“Good morning ladies and gentlemen, and thank you Ron for that kind introduction.” How often have you heard these or similar words from someone who has just arrived behind a lectern and planted a thick sheaf of notes on it? As an audience member, what was your reaction? Starting your presentation with these words sends [...]

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Your audience expects presentation handouts, and you should provide them. But these three common mistakes will make your handouts a liability to your presentation instead of an asset. 1. Handing them out at the wrong time It’s not always necessary or appropriate to hand out materials at the beginning of your presentation. That’s the usual [...]

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The way you handle questions and answers can have a huge impact on your presentation. Perhaps you share two complaints that often come up in my presentation workshops: You can never follow your planned presentations because people keep interrupting with questions that pull you off track. You invite questions at the end, nobody asks any [...]

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Visual aids are an important part of effective presentations. In my presentation skills workshops I spend a lot of time showing people how to create great PowerPoint slides, containing the right information and just the right amount of it. But today I’m giving you some tips on how to use your visual aids to the [...]

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I recently received an e-mail from a Communi-keys reader who was planning his first major presentation for senior management at his company. He said he was floundering a bit and asked for any tips I might give him. I gave him a broad overview of the 5-step process I teach in my presentation skills workshops, [...]

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