The Art of Presentation

If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough. - Albert Einstein

In today’s fast-paced world, effective communication has assumed greater significance than ever. One aspect of communication that often plays a crucial role is “presentation”. Presentation, essentially is a form of conveying message, through use of infographics, writing or visual aids, to inform / communicate with the audience.

Presentations are used by businesses for a variety of reasons, including teaching, disseminating information, motivating, and educating. Even, as part of our daily corporate “hustle” we come across “presentations”. Just like any other business, even in management consulting services, effective presentation skills form a crucial aspect of stakeholder engagement and are highly beneficial for leading consulting firms

Presentation skills encompass various technique; it can be verbal, non-verbal, visual and technological. These are not innate qualities and can be developed through learning, guidance, practice, more learning and acing the craft (my first-hand experience and yes, the learning never stops!)

My two cents on the best practices:

·         A catchy title: The slide may have a lot of content / information to be conveyed, a catchy title makes the message clear and helps audience identify subject matter

·         Bucketing information bits: Organizing content in a logical format helps the audience better understand and relate to the information being conveyed

·         Story telling: People remember stories, not facts. Use narrative to convey the information and not rely on dry facts

·         Highlight: to alleviate the visual fatigue, try highlighting a few take away, that also helps to grab audience attention

·         Bullets & numbering: Cut short heavy text and try to list information in a specific / logical sequence by tweaking information short & crisp

·         Go layman: Use simple and smooth language to pass the information so the audience is able to understand the message

Being able to communicate or persuade the audience through the subtle art of presentation skills, is a trait often overlooked! An apt presentation should be able to effectively pass the message to the audience and hence it is crucial to understand the audience, start strong and don’t let the creativity stay behind. Go ace that presentation!