Limit the amount of copy on each slide Less really is more, especially when it comes to making a good presentation. Be savvy with design details A good design can make or break a presentation.
Format for perfection. Make sure your text is aligned and neat like in the example below. Get someone else to look at it. A fresh pair of eyes can work miracles when it comes to refining your presentation. Get a trusted mentor or colleague to review your work.
Did you know? Delivery How to give a good presentation How you deliver your slides is as important as their content and design.
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