Saturday, March 29, 2008

How to Use Your Projector

The 4 Key Components of Content
Action

Before you ever begin writing a presentation, you need to answer this question: What do you want your audience to do? Whether it's selling your product, securing a new business client, or promoting your favorite organization, every presentation is based upon moving an audience to perform an "action". At times, the action may simply be gaining enough information to enable them to do something else. In any case, every presenter should be able to write (in 15 words or less) what he wants the audience to do as a result of his presentation. It is important to keep this action to 15 words or less to truly define and narrow the action.

Body
Once you have determined the "audience action", the next step is to construct the main points of your presentation. These points should promote and convince your audience to perform the desired action. Because audience members typically only recall a few key points of a presentation, it is a good idea to limit content to 5 key points. And each of these key points should relate directly to the desired action.

Conclusion
The conclusion should summarize your key points, and, most importantly, tell your audience what "action" they need to perform. Make sure the ending is clear, concise, and to the point.

Opening
The opening should grab your audience's attention and get them excited about your presentation. In addition, the opening should tell your audience why they are there, why they should listen to you, and what they will gain from your presentation.

Bonus Tip!
Once you have developed your content, it is important to go back and identify the areas of the presentation that would benefit from visual aids.

No comments: