Presentation Training Skills

Presentation Training

Presentation Training is provided across the United States and Canada. Participants have three options to attend and participate in our presentation training. Presentations are delivered via public open enrollment courses in all major metropolitan areas and are also available to be delivered on-site via private courses. The 3rd option is to attend Online Webinar Presentations Skills Workshops. Our face to face Presentation Training can be provided as off-the-shelf sessions, ready to be delivered to a diverse audience or can be customized to provide a tailored and personalized presentation training approach based on client needs. All presentations courses are limited to a maximum of twelve participants so as to increase presentation course effectiveness and provide the individual level of face to face or online coaching and interaction that is associated with the Presentations Training Skills Center.

For more information on our presentations skills training courses please contact us.

Presentation Training Course - Plan B

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Have you ever sat though a boring presentation? Ever given one? Do you think the presenter actually planned to be this boring? Did you? If you answered "Yes!" and then "No!" to these questions, it's time to try my Plan "B".

I've given keynote presentations around the world. And no matter if I am speaking in Oman, Malaysia, or Taiwan, ninety-nine percent of the time there are speakers before me. So I begin by telling the audience, "Just want you to know, for my presentation, there will be...no slides! 842, so far, I counted!"

Inevitably, the audience bursts into applause. Why? Because they are tired of looking at slide after slide after slide after...You get the point.

Most people have forgotten the meaning of "Presentation Aid." An aid should further the message, support it, assist it...and not be the message.

Slide shows have become the Band-Aid to poor presentation preparation. "I don't have time to prepare my presentation so 'my plan' is to just refer to my slides." These are the people who throw the slides together the night before... and instead of referring to the slides, they read them. Doesn't that make you want to stand up and yell, "I can read! Why not just send me a copy of the slides and save my time!" (Unless, of course, you needed a nap!)
And here's my biggest pet peeve: the final slide that says, "Thank you." What? You needed help saying "Thank you?" Shut off the slides and talk to me! Isn't that what a presentation is about?

Slides, actually, are quite helpful if the presenter remembers to do one thing: talk to the audience. A presenter is there to educate, to inspire, to persuade.

Now you're probably thinking, "Okay, Darren, point made. So what's this Plan "B" you mentioned?"

Right! Plan "B."

Do you know what is the most powerful key on your keyboard? The "B" key. During a slide presentation, if you hit the "B" key, the screen goes black. Think about that. In the middle of your presentation, you have the ability to make your screen go black. Do not let the simplicity overshadow its power.

In addition to giving keynote speeches for a living, I also coach CEOs and executives in this skill. One of my corporate clients is a group of account executives from an Internet company. They give sales presentations for six-figure contracts. Presentations are crucial to their bottom line, and their individual careers.

In the coaching sessions, each executive gives a 5-minute presentation, which his or her peers and I then critique. During one particular session, I gave an assignment to find one place in which to use the "B" key. They needed to find a logical place to make the screen go black and to just speak directly to the audience. The goal was to make a compelling point or to tell a client success story, and then hit the "B" key again and return to the slides.

When the first person was finished I looked around the room and asked, "Did you notice a difference?" The executives were stunned! Their faces said it all.

Powerful presentations are ones in which presenters connect with the audience through the power of their words, the power of their delivery. You cannot persuade an audience when you are looking at slides, and not at them.

So don't let the slideshow get in your way. Next time you are giving a slide presentation remember Plan "B": Open strong, close strong, and find one place in the middle where you speak directly to the audience with a black screen behind you. It will be powerful!

Source: Darren LaCroix link

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