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The business presentation has a reputation for mind numbing dullness -- Powerpoint slides with tiny text and a monotone voice droning away, Bueller? Bueller?.
While we can't help you if you're suffering through such a talk, we can offer you some tips on how to make sure your own presentations don't suck the life out of the room.
Follow these steps and you'll be a sought after speaker in no time.
Outline
Organize your talk by starting with an outline. Not only does this help you organize your thoughts and find the natural progressions and links between them, it can also help you figure out which points need slides and which don't.
Make sure you stick to key phrases and include only essential information. Digressing into anecdotes is rarely as entertaining for your audience as it might seem to you. For now, stick with just the facts and branch out when you're more comfortable.
Slides
Not every point in your talk deserves a spot on a slide. Use slides only for key points and make sure to include some sort of photo with each slide.
Photos offer a chance to make your talk more entertaining so get creative with your images. Talking about competitors? Use a pic of a lion. Talking about finding customers? Show a guy fishing. Sure it's cheesy, but even a bad joke can help keep the audience engaged.
To find great photos search Flickr for images licensed under the Creative Commons (just make sure to include a slide at the end of your talk giving credit where required). Also, make sure to include the actual image files in your presentations -- don't rely on web access.
Make sure you avoid the tiny-text syndrome in your slides. Keep slides simple with a maximum of three data points per slide. Fill in the blanks with your walk, but keep the slides simple. Also be sure to use a legible font, skip the creative fonts and stick with something clean and simple like Helvetica.
It's also a good idea to keep your slide color schemes nice and simple -- use contrasting colors like a white background with dark text.
Practice
It makes perfect. If you know your venue make sure to use a similar PC and projector set up. If possible project your slides ahead of time so you can see how they'll look to your audience.
Convince some colleagues or family members to watch your presentation and give you feedback -- where does your presentation lag, which points aren't entirely clear and so on.
Conclusion
For most people, public speaking ranks with death and tax audits on the list of things to avoid, but it needn't be that bad.
With a bit of planning, so well crafted slides and little practice you'll be able to not only get your point across, but keep your audience entertained and engaged.
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