Presentation Tips for Speaking at Your Next Conference

As a presenter, you probably have high expectations for your presentation at an upcoming meeting or conference.

You want to deliver an engaging and informative talk that will leave your audience feeling inspired and motivated or simply educated and informed.

Whatever your goal is, we

can bet that performing your best — without flubs or “train wrecks” — is probably one of the top goals.

It is important to set realistic expectations for yourself and your presentation and then take the necessary steps to get there.

Here are a few things to keep in mind when preparing to give your presentation:

• You can't control everything. Despite all of the preparation you put in, there may be elements of the meeting or conference that are out of your control, such as agenda updates, room changes or unexpected questions from the audience. When these happen, don't let them derail your presentation or add unnecessary stress. Roll with it and trust that your preparation positions you to be ready for anything. Be prepared to adapt and improvise, and don't sweat the small stuff.

• Know Your Audience. The people attending your presentation will all have different knowledge, experiences, and interests. Keep this in mind when planning your presentation. Tailor your content to your audience and don't assume that they know everything you do.

• Tell A Story. Regardless of the content of your presentation, you should be able to find a way to tell a story or take the audience on a journey. If you lay the foundation of what will be discussed, guide them down the path throughout your talk, and then recap and wrap everything up in the closing, you’ll find your presentation has far more impact than simply a list of facts and figures.

• Use visuals to engage your audience. Effective presentations share ideas — not words. Use impactful pictures, charts, and drawings to share your content. The more you practice and become familiar with your presentation, the more you can remove words from your slides. If you find yourself reading any part of your slide, you likely are either relying on your slide’s content to get through the presentation or you feel that there are elements you can’t forget to say. Replace those words with visuals and you’ll find that with practice, these new visuals will give your brain the secret code to remind you of everything that you need to discuss on each slide.

Practice, practice, practice!

The more you practice, the more confident you'll feel on the day of your presentation. Recording yourself and listening back (this is the tough part) will make the “not-so-great” speaking habits quite evident. This includes the “uhhh”, “ummmm”, “you know…..” patterns that many of us rely on. For this recording, I recommend opening a Zoom call and record the meeting (though you’re the only one attending this virtual meeting). This will easily capture your video and audio for watching later. Take notes and repeat.

• It's okay to be nervous. Everyone gets nervous before giving a presentation. I like to think that it is a sign that you really care about the content and doing well. Take the nerves as a positive sign that you want to do great and then take the next steps to give your best presentation.

• Request Time for Rehearsals. Ask your event planning team to set aside time for you to be in the actual presentation space with the equipment and all available resources the day before or early in the morning on the day of your presentation. This can help you gain confidence to remove some of the unknowns from the equation and allow you to focus on your content and get stuck worrying about the rest. See our article called “Make Time for Rehearsal” for more information.

• Be prepared to answer questions. Even if you do not have a planned Q&A portion of your presentation, be ready for people to jump in. This is just a part of sharing knowledge with others. If you feel confident in the answer, address the question efficiently and jump back to your presentation. If there is a slide later in your deck that address the question, you can tell them that we’ll get to that in a little bit. If you do not know the answer, that is fine too. It is always acceptable to say “Great question, I’ll look into that and hopefully we can connect later on”. No matter what happens, just know that fielding questions is a potential scenario. Don’t let it disrupt your flow.

• End with a call to action. If you’ve taken your audience on a journey, your closing can include an action for the audience to take. This will allow your presentation to carry over in the minds of the audience after you’ve taken a bow, left the stage, and received high fives for a great speech.

We hope that these quick tips will help you properly prepare, reduce nerves, build confidence, and most of all, allow you to perform your best during your presentation.

If you have any other questions or would like to discuss your upcoming presentation, please reach out to us directly throughout our contact us form.

If you are a meeting planner or event producer who wants your presenters to do their best, please share this with them and ask us about ways that we have worked directly with presenters to ensure they have successful, impactful, and engaging presentations.