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How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

By Krystle Wong , Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience

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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?

How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.

If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.

No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.

Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.

If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years . 

Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view. 

It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous. 

Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.

It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:

Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.

It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.

Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.

Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.

Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.

Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.

If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included. 

Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling. 

Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.

Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:

1. Keep it simple

Simple means something different to everyone.

Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.

Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience. 

Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.

2. Create a compelling structure

Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.

If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you. 

By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest. 

3. Use visual aids

Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.

Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been. 

If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.

4. Be aware of design techniques and trends

Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.

  Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides: 

• Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
• Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
• Ensure text stands out against the background color
• Only use high-resolution photos
• Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
• Don’t overuse transitions and effects

5. Try the 10-20-30 rule

Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.

Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk: 

Tip #1: Tell stories

Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.

Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love, and helping those in need.

If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.

Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience

Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.

Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.

If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored. 

Tip #3: Work on your stage presence

Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:

• Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
• Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
• Use hand gestures to highlight important information

Tip #4: Start strong

Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:

• Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person 
• Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
• Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk 
• Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle

Tip #5: Show your passion

Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise. 

In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest. 

Tip #6: Plan your delivery

How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?

The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.

If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.

Tip #7: Practice

Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.

Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.

Tip #8: Read the room

Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.

Tip #9: Breathe

Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.

The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.

Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action

When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.

If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you. 

There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.

Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.

Elevate your communication skills

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Elizabeth Perry, ACC

Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.

6 presentation skills and how to improve them

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How to Give a Presentation

Last Updated: October 4, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Patrick Muñoz . Patrick is an internationally recognized Voice & Speech Coach, focusing on public speaking, vocal power, accent and dialects, accent reduction, voiceover, acting and speech therapy. He has worked with clients such as Penelope Cruz, Eva Longoria, and Roselyn Sanchez. He was voted LA's Favorite Voice and Dialect Coach by BACKSTAGE, is the voice and speech coach for Disney and Turner Classic Movies, and is a member of Voice and Speech Trainers Association. There are 10 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 526,826 times.

Giving a presentation terrifies most of us, especially when talking before a crowd of people about an unfamiliar topic. Never fear! There are ways to make a good presentation. The more presentations you do, the easier they will become!

Preparing For the Presentation

• It's best to have 1 main thesis statement or overarching theme and 3 main points that back-up or flesh-out your main theme. Any more than that and your audience is going to start losing interest. This means that any facts and information that are a part of your presentation should back up these 3 main points and overarching theme.
• For example: If you're giving a presentation about 17th century alchemy, bringing up the history of alchemy is fine (and probably necessary), but don't mire your audience in its history instead of focusing alchemy in the 17th century. Your 3 points could be something like "alchemy in public opinion," "famous 17th century alchemists," and "the legacy of 17th century alchemy."

• Pick your very best supporting facts, information, or quotes for your presentation. Don't bury your audience in information.

• Make sure you're using media to enhance your presentation and not to drown it out. The presentation is key. Anything else is just accessorizing.
• For example: to get back to 17th century alchemy, to back up your information about alchemy in the public opinion, you might want to show images from public pamphlets about the dangers of alchemy and see what people of the time period had to say about it and see what the more famous alchemists had to say about it.
• Also, you want to make sure that you pick a medium that you are comfortable in and thorough in knowledge. If you don't know a thing about PowerPoint, maybe consider writing your main points on a white board, or passing out handouts with your main points and evidence on them. [3] X Research source

• A good tip is to film yourself or audiotape of yourself giving your practice presentation so you can see what distracting verbal and physical tics you have, so that you can work on eliminating them before the presentation itself. (Verbs tics would be things like "um..." and "uh..." and using "like" inappropriately; physical tics are things like shifting your weight from foot to foot or messing with your hair.) To stop yourself from saying "um" or other unwanted tics, be aware you're doing it first, then speak more slowly and deliberately. Breathe deeply and feel free to pause and appreciate the silence. These will all help you to have mastery over your tics.
• Just remember that rehearsals usually run about 20% shorter than your actual presentation, so take that into account if you're running on a time limit.

• For example, if you aren't comfortable wearing heels, don't wear them just for the presentation. You'll be distracted by your discomfort and that will come across in the presentation. There are plenty of good shoe choices that have no or a low heel.
• Clean, nice slacks or a skirt and nice, button-down shirt in neutral colors are always good choices for presentation wear. You also don't particularly want your clothing choice to distract from the presentation, so perhaps avoid that brilliant hot pink shirt.

Giving the Presentation

• Before the presentation, clench and unclench your hands several times to deal with the adrenaline and then take 3 deep, slow breaths.
• Call up a smile, even if you feel like hurling. You can trick your brain into thinking that you're less anxious than you actually are and you'll also be able to hide your nervousness from your audience.

• Make eye contact with your audience. Don't stare at one particular person, but section up the room and make eye contact with someone in each section on a rotational basis.
• Have a big, welcoming smile on your face, with lots of energy, so you start out from a strong and engaging place.
• Ask questions of your audience and take questions during your presentation. This will make it more of a conversation and therefore more interesting.
• Tell an amusing anecdote to illustrate your point. From the above examples about 17th century alchemy, you could find an amusing alchemical anecdote from the time period, or you could talk about your own forays into alchemy.

• Move around, but make your movements deliberate. Don't nervously shift your feet (in fact, it's a good idea to imagine that your feet are nailed to the floor except for those times you deliberately choose to move).
• Use your vocal inflections to create a more dynamic presentation. Vary your voice as you're talking. Nobody ( ever ) wants to sit there and listen to someone drone on and on in dull monotone, no matter how interesting the material (think Professor Binns from Harry Potter; that's what you don't want).
• Try to create a balance between rehearsed and spontaneous. Spontaneous, on the spot, movement and asides can be great as long as you are really comfortable, otherwise they can sidetrack your presentation and make it rambling. Mess around with spontaneous and rehearsed when you're practicing and you'll get a feel for it.

• Quickly introduce your topic and don't assume that your audience is familiar with all the terms, especially if your topic is one that isn't widely known.
• Figuring out why you want (or have to) give this presentation will help you work with an overarching story/theme. Maybe you want to pass the class. Maybe you're convincing people to give you money or join you in a philanthropic endeavor or act for a social or political reason. Channel that desire into your presentation. You're answering the question of why they would want to pass you or why they would want to fund you. That's the story you're telling.

• Make use of pauses, and learn to be comfortable with silences. Silence can be a powerful presentation tool and gives you a chance to take a moment to recompose. By taking pauses, you can slow down your breathing and be more deliberate in your speech, avoiding speaking too quickly.
• Have water with you and take a sip when you feel you're going too fast.
• If you have a friend in the class or meeting, arrange with them beforehand that they will let you know with a signal whether you're talking too quickly. Look over their way occasionally and check your progress.
• If you find that you're running out of time and you haven't finished, simply drop or summarize your leftover material. Acknowledge the leftover material as something that can be discussed later or in the Q&A.

• Make it clear what the listeners now know and why it is important that they have this new information.
• Conclude with examples or stories about your main point and take home message. You might want a slide which summarizes your presentation. For example, you might conclude with a story about the nature of alchemy in the modern era (perhaps in a film) to show its malleable nature.

What Is The Best Way To Start a Presentation?

Community Q&A

• Have a short Q&A session at the end of each subtopic. Q&A sessions will improve audience engagement. It also acts as a welcome break for audience in case of long presentation. For this though, you will need to know the subject you choose well. Make sure you understand and have more than just the basic knowledge about the topic you choose. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0
• Use pictures or visuals. Pictures and visuals show that you know what you're talking about, and it gives the audience a picture of what you're talking about. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Try to have a "leave behind" message, something that your audience can take away that reminds them about your presentation, like a flyer or a book, for example. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

Tips from our Readers

• Use pictures! A good way to use pictures is through PowerPoint. If you don't have PowerPoint, you can print the pictures onto a board (paper, card board, or larger paper).
• Don't be nervous. Practice and do just like you did in practice. If you are nervous, the audience will know.
• Try to do some hand jesters. Speak loud and clear. Make eye contact with them. Be confident.
• Let the audience have an opportunity to interact with you.

• Don't make your speech too long, unless it is really good, and you have to have done speeches for a long time to have them be that good and long. Stick to short and sweet. Thanks Helpful 49 Not Helpful 11
• Don't put off work to the last minute. Then your work will be most likely sloppy. If you do well under pressure, do your project a bit at a time and maybe it will get done. Or, try doing it all at the beginning, so then you have the whole rest of the time to play or check your assignment. Thanks Helpful 35 Not Helpful 16
• Jokes are usually not okay, especially in a professional setting. A light hearted comment is fine, but don't make it seem like a comedy show. Thanks Helpful 11 Not Helpful 3
• If you speak in a too fast/slow or monotone voice, people will not want to hear you! Aim for a conversation voice (but slightly louder) with natural pauses (commas and periods). Develop a tone depending on what you're talking about. It's more interesting and engaging to hear someone speak in a serious tone rather than a monotone when speaking about world hunger. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 2
• If you suffer from twitchy fingers, be mindful to move your hands during your presentation only when necessary, or the audience may notice and feel you are unprepared. Thanks Helpful 8 Not Helpful 3

You Might Also Like

• ↑ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/young-entrepreneur-council/13-tips-for-giving-a-kill_b_3728093.html
• ↑ https://www.niu.edu/presentations/prepare/index.shtml
• ↑ https://algonquincollege.libguides.com/studyskills/creating-presentations
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-prepare-the-presentation
• ↑ http://www.washington.edu/doit/TeamN/present_tips.html
• ↑ https://counseling.uiowa.edu/self-help/30-ways-to-manage-speaking-anxiety/
• ↑ https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/centers/oralcommunication/guides/how-to-engage-your-audience-and-keep-them-with-you
• ↑ http://hbr.org/2013/06/how-to-give-a-killer-presentation/ar/1
• ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-slow-down-your-speech-when-presenting-sharon-maree-jurd-cfe/
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-conclude-a-presentation

About This Article

Before you give a presentation, spend some time crafting what you will say. Most presentations should center on a thesis, or main idea, and contain about 3 supporting points. Cutting unnecessary content will ensure your presentation is impactful. Once your presentation is done, practice delivering it in front of a mirror or while recording yourself so you can identify and correct any issues. To calm your nerves before you present, try clenching your fists a few times and taking several deep breaths. For more advice about giving presentations, like whether to use visual aides, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How To Give An Effective Presentation (With Examples)

• What Is Figurative Language?
• What Are Rhetorical Strategies?
• What Is a Subject Matter Expert and What Do They Do?
• What Is A Differentiation Strategy
• What Is Job Order Costing
• What Is Situational Analysis
• Plan Of Action
• Report Format
• Law Of Diminishing Marginal Returns
• Administrative Duties
• Giving A Presentation
• Organizational Behavior Management
• Deductive Reasoning
• Reflective Listening

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Even if you have great ideas, nobody will listen if you don’t know how to give a compelling presentation.

In your career, how you frame your ideas will be the key to influencing those who matter. Learn how to give a compelling presentation, and you’ll enjoy an advantage over the competition.

Key Takeaways:

Understand your purpose for presenting, structure your presentation in a logical manner, and prepare as much as possible.

Remember to breathe during your presentation! This will help keep you calm and focused.

Structure your presentation with a beginning, middle, and end.

Keep your presentation as concise and clear as possible.

How To Give A Presentation

How to structure your presentation, top tips for writing an effective presentation.

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Understand your purpose and environment. This is the first step to giving any effective presentation. You want to know what you are getting yourself into. Ask yourself:

Why am I giving this presentation? What are my reasons?

What am I trying to accomplish?

Who is my audience?

Where is my presentation going to be?

When is my presentation? How much time will I have to speak?

This information allows you to structure your presentation so that it remains relevant and appropriate. Once you understand the who, what, where, when, and why of your presentation, you can then begin to focus on the “how”.

Tell a story with a logical and engaging structure. Your presentation needs to connect with you audience. This means you need to incorporate the ancient art of story telling. You need to present your purpose in such a way that hooks your audience in, takes then on a journey, and concludes with some feeling of fulfillment.

Essentially, you need a beginning, a middle, and an end. Each point of your presentation should flow into the next. Each point should build off one another to manifest the purpose of your presentation. In most cases, this is some kind of argument or goal you are trying to accomplish. Your structure is the framework of establishing this argument or goal.

Practice and prepare. This ensures that you understand your material and you give yourself the chance to make changes ahead of time. Consider recording yourself to evaluate your performance and/or ask others to watch you practice. Do you research to make sure you have your information correct.

Also, do you research on the presentation environment. Know where you are going to speak and what resources you will have or need to bring. Nothing will be perfect, but the more you practice and prepare, the more equipped you are to handle challenges, such as feelings of performance anxiety or technical issues.

You may think practice and preparation will limit you, but in fact it frees you to be in the moment during your presentation.

Present (and remember to breathe). Be present and in the moment during your presentation. Remember to breathe. If you have practice and prepared enough, you will find most of what you need to do will come without thinking. Stay relaxed and work through each step of your presentation at a steady pace. Don’t rush yourself, nor ramble on some random tangent. Stick the points and keep moving forward.

Conclude and evaluate. Wrap everything up in a logical manner that hammers home your purpose. Then, you may or may not need to answer questions. Once you are done, congratulate yourself! Give yourself some time to reflect and consider what worked and what didn’t. Use this reflection to improve future presentations.

Every effective presentation uses an easy-to-follow structure that includes:

A compelling introduction.

The purpose of the introduction is to briefly sum up what you’re going to talk about and convey why the topic is relevant to the audience.

Make sure to:

Start with an attention-grabber. You need to make the audience feel invested in your presentation as early as possible.

There are a million different strategies to do this, such as:

Cite a shocking statistic. A surprising statistic makes the audience realize that they’re uninformed about the subject, inviting them to listen and learn more.

Tell a brief anecdote. Humans love stories. If you capture the audience’s emotional attention, then you’ll have their intellectual attention too.

Clearly convey what the subject of your presentation is.

After all effective presentations, the audience should be able to recall its core message clearly.

Body of evidence.

The body is where you present evidence to support the core message you stated in your intro.

Make sure that the body section of your presentation:

Split each argument into clearly distinct sections. Think back to a compelling TED talk or presentation you’ve watched. You can probably still recall the main points and arguments that were given.

Use rhetorical techniques . The reason that most effective presentations include many of the same elements is that they’re proven to work.

Use tools such as repetition to drive a point home.

Humans respond well to numbers and statistics. If you can quote a percentage or figure to highlight your point, then definitely take that opportunity.

Conclusion.

Use the conclusion to sum up your key takeaways.

You want to loop back to your original statement using what you said during the body of the presentation, but in a new and memorable way.

This is your last chance to make a lasting impression on the audience, so don’t just lazily repeat what you’ve already said.

Many presenters mistakenly treat the conclusion as an afterthought that’s added in as a custom. In fact, it’s probably one of the most important parts of your entire presentation.

Most compelling presentations follow several similar guidelines that hold true whether the audience is a large crowd or a few company administrators .

Here are a few of the most important ones to help you when writing your own presentation:

Use a short, easy-to-follow structure. Be concise. When watching the most effective presentations, it’s easy to identify the introduction, body, and conclusion.

This simple structure makes the presentation easy to comprehend while watching and similarly easy to recall afterward.

Limit the amount of clutter on each slide. Less is more when it comes to making a memorable presentation.

The end result of cramming paragraphs of compelling evidence into a slide is that nobody will process even a single line.

Many marketing experts recommend a six-word limit per slide.

Pay attention to design details. It’s often obvious to audiences from the first minute if a presentation is worth listening to or a complete snore.

This is often due to design decisions that can make or break the presentation. Make sure to use eye-pleasing:

Color schemes. Too much color contrast on a slide can distract from its contents. Too little can make the entire presentation seem boring and ignorable.

Fonts. Imagine how seriously you would take a presentation that uses the same fonts often used in second-grade classrooms.

Choose a font and size that are appropriate for your type of presentation and stick to them consistently throughout each slide.

Format. A single badly-pixelated image can make your entire presentation seem amateur and sloppy.

Practice your delivery . What’s on the screen is only half of the presentation; the other is the actual presenter .

Presentation delivery is composed of two key parts:

Vocal delivery. Research shows that effective speakers know how to appropriately vary the pitch, volume, and pace of their voices.

This isn’t just a gimmick and makes intuitive sense.

If a presenter raises their voice when emphasizing a key point, we assume that they must be confident in their message.

If a speaker pauses after delivering a shocking message, then their point seems more surprising and meaningful.

Research some popular presentations on the internet and observe the different ways that speakers employ their voices as a tool.

Body language . Our brains are wired to pay attention to body language when someone is speaking to us.

Even if someone makes a great point, a stiff posture and dead energy can easily distract from their message.

Of course, you don’t need to swing your arms around and go overboard.

Create “wow” moments. Think back to any memorable presentations you’ve watched. They’re probably memorable not because you remember the majority of their details, but because of one or two moments that really stood out.

A great example is Bill Gates’ 2009 TED talk about his foundation’s efforts to reduce the spread of malaria.

Gates started the presentation off by stating: “Now, malaria is, of course, transmitted by mosquitoes. I brought some here so you could experience this.”

He then promptly walked to the center of the stage and opened a small jar that contained non-infected mosquitos.

The presentation is well-remembered even a decade later because he captured everyone’s attention through surprise.

Polish multiple times. Don’t review your presentation once and call it a day. Perfection requires iteration.

A popular and effective approach is to start by outlining your ideas and structure to make sure you’re satisfied with the foundation.

From there, add in all your details and what you want to say. Don’t be afraid to end up with a messy, bloated monster of a presentation.

The next step is to polish your presentation down to the bare essentials. Examine what information is critical for your core message and what isn’t.

This step is often the most difficult, as it can be challenging to choose what information to eliminate to reach that target of six words per slide.

Practice in front of people. You can practice a million times in front of a mirror, but it still won’t prepare you for stepping in front of an actual crowd.

You need to become accustomed to confidently addressing a group of faces .

Use a remote. Using a remote to advance your slides allows you to face the audience at all times.

Prepare backup material. During the presentation, you’re going to discover that not everything you say is going to resonate with the audience.

Be genuine. Although you want your presentation to be polished and well-practiced, make sure to maintain a sense of authenticity when delivering it.

Use small moments of humor to make your message more memorable and interesting to listen to.

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Justin Parker is a dynamic and driven writing professional in advertising, film, and web-based content. He has over 10 years of experience as a professional writer in these realms, having written for commercials, music videos, feature screenplays, and content for Zippia. Justin holds a bachelor's of fine arts degree in film and television from the Savannah College of Art and Design.

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

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How to Give a Killer Presentation

• Chris Anderson

For more than 30 years, the TED conference series has presented enlightening talks that people enjoy watching. In this article, Anderson, TED’s curator, shares five keys to great presentations:

• Frame your story (figure out where to start and where to end).
• Plan your delivery (decide whether to memorize your speech word for word or develop bullet points and then rehearse it—over and over).
• Work on stage presence (but remember that your story matters more than how you stand or whether you’re visibly nervous).
• Plan the multimedia (whatever you do, don’t read from PowerPoint slides).
• Put it together (play to your strengths and be authentic).

According to Anderson, presentations rise or fall on the quality of the idea, the narrative, and the passion of the speaker. It’s about substance—not style. In fact, it’s fairly easy to “coach out” the problems in a talk, but there’s no way to “coach in” the basic story—the presenter has to have the raw material. So if your thinking is not there yet, he advises, decline that invitation to speak. Instead, keep working until you have an idea that’s worth sharing.

Lessons from TED

A little more than a year ago, on a trip to Nairobi, Kenya, some colleagues and I met a 12-year-old Masai boy named Richard Turere, who told us a fascinating story. His family raises livestock on the edge of a vast national park, and one of the biggest challenges is protecting the animals from lions—especially at night. Richard had noticed that placing lamps in a field didn’t deter lion attacks, but when he walked the field with a torch, the lions stayed away. From a young age, he’d been interested in electronics, teaching himself by, for example, taking apart his parents’ radio. He used that experience to devise a system of lights that would turn on and off in sequence—using solar panels, a car battery, and a motorcycle indicator box—and thereby create a sense of movement that he hoped would scare off the lions. He installed the lights, and the lions stopped attacking. Soon villages elsewhere in Kenya began installing Richard’s “lion lights.”

• CA Chris Anderson is the curator of TED.

Partner Center

How to make a great presentation

Stressed about an upcoming presentation? These talks are full of helpful tips on how to get up in front of an audience and make a lasting impression.

The secret structure of great talks

The beauty of data visualization

TED's secret to great public speaking

How to speak so that people want to listen

How great leaders inspire action

How to Give a Killer Presentation: 18 Top Tips

People attend presentations to learn and gain useful insight. But way too often, we see the audience yawn, scroll on their phones or check their watch, wishing that the time would go faster.

Is it that the content of the presentation isn’t interesting enough, or that the speaker doesn’t know how to engage the audience?

Whatever the reason, delivering an engaging presentation is an art that takes some time to master.

Based on my own experience from the stage, and from observing other speakers at industry-leading conferences, I’ve collected these 18 top tips. May they help you give a presentation that will wow your audience:

• Plan your storyline
• Use the rule of three
• Simplify your slides
• Include numbers
• Use the power of visuals
• Practice relentlessly
• Greet the audience in their local language
• Break the ice at the start
• Engage your audience with live polls
• Move around the stage and make gestures
• Smile and make eye contact
• Consider using props
• Go among the audience
• Give rewards for participation
• Prompt a discussion in the audience
• Build in time for Q&A
• Crowdsource questions from the audience
• Gather feedback

1. Plan your storyline

A powerful story can make your whole presentation. Take TED talks, for instance. They’re all based on captivating stories that support the main argument or line of thought of each speech.

Give your presentation a concept. Use a classic narrative structure, from a gripping outset to an impressive end. A presentation designer Nancy Duarte advises presenters to spend twice as much time on framing the storyline than creating the actual slides.

Also, don’t forget to add emotional details and power words. These will make your audience feel much more connected to you. People will eventually forget your slides and your presentation, but they will not forget how you made them feel.

2. Use the rule of three

People can usually remember only three main points from presentations, so take advantage of this psychological phenomenon.

While creating your storyline, think of three key messages that you want your audience to walk out of the room with. To make these three key points stick, you need to make them short, memorable and attention-grabbing.

On the other hand, if your presentation revolves around one main argument, make use of the Aristotelian “triptych” method: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them.” In a nutshell, you should properly introduce the point you will be making, then make your point, and then wrap up with summarizing the main point.

3. Simplify your slides

No matter how rich in content your slides are, if they’re too crowded, nobody is going to read them. Too much text on slides actually takes your audience’s attention away from your presentation, which hinders the learning process.

Make your slides as simple as possible and try to present only one idea per slide. Sometimes, one powerful sentence, a number, or even one word, can say more than a slide full of bullet points.

4. Include numbers

When used sensibly, numbers can strengthen your point and back up your arguments. To make data easy for your audience to digest, you need to make it specific, relevant and contextual.

When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod , he did not emphasize its 5GB storage and 185g weight. Instead, he repeatedly said that it could hold 1,000 songs and physically manifested that he could fit it into his pocket. This number was easy for the audience to remember, and called even more attention to its tiny size.

5. Use the power of visuals

Videos or images not only engage the audience but also help to evoke emotions that are otherwise super difficult for speakers to elicit by themselves.

Make sure that the visuals you use support the main point of your presentation, or demonstrate what you’re talking about. This works very well in the creative industry, where visual aids are often necessary to complement the main content.

However, if you’re going to use video, be cautious. A too lengthy or unengaging video may put people to sleep rather than keep them attentive.

6. Practice relentlessly

Attending a presentation where the speaker keeps looking down at his notes is painful so don’t underestimate this point. For instance, Winston Churchill rehearsed for hours, even days, to deliver a 10-minute long speech.

Memorize your presentation flow by heart if need be. Do it to the extent that you won’t need the notes.

During your rehearsals, use a video camera to record yourself in order to see where you stutter, where you seem nervous and how you work with your body language. Don’t be afraid to ask a friend to give you feedback.

Tim Ferris , the author of The 4-Hour Workweek, follows a Spartan’s preparation for his public speeches. He splits his presentation into several segments and he goes through each one of them up to ten times.

7. Greet your audience in their local language

As a speaker, you often find yourself addressing an international audience, whether it is at a big conference or an internal company meeting joined by remote teams.

Greeting international participants in their local language gives a nice personal touch to the offset of your presentation. It helps you create a connection and the feeling of intimacy with the people sitting before you.

I always memorize how to say “Hello” and “How are you?” in the local language, and use them as soon as I come onstage. You can even take it a step further and adjust your presentation ad hoc to the audience, by making local references.

For example, Google’s Digital Marketing Evangelist, Avinash Kaushik , started his talk at the Marketing festival by showing pictures from his tour around the hosting city of Brno, Czech Republic. Moreover, he used the Czech websites that the audience was closely familiar with, instead of international ones, to get his point across.

8. Break the ice at the start

Hook your audience right off the bat. Using an effective icebreaker will help you set the stage and energize your attendees.

Here’s an inspiration for you: At the 2018 World Education Congress (WEC) , I asked people to close their eyes and think of a presentation session that had recently impressed them. After 30 seconds, I invited them to share their dream session with their neighbor and describe it using one word, before submitting it to a Slido word cloud poll.

Next, I asked them to picture the usual experience of attending a presentation and describe it again, using a single word. Seeing the differences in the two consequent word cloud polls was very thought-provoking and sparked up a discussion among the attendees.

Other than using technology, you can liven up your audience with a classic show of hands or other brisk icebreaking activities , such as rock, paper, scissors or live barometer.

Related story: The Complete List of 200 Icebreaker Questions and Tips On How to Use Them

9. Engage your audience with live polls

Once you win your audience over, keep up the pace by creating enough interaction points throughout your presentation.

Live polling is your best bet here. When smartly used, live polls will keep your attendees engaged during the whole length of your presentation. They also help you to effectively collect your audience’s insights, which you can then showcase on screen. This multiplies the learning element of your presentation.

In general, I follow the human attention span and use a poll every 8-10 minutes, which is 5-6 polls for a 60-minute talk, maximum.

To give you an example, during the latest webinar I led, I asked the participants a simple rating poll: “How would you rate interaction in the classroom today?”

The results set a good ground for the main argument I was going to make about insufficient interactivity in education, and really helped me make my point.

On top of that, this strategy allows me to break the long content deliveries into more digestible chunks, regain the audience’s attention, and ignite conversations based on the results.

The last point is particularly important. Live polls make sense only when you facilitate their use. So make sure to always follow up on the results, share your thoughts on them, or get the audience to share why they voted the way they did.

Related story: The Complete Guide: How to Use and Facilitate Slido Polls in Your Presentation

10. Move around the stage and make gestures

If you stand rigidly in one spot or behind a speaker’s stand, you will only appear unconfident and nervous. Think of yourself as an actor on stage, and your presentation as your performance. Use open, big gestures, point in the direction of the audience, or slowly walk about the stage. 

At this year’s Festival of Marketing , Mark Ritson – who was opening the event – reminded me of the importance of using body language. He kept pacing the stage in a natural way and was gesturing throughout the entire length of his speech. It was definitely one of the most engaging sessions I’ve attended this year.

11. Smile and make eye contact

The way you communicate with your audience through your facial expressions makes a huge difference. So don’t look down at your notes, don’t look at your slides, but keep your eyes set on your audience.

Lisa Wentz, a public speaking expert, advises to pick 3 people in the audience that you like, each one at a different corner of the auditorium, and make eye contact with them throughout your presentation. However, avoid staring at one person for too long. Use the selected people only as navigation points that will help you scan the room.

12. Consider using props

Demonstrating the point with the use of props is a powerful way to help the attendees visualize what is being described verbally. Showing a prop at the right moment can help you catch your audience’s attention and enforce your story.

Neuroscientist Jill Bolte Taylor brought a real human brain on stage during her emotional TED talk to explain what had happened to her when she had a stroke. She touched the audience with this demonstration and left them in complete awe.

13. Go among the audience

Asking people questions may feel impersonal if you stand onstage. On top of that, large auditoriums often make it difficult to create intimacy with your audience.

Draw inspiration from rock singers here and “jump” off the stage. Going among the audience will help you build a stronger bond with them and your presentation will feel more personal.

This approach is invaluable if you hope to collect impromptu answers after you have asked your question. Move slowly around the room, and when someone shuffles or raises a hand, approach them with a mic and elicit an answer.

When another hand shoots up, move to that corner of the room, and so on. The point here is to be as close to your audience as possible.

If possible, check the room advance to get used to the space arrangements. This will help you move around more naturally and with more confidence.

14. Give rewards for participation

Despite all your efforts, the audience might need a bit of a nudge. Giving out small rewards can bring another interactive element to your presentation. You can go with the event merchandise or small treats, like chocolates and candy.

For example, at the Eventex conference , one of the speakers, Victor Neyndorff , encouraged people to share their thoughts by handing out chocolate from the Netherlands, his home country.

To give you another idea, at the Jam London conference , the organizers decided to give away books to those attendees who were the most active in asking questions via Slido. This really helped incentivize the audience to participate and improved the dialogue in the room.

15. Prompt a discussion in the audience

You can give audience engagement another spin by giving your attendees an activity that they can participate in.

For example, you can present a statement for the participants to discuss, or give them a task to solve in groups. Where appropriate, walk around the room, join the conversations, and encourage people to talk to each other.

At the Conventa Crossover conference in Slovenia, moderator Jan-Jaap In der Maur put people in small groups and asked them to share the technological trends that they believed will have the biggest impact on the industry in the near future.

Then he collected a few comments from the floor to open a discussion with the whole room.

Simple. Engaging. Useful.

If facilitated properly, activities like these can work equally well with an audience of 20 people as they can with 2,000.

Related story: 5 Essential Pieces of The Audience Engagement Puzzle

16. Build in time for the Q&A

Even if you incorporate interactive elements to your presentation, your audience will surely have additional questions.

For that reason, don’t be scared to allocate as much as 10-20 minutes to the Q&A, depending on the length of your presentation slot.

After I finish my talk, instead of asking, “Are there any questions?” (which typically leads to silence), I like to ask, “What are your questions?”, or say, “Now, let’s get to your questions.” In case I don’t get an instant reaction from the audience, I get off the stage and walk among the audience to encourage the discussion.

In rare moments when no questions come up, I kick off the Q&A by saying: “What people usually ask me is…” and then give an answer. In 9/10 times, the discussion catches on.

17. Crowdsource questions from the audience

Lack of audience questions doesn’t necessarily mean that your audience doesn’t have questions. They may just be uncomfortable with speaking up in public.

Live Q&A tools like Slido allow you to effortlessly crowdsource questions from your audience throughout your presentation via an app. 

Compared to passing the mic amongst the people in the audience, you will give everyone an equal chance to ask questions, regardless of their level of shyness.

If you’re using a Q&A app, it’s important that you introduce and facilitate it properly. I often say something like: “Take a minute and think about what you’ve just heard. Come up with a question that you have, and submit it to Slido.” It works every single time.

Then, just take a look at the screen, or a confidence monitor, and address the questions that have the most upvotes.

If you display the crowdsourced questions on the screen, read each question out loud when addressing it. It will help your audience – even the ones sitting at the back – to know which question you are answering. 

Extra tip: Sometimes, you get way more questions from your audience than you can answer during your time-limited Q&A slot. Don’t leave them hanging in the air. Here you’ll find 5 tips on what to do with unanswered questions after your Q&A .

18. Gather feedback

Feedback is priceless for improving your presentation skills. There’s never enough of it. You can collect feedback easily via Slido feedback survey . Combine rating polls for quick assessment and open text polls to give your participants space for more in-depth comments.

Your feedback survey could look something like this:

• How would you rate this presentation? (rating poll)
• What is your main takeaway from this session? (open text poll)
• What would you improve? (open text poll)

To boost the response rate, make sure that you ask your attendees to fill out the survey while they’re still in the room.

With the tips I’ve listed above, you’ll be able to turn your presentation or lecture from a one-way content broadcast into an exciting conversation between you and your attendees.

Engage your attendees with Slido live Q&A and polls.

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Giving a presentation: 27 Tips, Tactics & Examples

Home » Giving a presentation: 27 Tips, Tactics & Examples   | 🕑 

Gust de Backer

November 5, 2023.

You need to give a presentation to a group of people….

But, you don’t quite know how to start, what to look for and how to enthuse the audience.

I show you:

• How to make a good presentation
• That connects with the audience
• And where you make your story come across convincingly

Let’s get started…

Table of Contents

1. Start with your audience

Before you start making a presentation, it is important to think about the audience that will receive your presentation.

The content needs to be tailored to your audience, some questions that will help you do this:

• What is the age range of your audience?
• What is the audience’s level of knowledge about your topic?
• What are the interests and needs of the audience?
• What is the audience’s attitude toward the topic?
• How many people are in the audience?
• What is the audience trying to get out of the presentation?
• Why is the audience coming to your presentation?

2. Formulate a goal

Without a goal, it is difficult to know what you are trying to accomplish and you will not be able to measure success.

When formulating your goal, keep the following in mind:

• What do you want the audience to do after your presentation?
• What do you want them to remember?
• What do you want them to think or feel?

Avoid commercial intentions, as this causes the audience to question whether what they are hearing is objective.

3. Outline it

Before you actually start working on your presentation in its entirety, it is a good idea to first write it out in broad outline.

A few tips to help you do this:

• Make sure you have a good introduction : be unique, ask a question, start with a powerful statement or tell a short (personal) story. The beginning is the most important, the first impression counts.
• Keep it concise and simple : kill your darlings, remove everything that doesn’t add anything.
• Ensure a logical order : avoid saying that you will explain certain parts later in your presentation, make sure you have a smooth running whole.
• Tell a story : use storytelling so you can draw people into your story and keep them interested.
• Don’t cram too much into one slide : make sure you really minimize the content per slide to keep the right focus.
• End with your key takeaways : people remember the first and last parts of an event best, so end with your key takeaways.
• Try to keep to the 10-20-30 rule : fewer than 10 slides in less than 20 minutes with a font size of 30.
• Use metaphors and analogies : this really ensures that the audience understands what you are trying to say.

Good presentations contain logos, ethos and pathos:

• Logos : how convincing can you make your arguments using data, facts, research etc.
• Ethos : is about the speaker, how much credibility he/she has in a particular subject.
• Pathos : pathos is about the connection you have with the audience. Sympathy and empathy can be obtained by using storytelling.

4. Make the presentation

Make sure slides are short and to the point , don’t cram them full of text and don’t use them as a bill to read aloud.

Use a large font so that everyone can read it and play with bold words and colors. It is also good to add visual supporting material , after all, a picture says more than 1,000 words.

It can also be interesting to incorporate short quizzes/games to keep the audience engaged.

5. Practice the presentation

Never forget to practice for an important presentation, in it you will still discover many mistakes in your presentation….

In addition, it is also smart to film yourself during your presentation to improve your non-verbal communication as well.

Also try practicing with music or background noise on, at least something that might reduce your focus. This will make you better prepared for people who are noisy.

How do you deal with nerves?

Prepare yourself mentally, emotionally and technically:

• Mental preparation : you find that a presentation goes well when you feel comfortable with the content, you know what you are talking about and you have passion for it. So make sure you know what you’re talking about and that you’re convinced of that yourself.
• Emotional preparation : many people have a fear of speaking in front of a group and don’t like the attention they get in the process. Great speakers often also have a fear of speaking in front of a group, but they have learned to deal with it. Wear clothes you feel professional and good in and make sure you have done some mindfulness exercises beforehand.
• Technical preparation : regardless of whether you have to speak online, in a large hall or in front of a small group of people, it is important to test whether everything works properly in terms of light, sound and presentation.

6. Give the presentation

There are some tips you can apply in giving the presentation:

• Dress so you feel confident.
• Make eye contact with the audience.
• Ask questions of the audience in between presentations, this ensures that they give commitment to your presentation and that you can better match your content to the answers.
• Use your hands while presenting.
• Talk slowly enough so that everyone can follow along.
• Start strong and finish well , people remember the beginning, the peak and the end of an event best.
• Make sure you leave enough silences , it makes your point come across better.
• Be enthusiastic and be sure to radiate that.
• Make sure you play with your intonation so it doesn’t become monotonous.
• Avoid jargon , make sure everyone can understand the presentation.

7. Evaluate your performance

After you have given your presentation, it is good to evaluate how you did. This will ultimately help you to progressively improve your presentations.

You can use the following questions as a guide:

• How well did I connect with the audience?
• Did I sound nervous or unsure of myself?
• Did I use filler words?
• Did I maintain eye contact with the audience?
• How well did I handle questions from the audience?
• Did I cover all the material I planned to cover?
• What could I have done better?

You could also ask your audience afterwards to judge your presentation in terms of content and communication. Of course you can also watch the recording of your presentation or evaluate yourself immediately after the presentation.

Get Started…

So, now you’re armed with enough knowledge to make a good presentation….

I’m curious, what do you think is the most effective presentation technique?

Let me know in a comment!

P.S. Need extra help? Send an email to [email protected]

Frequently asked questions

Make sure you keep the presentation short and to the point where you don’t include too much text and components in your presentation. In addition, it is important to get a connection with the audience.

Don’t stand still like a sandbag, but walk around a bit and actively use your hands to reinforce your body language.

Make sure you are forced to smile beforehand, this gives you unconsciously some rest. In addition, it is useful to do some mindfulness exercises.

Make sure you know what you are talking about, that you speak calmly, that you are well dressed and that you have fun doing it.

I try to help business surpass their growth ceiling with my content.

Sounds interesting?

Let’s connect on LinkedIn!

Change Management | Influencer Marketing | Personal Development | Stakeholder Analysis | Team Management

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• Growth Hacking
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Home Blog Education Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Presentation Skills 101: A Guide to Presentation Success

Getting the perfect presentation design is just a step toward a successful presentation. For the experienced user, building presentation skills is the answer to elevating the power of your message and showing expertise on any subject. Still, one can ask: is it the same set of skills, or are they dependable on the type of presentation?

In this article, we will introduce the different types of presentations accompanied by the skillset required to master them. The purpose, as always, is to retain the audience’s interest for a long-lasting and convincing message.

Table of Contents

The Importance of Presentation Skills

Persuasive presentations, instructional presentations, informative presentations, inspirational presentations, basic presentation skills, what are the main difficulties when giving a presentation, recommendations to improve your presentation skills, closing statement.

Effective communication is the answer to reaching business and academic goals. The scenarios in which we can be required to deliver a presentation are as diverse as one can imagine. Still, some core concepts apply to all presentations.

 We define presentation skills as a compendium of soft skills that directly affect your presentation performance and contribute to creating a great presentation. These are not qualities acquired by birth but skills you ought to train and master to delve into professional environments.

You may ask: is it really that evident when a presenter is not prepared? Here are some common signs people can experience during presentations:

• Evasive body language: Not making eye contact with the audience, arms closed tightly to the body, hands in pockets all the time.
• Lack of interest in the presenter’s voice: dull tone, not putting an effort to articulate the topics.
• Doubting when asked to answer a question
• Irksome mood

The list can go on about common presenter mistakes , and most certainly, it will affect the performance of any presented data if the lack of interest by the presenter is blatantly obvious.  Another element to consider is anxiety, and according to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, 73% of the population in the USA is affected by glossophobia , which is the fear of public speaking, judgment, or negative evaluation by other people.

Therefore, presentation skills training is essential for any business professional who wants to achieve effective communication . It will remove the anxiety from presentation performance and help users effectively deliver their message and connect with the audience.

Archetypes of presentations

Persuasive presentations aim to convince the audience – often in short periods – to acquire a product or service, adhere to a cause, or invest in a company. For business entrepreneurs or politicians, persuasive presentations are their tool for the trade.

Unless you aim to be perceived as an imposter, a proper persuasive presentation has the elements of facts, empathy, and logic, balanced under a well-crafted narrative. The central pillar of these presentations is to identify the single factor that gathered your audience: it could be a market need, a social cause, or a revolutionary concept for today’s society. It has to be something with enough power to gather critiques – both good and bad.

That single factor has to be backed up by facts. Research that builds your hypothesis on how to solve that problem. A deep understanding of the target audience’s needs , concerns, and social position regarding the solution your means can offer. When those elements are in place, building a pitch becomes an easy task. 

Graphics can help you introduce information in a compelling format, lowering the need for lengthy presentations. Good presentation skills for persuasive presentations go by the hand of filtering relevant data and creating the visual cues that resonate with what your audience demands.

One powerful example of a persuasive presentation is the technique known as the elevator pitch . You must introduce your idea or product convincingly to the audience in a timeframe between 30 seconds and less than 2 minutes. You have to expose:

• What do you do 
• What’s the problem to solve
• Why is your solution different from others 
• Why should the audience care about your expertise

For that very purpose, using engaging graphics with contrasting colors elevates the potential power of your message. It speaks professionalism, care for details, and out-of-the-box thinking. Knowing how to end a presentation is also critical, as your CTAs should be placed with care.

Therefore, let’s resume the requirements of persuasive presentations in terms of good presentation skills:

• Identifying problems and needs
• Elaborating “the hook” (the element that grabs the audience’s attention)
• Knowing how to “tie” your audience (introducing a piece of information related to the hook that causes an emotional impact)
• Broad knowledge of body language and hand gestures to quickly convey your message
• Being prepared to argue a defense of your point of view
• Handling rejection
• Having a proactive attitude to convert opportunities into new projects
• Using humor, surprise, or personal anecdotes as elements to sympathize with the audience
• Having confidence
• Be able to summarize facts and information in visually appealing ways

You can learn more about persuasive presentation techniques by clicking here .

In the case of instructional presentations, we ought to differentiate two distinctive types:

• Lecture Presentations : Presentations being held at universities or any other educative institution. Those presentations cover, topic by topic, and the contents of a syllabus and are created by the team of teachers in charge of the course.
• Training Presentations : These presentations take place during in-company training sessions and usually comprise a good amount of content that is resumed into easy-to-take solutions. They are aimed to coach employees over certain topics relevant to their work performance. The 70-20-10 Model is frequently used to address these training situations.

Lecture presentations appeal to the gradual introduction of complex concepts, following a structure set in the course’s syllabus. These presentations often have a similar aesthetic as a group of professors or researchers created to share their knowledge about a topic. Personal experience does tell that course presentations often rely on factual data, adequately documented, and on the theoretical side.

An example of a presentation that lies under this concept is a Syllabus Presentation, used by the teaching team to introduce the subject to new students, evaluation methods, concepts to be learned, and expectations to pass the course.

On the other hand, training presentations are slide decks designed to meet an organization’s specific needs in the formal education of their personnel. Commonly known as “continuous education,” plenty of companies invest resources in coaching their employees to achieve higher performance results. These presentations have the trademark of being concise since their idea is to introduce the concepts that shall be applied in practice sessions. 

Ideally, the training presentations are introduced with little text and easy-to-recognize visual cues. Since the idea is to summarize as much as possible, these are visually appealing for the audience. They must be dynamic enough to allow the presenter to convey the message.

Those key takeaways remind employees when they revisit their learning resources and allow them to ruminate on questions that fellow workers raise. 

To sum up this point, building presentation skills for instructional presentations requires:

• Ability to put complex concepts into simpler words
• Patience and a constant learning mindset
• Voice training to deliver lengthy speeches without being too dense
• Ability to summarize points and note the key takeaways
• Empathizing with the audience to understand their challenges in the learning process

The informative presentations take place in business situations, such as when to present project reports from different departments to the management. Another potential usage of these presentations is in SCRUM or other Agile methodologies, when a sprint is completed, to discuss the advance of the project with the Product Owner.

As they are presentations heavily dependent on data insights, it’s common to see the usage of infographics and charts to express usually dense data in simpler terms and easy to remember. 

Informative presentations don’t just fall into the business category. Ph.D. Dissertation and Thesis presentations are topics that belong to the informative presentations category as they condense countless research hours into manageable reports for the academic jury. 

Since these informational presentations can be perceived as lengthy and data-filled, it is important to learn the following professional presentation skills:

• Attention to detail
• Be able to explain complex information in simpler terms
• Creative thinking
• Powerful diction
• Working on pauses and transitions
• Pacing the presentation, so not too much information is divulged per slide

The leading inspirational platform, TEDx, comes to mind when talking about inspirational presentations. This presentation format has the peculiarity of maximizing the engagement with the audience to divulge a message, and due to that, it has specific requirements any presenter must meet.

This presentation format usually involves a speaker on a stage, either sitting or better standing, in which the presenter engages with the audience with a storytelling format about a life experience, a job done that provided a remarkable improvement for society, etc.

Empathizing with the audience is the key ingredient for these inspirational presentations. Still, creativity is what shapes the outcome of your performance as people are constantly looking for different experiences – not the same recipe rephrased with personal touches. The human factor is what matters here, way above data and research. What has your experience to offer to others? How can it motivate another human being to pursue a similar path or discover their true calling?

To achieve success in terms of communication skills presentation, these inspirational presentations have the following requirements:

• Focus on the audience (engage, consider their interests, and make them a part of your story)
• Putting ego aside
• Creative communication skills
• Storytelling skills
• Body language knowledge to apply the correct gestures to accompany your story
• Voice training
• Using powerful words

After discussing the different kinds of presentations we can come across at any stage of our lives, a group of presentation skills is standard in any type of presentation. See below what makes a good presentation and which skills you must count on to succeed as a presenter.

Punctuality

Punctuality is a crucial aspect of giving an effective presentation. Nothing says more about respect for your audience and the organization you represent than delivering the presentation on time . Arriving last minute puts pressure on the tech team behind audiovisuals, as they don’t have enough preparation to test microphones, stage lights, and projector settings, which can lead to a less powerful presentation Even when discussing presentations hosted in small rooms for a reduced audience, testing the equipment becomes essential for an effective presentation.

A solution for this is to arrive at least 30 minutes early. Ideally, one hour is a sweet spot since the AV crew has time to check the gear and requirements for your presentation. Another benefit of this, for example, in inspirational presentations, is measuring the previous presenter’s impact on the audience. This gives insights about how to resonate with the public, and their interest, and how to accommodate your presentation for maximum impact.

Body Language

Our bodies can make emotions transparent for others, even when we are unaware of such a fact. Proper training for body language skills reduces performance anxiety, giving the audience a sense of expertise about the presented topic. 

Give your presentation and the audience the respect they deserve by watching over these potential mistakes:

• Turning your back to the audience for extended periods : It’s okay to do so when introducing an important piece of information or explaining a graph, but it is considered rude to give your back to the audience constantly.
• Fidgeting : We are all nervous in the presence of strangers, even more, if we are the center of attention for that moment. Instead of playing with your hair or making weird hand gestures, take a deep breath to center yourself before the presentation and remember that everything you could do to prepare is already done. Trust your instincts and give your best.
• Intense eye contact : Have you watched a video where the presenter stared at the camera the entire time? That’s the feeling you transmit to spectators through intense eye contact. It’s a practice often used by politicians to persuade.
• Swearing : This is a no-brainer. Even when you see influencers swearing on camera or in podcasts or live presentations, it is considered an informal and lousy practice for business and academic situations. If you have a habit to break when it comes to this point, find the humor in these situations and replace your swear words with funny alternatives (if the presentation allows for it). 

Voice Tone plays a crucial role in delivering effective presentations and knowing how to give a good presentation. Your voice is a powerful tool for exposing your ideas and feelings . Your voice can articulate the message you are telling, briefing the audience if you feel excited about what you are sharing or, in contrast, if you feel the presentation is a burden you ought to complete.

Remember, passion is a primary ingredient in convincing people. Therefore, transmitting such passion with a vibrant voice may help gather potential business partners’ interest.  

But what if you feel sick prior to the presentation? If, by chance, your throat is sore minutes before setting foot on the stage, try this: when introducing yourself, mention that you are feeling a bit under the weather. This resonates with the audience to pay more attention to your efforts. In case you don’t feel comfortable about that, ask the organizers for a cup of tea, as it will settle your throat and relax your nerves.

Tech Skills

Believe it or not, people still feel challenged by technology these days. Maybe that’s the reason why presentation giants like Tony Robbins opt not to use PowerPoint presentations . The reality is that there are plenty of elements involved in a presentation that can go wrong from the tech side:

• A PDF not opening
• Saving your presentation in a too-recent PowerPoint version
• A computer not booting up
• Mac laptops and their never-ending compatibility nightmare
• Not knowing how to change between slides
• Not knowing how to use a laser pointer
• Internet not working
• Audio not working

We can come up with a pretty long list of potential tech pitfalls, and yet more than half of them fall in presenters not being knowledgeable about technology.

If computers aren’t your thing, let the organization know about this beforehand. There is always a crew member available to help presenters switch between slides or configure the presentation for streaming. This takes the pressure off your shoulders, allowing you to concentrate on the content to present. Remember, even Bill Gates can get a BSOD during a presentation .

Presentations, while valuable for conveying information and ideas, can be daunting for many individuals. Here are some common difficulties people encounter when giving presentations:

Public Speaking Anxiety

Glossophobia, the fear of public speaking, affects a significant portion of the population. This anxiety can lead to nervousness, trembling, and forgetfulness during a presentation.

Lack of Confidence

Many presenters struggle with self-doubt, fearing that they may not be knowledgeable or skilled enough to engage their audience effectively.

Content Organization

Organizing information in a coherent and engaging manner can be challenging. Presenters often grapple with how to structure their content to make it easily digestible for the audience. Artificial Intelligence can help us significantly reduce the content arrangement time when you work with tools like our AI Presentation Maker (made for presenters by experts in presentation design). 

Audience Engagement

Keeping the audience’s attention and interest throughout the presentation can be difficult. Distractions, disengaged attendees, or lack of interaction can pose challenges.

Technical Issues

Technology glitches, such as malfunctioning equipment, incompatible file formats, or poor internet connectivity, can disrupt presentations and increase stress.

Time Management

Striking the right balance between providing enough information and staying within time limits is a common challenge. Going over or under the allotted time can affect the effectiveness of the presentation.

Handling Questions and Challenges

Responding to unexpected questions, criticism, or challenges from the audience can be difficult, especially when presenters are unprepared or lack confidence in their subject matter.

Visual Aids and Technology

Creating and effectively using visual aids like slides or multimedia can be a struggle for some presenters. Technical competence is essential in this aspect.

Language and Articulation

Poor language skills or unclear articulation can hinder effective communication. Presenters may worry about stumbling over words or failing to convey their message clearly.

Maintaining appropriate and confident body language can be challenging. Avoiding nervous habits, maintaining eye contact, and using gestures effectively requires practice.

Overcoming Impersonal Delivery

In virtual presentations, maintaining a personal connection with the audience can be difficult. The absence of face-to-face interaction can make it challenging to engage and read the audience.

Cultural and Diversity Awareness

Presenting to diverse audiences requires sensitivity to cultural differences and varying levels of familiarity with the topic.

In this section, we gathered some tips on how to improve presentation skills that can certainly make an impact if applied to your presentation skills. We believe these skills can be cultivated to transform into habits for your work routine.

Tip #1: Build a narrative

One memorable way to guarantee presentation success is by writing a story of all the points you desire to cover. This statement is based on the logic behind storytelling and its power to connect with people .

Don’t waste time memorizing slides or reading your presentation to the audience. It feels unnatural, and any question that diverts from the topic in discussion certainly puts you in jeopardy or, worse, exposes you as a fraud in the eyes of the audience. And before you ask, it is really evident when a presenter has a memorized speech. 

Build and rehearse the presentation as if telling a story to a group of interested people. Lower the language barrier by avoiding complex terms that maybe even you aren’t fully aware of their meaning. Consider the ramifications of that story, what it could lead to, and which are the opportunities to explore. Then, visualize yourself giving the presentation in a natural way.

Applying this technique makes the presentation feel like second nature to you. It broadens the spectrum in which you can show expertise over a topic or even build the basis for new interesting points of view about the project.

Tip #2: Don’t talk for more than 3 minutes per slide

It is a common practice of presenters to bombard the audience with facts and information whilst retaining the same slide on the screen. Why can this happen? It could be because the presenter condensed the talk into very few slides and preferred to talk. The reality is that your spectators won’t retain the information you are giving unless you give visual cues to help that process. 

Opt to prepare more slides and pace your speech to match the topics shown on each slide. Don’t spend more than 3 minutes per slide unless you have to introduce a complex piece of data. Use visual cues to direct the spectators about what you talk about, and summarize the principal concepts discussed at the end of each section.

Tip #3: Practice meditation daily

Anxiety is the number one enemy of professional presenters. It slowly builds without you being aware of your doubts and can hinder your performance in multiple ways: making you feel paralyzed, fidgeting, making you forget language skills or concepts, affecting your health, etc.

Meditation is an ancient practice taken from Buddhist teachings that train your mind to be here in the present. We often see the concepts of meditation and mindfulness as synonyms, whereas you should be aware that meditation is a practice that sets the blocks to reach a state of mindfulness. For presenters, being in the here and now is essential to retain focus, but meditation techniques also teach us to control our breathing and be in touch with our body signals when stress builds up. 

The customary practice of meditation has an impact on imagination and creativity but also helps to build patience – a skill much needed for connecting with your audience in instructional presentations.

Having the proper set of presentation skills can be quite subjective. It goes beyond presentation tips and deepens into how flexible we can be in our ability to communicate ideas.

Different presentations and different audiences shape the outcome of our efforts. Therefore, having a basic understanding of how to connect, raise awareness, and empathize with people can be key ingredients for your career as a presenter. A word of advice: success doesn’t happen overnight. It takes dedication and patience to build communication skills . Don’t condition your work to believe you will be ready “someday”; it’s best to practice and experience failure as part of the learning process.

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Business Presentations, Presentation Approaches, Presentation Skills Filed under Education

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How to give a strong presentation: tips & key phrases

Test your understanding of this English lesson

137 comments.

Hi every body ….. I’m new here plz anyone help me to understand the process of learning here…. i want to improve my English skills….. so plz guide me…. i shall be very thankful to you for this kindness…

sir you just tell us about the title of your lecture ,but where is your lecture… guide me

Thank you teacher, it was a very interesting lesson!

thanx mr Benjamin

Thank you for this useful lesson and for your helpful explanation.

Dear teachers,

Please let me know if the following sentence is grammatically correct. “Some people are that stupid I’m starting to wonder how they made so far.” I’ve been having hard times figuring it out for myself. Thank you in advance.

Thanks Benjamin. I did just 6/10, but I’ll still trying

Hi, how are you ? my name is Lucas, I´m from Brazil too I want to practice English with you If you want too, answer this comment please my email is [email protected] Até mais…

See you around….

I really appreciate what you do, and If you don’t mind I’d like to ask you to explain the passive voice with questions coz It’s a little confused me. just with questions not all.

In practice, do pattern drills, exercise 7 on “How to make a strong presentation” 1. Begin with / by (start off) Benjamin’s video fitly begins with an elegant flair. 2. Base on Most Benjamin’s video is based on teaching the non-English speaking student. 3. Come up with I’d like you to come up with those Benjamin’s video to improving English day by day. 4. Deal with I’ll deal with the future, my English to be as well as native English speaker. 5. Move on Well , let us move on to the next item . 6. Refer to All of the audience could referred to the transcript of Benjamin’s video. 7. To conclude My conclusion: keep learning English, let’s love and go for it.

You did a great JOB. :)

Thank you so much!

Very helpful lesson. Thanks Benjamin.

All of teachers here are good!

Thanks Benjamin, useful lesson !

Clear and loud, got it.

thank you Ben. look for your next lessons

I got 10/10. thanks a lot!! As always, you always and will be my favorite teacher! :)

Thank you, Benjamin your lesson is useful.But difficult to remember then use for speaking.

Hi Benjamin, thank you for this great lesson. I did 8 right. I learn more and more every day! Thank EngVid, thanks all teachers!

Thank you very much Mr Ben! I really love the way you teach. You´re so unpredictable that make lessons much more interesting!!

Tks Benjamin!

Thanks Teacher Benjamin for these tips.

thanks for this Useful lesson !

Positive lesson and nice tie!

Thank you Mr Benjamin!

Thanks Benjamin, great lesson!

Thanks. I did the quiz very well and got 10 out of 10.

Thank you teacher for this lesson, it’s a good for my job

Great class! Good tips! Thanks Benjamin! Love your acent by the way!!… ;)

so good lesson thankyou

Thank you, Benjamin. This is a very useful lesson. I got 100.

Hi Benjamin! “deal with” is a little bit confusing phrase. An eng-eng dictionary says “(Commerce) to do business with” that means “cooperate with” for me. As I understand from your lesson the phrase is something like ” to act in return or in answer”, that is for me a bit different from “to do business with”. I may be mistaken. Hope for your answer. Thanks for your informative lesson!

You’re right, nanajie. To deal with someone – to buy goods or services from someone, or to sell them to someone – e. g. We have dealt with the company for years. But in general, to deal with means to face something, or manage, they are closely related.

thank you for good lessons! ;)

i’d like to start by thanking Benjamin for interesting lessons here.very helpful,i got 10 out of 10.

Thanks for the class and I really appreciate at all these topics.

Hi dears Thanks for your efforts , i have a suggestion if you accept , you make me very happy. what is the best method for transelation from English to other language ? thanks

The best method is to become an interpreter. Regards.

Thanks Ms Ronni and Emma

Thank you for the lesson.

Thank you :)

Thanks, Benjamin, for this lesson!

It’s really useful to guide presentations.

I really liked this lesson, Mr. Benjamin,let me tell you,you have great teaching skills. Your name is really cool by the way refer to a American hundred bill. (:

Wow! This is a very great platform to learn for the people like me, thank you …..

succesful ::::)))))

Good lesson! Thanks teacher.

Good lesson! SirI’am new students pz help to me learn English thank you

You are really an amazing teacher!!! I love your lessons!

Thank you. Excellent lesson

Thank you, Benjamin

Dear Benjamin i’m really appreciate your job, thank you so much. I adore British accent and your lessons.

Thanks Benjamin! I love the way you speak. You speak clearly so I can understand it well. :D

Thanks Benjamin ^-^

Good one…

thank you Benjamin. it was a nice lesson

thank you very much!

I would like to begin by thanking you for teaching us. Your accent is excellent. But I have to deal with my speaking problem. If anybody help me to improve my english please find me on skype: [email protected]

Thank you Benjamin for your nice teaching.

1. Begin with / by (start off) When I was young, there was no problems to just start off an exercise without any stretching. However, I always got injured without stretching now.

2. Base on I want to base myself on Netherland for my first job.

3. Come up with The most important thing in scientific paper is to come up with a novel idea.

4. Deal with I’m now having a hard time to deal with my girlfriend’s obsession to me.

5. Move on I’m gonna move on English grammar study after finishing this.

6. Refer to My diagnosis of the ailment is referred to the book “blablabla”.

7. To conclude I conclude this practice by expressing thank to Benjamin.

If any people who find an error or better expression, I always welcome to hear your advice.

Thank you Mr. Benjamin.

It’s very usefull video! Thank you Benjamin.

This is very a helpful lesson. I’ve got 8/10 points in quiz so i think i will watch the video once again to make sure I remember all things :)

Thank you !

thanky Mr. Benjamin.

Thanks for these great points.

thank you for these informations. I think it will help many people (include me) in presentation cases. Bravo :)

Information is uncountable noun, so you do not need to add “s” behind information.

i got 9 out of ten, its difficult if you don’t analyze the sentence..

Nice and every good presentation, thank you Mr. Benjamin

I’d like to conclude this lesson by saying that it was just awesome and very important to me! Thank you!

Thank you, I will use this words in my next presentation.

I am interested in learning english well, I understand that english is not my native language

Thank you for your lesson, Benjamin. It’s really helpful.

I’d like to thank everybody here about these lessons, I hope to be successful.

Thanks ….

100%!!! Thanks for this lesson

Hi All… Nice to joint in here due to I’m just. Please kindly support me to more good english lesson.

very useful lesson. Thank you so much.

Hi, I really enjoy my first lesson here. It is very great topic since my job is giving presentation to my team.

I really enjoyed this lesson. Good job, Benjamin. Thanks a lot.

Thank you so much!!!!!

Thank you teacher for this great lesson :) :)

I’d like to thank you for your effort, really enjoying to listen to you

Thank you so much teacher

Thanks, Excellent tips, when I have the opportunity I will put it on practice.

hi i want to learn your lessons but i cant enter and

didnt open your shigt.please help me. this is my email.h. h.askari.f@gmail

I’d like to learn more on Business English, Could you please let me know how can I find more materials in this regard?

10/10 thta’s the good way to begin with

Dear Ben I’ll start off by noticing that you’ll be the perfect protagonist in a thriller/horror film. All kidding aside your lesson was very useful. Thanks you very much Ben :D

thank you so much,that was really helpful. btw i really like your accent

Great Lesson!

Thank you, Benjamin. I’m so happy that I’ve got 10 correct out of 10.

What a good lesson. Thank U Benjamin!

refer to this lesson i’d like to say thats gonna be really rewarding for me / thanks a lot

Thanks alot really it’s uesful lesson God bless you

Very good !!!

useful lesson. Thanks alot. I get 9 out of 10. =)

I got 100 point but actually, I’m confused about “refer to” which is not related about “page” and “to conclude” exactly. Could you give us more examples ? Thanks in advance …

Excellent lesson!

You helped me a lot this video is really very useful!

Hello, i’m a new user. I’m very happy of this video, thank you Benjamin ;-)

thanks Benjamin Excellent lesson!

thanks Benjamin

Thank you… It’s amazing lesson.

I’ve got 100 percent!!! Thank you for the lesson!!!!

Very good &grafic!

Great! I got 10/10. Thanks a lot

what a nice tie benjamin.

Benjamin, I have a mistake. You need second R in “I’ll be referring that to”

good lessons, thank’s teacher.

Good Teacher, thanks Ben!

Thank you so much for the teaching.

Benjamin was a very good lesson, with the information that you gave us I could improve my english and the presentatio of the result in the company that I work, the lesson add value to me. Many thanks

thank u benj for fluent speaking and clear ,specially with sentence sample ,thanks again

Sorry, it’s a be little hard to understand your lesson. I think he can improve his explanation because is not that all clear

I appreciate for your lecture. I got 100 points from your quiz!

THank you, Benjamin! 100% is unexpecting for me. Your lessons are very interesting. I always watch your lectures with pleasure. Best regards, Olga

Don’t we double the consonant when putting refer at the ing form as well as the ed form ?

Benjamin has very interesting lessons to learn.

Very good lesson, and that’s ok in my test that was very difficult…

It will help me a lot thank you

Thank you Benjamin

Thanks Sir..

thanks teacher for this useful lesson!

THANKS, ALL THE BEST FOR YOU, EASY USEFUL LESSON

Thanks Benjamin for useful lesson!

Thank you, Benjamin.

I’d like to begin my comment by thanking you Mr Benjamin for your useful lesson and the way that you gave us information based on making them easily to understand, i appreciate your effort to make kind of those lesson. really you gave me a courage to start making presentations in english language, especially in mathematics because i’m assistant professor of mathematics at university and i have to try make great presentation for my students. i conclude today’s comment by thanking again you Mr for all these tips and i wish all the best for all person who use this website to improve their English level.

Thank you so much for this lesson ! I just love your clarity, your pace and your volume, like Gill says !

thank you for this wonderful lesson

1o/1o well done,Benjamin greetings from Kazakhstan 13 Dec2o21:)

it’s great thank you

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How To Write A Presentation 101 | Step-by-Step Guides with Best Examples | 2024 Reveals

Jane Ng • 05 Apr 2024 • 8 min read

Is it difficult to start of presentation? You’re standing before a room full of eager listeners, ready to share your knowledge and captivate their attention. But where do you begin? How do you structure your ideas and convey them effectively?

Take a deep breath, and fear not! In this article, we’ll provide a road map on how to write a presentation covering everything from crafting a script to creating an engaging introduction.

So, let’s dive in!

Table of Contents

What is a presentation , what should be in a powerful presentation.

• How To Write A Presentation Script
• How to Write A Presentation Introduction 

Key Takeaways

Tips for better presentation.

• How to start a presentation
• How to introduce yourself

Start in seconds.

Get free templates for your next interactive presentation. Sign up for free and take what you want from the template library!

Presentations are all about connecting with your audience. 

Presenting is a fantastic way to share information, ideas, or arguments with your audience. Think of it as a structured approach to effectively convey your message. And you’ve got options such as slideshows, speeches, demos, videos, and even multimedia presentations!

The purpose of a presentation can vary depending on the situation and what the presenter wants to achieve. 

• In the business world, presentations are commonly used to pitch proposals, share reports, or make sales pitches. 
• In educational settings, presentations are a go-to for teaching or delivering engaging lectures. 
• For conferences, seminars, and public events—presentations are perfect for dishing out information, inspiring folks, or even persuading the audience.

That sounds brilliant. But, how to write a presentation?

How To Write A Presentation? What should be in a powerful presentation? A great presentation encompasses several key elements to captivate your audience and effectively convey your message. Here’s what you should consider including in a winning presentation:

• Clear and Engaging Introduction: Start your presentation with a bang! Hook your audience’s attention right from the beginning by using a captivating story, a surprising fact, a thought-provoking question, or a powerful quote. Clearly state the purpose of your presentation and establish a connection with your listeners.
• Well-Structured Content: Organize your content logically and coherently. Divide your presentation into sections or main points and provide smooth transitions between them. Each section should flow seamlessly into the next, creating a cohesive narrative. Use clear headings and subheadings to guide your audience through the presentation.
• Compelling Visuals: Incorporate visual aids, such as images, graphs, or videos, to enhance your presentation. Make sure your visuals are visually appealing, relevant, and easy to understand. Use a clean and uncluttered design with legible fonts and appropriate color schemes. 
• Engaging Delivery: Pay attention to your delivery style and body language. You should maintain eye contact with your audience, use gestures to emphasize key points, and vary your tone of voice to keep the presentation dynamic. 
• Clear and Memorable Conclusion: Leave your audience with a lasting impression by providing a strong closing statement, a call to action, or a thought-provoking question. Make sure your conclusion ties back to your introduction and reinforces the core message of your presentation.

How To Write A Presentation Script (With Examples)

To successfully convey your message to your audience, you must carefully craft and organize your presentation script. Here are steps on how to write a presentation script: 

1/ Understand Your Purpose and Audience

• Clarify the purpose of your presentation. Are you informing, persuading, or entertaining?
• Identify your target audience and their knowledge level, interests, and expectations.
• Define what presentation format you want to use

2/ Outline the Structure of Your Presentation

Strong opening.

Start with an engaging opening that grabs the audience’s attention and introduces your topic. Some types of openings you can use are: 

• Start with a Thought-Provoking Question: “Have you ever…?”
• Begin with a Surprising Fact or Statistic: “Did you know that….?”
• Use a Powerful Quote: “As Maya Angelou once said,….”
• Tell a Compelling Story : “Picture this: You’re standing at….”
• Start with a Bold Statement: “In the fast-paced digital age….”

Main Points

Clearly state your main points or key ideas that you will discuss throughout the presentation.

• Clearly State the Purpose and Main Points: Example: “In this presentation, we will delve into three key areas. First,… Next,… Finally,…. we’ll discuss….”
• Provide Background and Context: Example: “Before we dive into the details, let’s understand the basics of…..”
• Present Supporting Information and Examples: Example: “To illustrate…., let’s look at an example. In,…..”
• Address Counterarguments or Potential Concerns: Example: “While…, we must also consider… .”
• Recap Key Points and Transition to the Next Section: Example: “To summarize, we’ve… Now, let’s shift our focus to…”

Remember to organize your content logically and coherently, ensuring smooth transitions between sections.

You can conclude with a strong closing statement summarizing your main points and leaving a lasting impression. Example: “As we conclude our presentation, it’s clear that… By…., we can….”

3/ Craft Clear and Concise Sentences

Once you’ve outlined your presentation, you need to edit your sentences. Use clear and straightforward language to ensure your message is easily understood.

Alternatively, you can break down complex ideas into simpler concepts and provide clear explanations or examples to aid comprehension.

4/ Use Visual Aids and Supporting Materials

Use supporting materials such as statistics, research findings, or real-life examples to back up your points and make them more compelling. 

• Example: “As you can see from this graph,… This demonstrates….”

5/ Include Engagement Techniques

Incorporate interactive elements to engage your audience, such as Q&A sessions , conducting live polls, or encouraging participation. You can also spin more funs into group, by randomly dividing people into different groups to get more diverse feedbacks!

6/ Rehearse and Revise

• Practice delivering your presentation script to familiarize yourself with the content and improve your delivery.
• Revise and edit your script as needed, removing any unnecessary information or repetitions.

7/ Seek Feedback

You can share your script or deliver a practice presentation to a trusted friend, colleague, or mentor to gather feedback on your script and make adjustments accordingly.

More on Script Presentation

How to Write A Presentation Introduction with Examples

How to write presentations that are engaging and visually appealing? Looking for introduction ideas for the presentation? As mentioned earlier, once you have completed your script, it’s crucial to focus on editing and refining the most critical element—the opening of your presentation – the section that determines whether you can captivate and retain your audience’s attention right from the start. 

Here is a guide on how to craft an opening that grabs your audience’s attention from the very first minute: 

1/ Start with a Hook

To begin, you can choose from five different openings mentioned in the script based on your desired purpose and content. Alternatively, you can opt for the approach that resonates with you the most, and instills your confidence. Remember, the key is to choose a starting point that aligns with your objectives and allows you to deliver your message effectively.

2/ Establish Relevance and Context

Then you should establish the topic of your presentation and explain why it is important or relevant to your audience. Connect the topic to their interests, challenges, or aspirations to create a sense of relevance.

3/ State the Purpose

Clearly articulate the purpose or goal of your presentation. Let the audience know what they can expect to gain or achieve by listening to your presentation.

4/ Preview Your Main Points

Give a brief overview of the main points or sections you will cover in your presentation. It helps the audience understand the structure and flow of your presentation and creates anticipation.

5/ Establish Credibility

Share your expertise or credentials related to the topic to build trust with the audience, such as a brief personal story, relevant experience, or mentioning your professional background.

6/ Engage Emotionally

Connect emotional levels with your audience by appealing to their aspirations, fears, desires, or values. They help create a deeper connection and engagement from the very beginning.

Make sure your introduction is concise and to the point. Avoid unnecessary details or lengthy explanations. Aim for clarity and brevity to maintain the audience’s attention.

For example, Topic: Work-life balance

“Good morning, everyone! Can you imagine waking up each day feeling energized and ready to conquer both your personal and professional pursuits? Well, that’s exactly what we’ll explore today – the wonderful world of work-life balance. In a fast-paced society where work seems to consume every waking hour, it’s vital to find that spot where our careers and personal lives harmoniously coexist. Throughout this presentation, we’ll dive into practical strategies that help us achieve that coveted balance, boost productivity, and nurture our overall well-being. 

But before we dive in, let me share a bit about my journey. As a working professional and a passionate advocate for work-life balance, I have spent years researching and implementing strategies that have transformed my own life. I am excited to share my knowledge and experiences with all of you today, with the hope of inspiring positive change and creating a more fulfilling work-life balance for everyone in this room. So, let’s get started!”

🎉 Check out: How to Start a Presentation?

Whether you’re a seasoned speaker or new to the stage, understanding how to write a presentation that conveys your message effectively is a valuable skill. By following the steps in this guide, you can become a captivating presenter and make your mark in every presentation you deliver.

Additionally, AhaSlides can significantly enhance your presentation’s impact. With AhaSlides, you can use live polls , quizzes , and word cloud to turn your presentation into an engaging and interactive experience. Let’s take a moment to explore our vast template library !

Frequently Asked Questions

How to write a presentation step by step .

You can refer to our step-by-step guide on How To Write A Presentation Script: Understand Your Purpose and Audience Outline the Structure of Your Presentation Craft Clear and Concise Sentences Use Visual Aids and Supporting Material Include Engagement Techniques Rehearse and Revise Seek Feedback

How do you start a presentation? 

You can start with an engaging opening that grabs the audience’s attention and introduces your topic. Consider using one of the following approaches: Start with a Thought-Provoking Question: “Have you ever…?” Begin with a Surprising Fact or Statistic: “Did you know that….?” Use a Powerful Quote: “As Maya Angelou once said,….” Tell a Compelling Story : “Picture this: You’re standing at….” Start with a Bold Statement: “In the fast-paced digital age….”

What are the five parts of a presentation?

When it comes to presentation writing, a typical presentation consists of the following five parts: Introduction: Capturing the audience’s attention, introducing yourself, stating the purpose, and providing an overview. Main Body: Presenting main points, evidence, examples, and arguments. Visual Aids: Using visuals to enhance understanding and engage the audience. Conclusion: Summarizing main points, restating key message, and leaving a memorable takeaway or call to action. Q&A or Discussion: Optional part for addressing questions and encouraging audience participation.

A writer who wants to create practical and valuable content for the audience

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Learning English with Oxford

The latest language learning tips, resources, and content from oxford university press., useful phrases for giving a presentation in english.

• by Oxford University Press ELT
• Posted on April 21, 2023 February 2, 2024

Giving a presentation in English can be challenging, but with these helpful phrases, you can feel confident and ready to make a good presentation in English. 

Starting your presentation

So how to start a presentation in English? Begin by saying hello and welcoming everyone. You can also thank the audience for being there with you. 

The beginning of the presentation is one of the most important parts because you need to make sure your audience is interested from the start. 

You could tell a short story, give a fact, or simply tell the audience a little bit about yourself, e.g. ‘ Let me start by telling you a little bit about myself …’ 

Then, introduce what your presentation is about by giving an opening statement or an overview of your session. For example, ‘Today, I am going to talk to you about …’ or, ‘Today, we’ll be looking at/focusing on …’. 

You can also tell the audience, ‘ If you have any questions, please raise your hand and I’ll be happy to answer them’ … or ‘ We’ll have time at the end for questions.’

Presenting the topic

When you get into the main part of giving your presentation in English, remember that what you’re saying to your audience is new information. Speak slowly, organise your ideas, and make sure your pronunciation is clear. You can learn more about boosting your pronunciation here . 

Use expressions to order your ideas and introduce new ones. You can use words and phrases to sequence like, firstly/first of all, secondly, then, next, following this, and lastly/finally. 

If you want to introduce the opposite point of view, you can use language like however, on the other hand, contrary to this and then again. 

It’s a good idea to link what you are saying back to previous things you have said. This shows you have a well-organised presentation and also helps keep people engaged. For example, ‘as I said previously/at the beginning …’, ‘as you may remember’ and ‘this relates to what I said about ….’

Highlighting information during your talk 

When you are giving a presentation in English, you might want to highlight a particular piece of information or something that’s important. You can use phrases such as ‘Let’s focus on …’, ‘I want to highlight …’,   ‘Pay attention to …’, ‘Let’s look at …’, ‘I want to briefly address …’, or ‘Now, let’s discuss ….’ You can use these phrases after your sequencing words to help you with your structure. 

You can also highlight information by asking your audience their opinion of what you are saying or having them engage with the presentation in some way. For example, you could ask a question and have the audience raise their hands if they agree, or disagree, or if you want to find out how many of them have experience with the situation you’re discussing. Asking questions is a good way to make sure you still have the audience’s attention after you’ve been speaking for a while.

You can also highlight information on your visuals if you’re using them. Use bright, impactful pictures and colours, and don’t include too much writing on your slides.  

Finalising the talk 

At the end of the presentation, you should summarise your talk and remind the audience of the things you have discussed, and the new information you have given them. You can say things like ‘In summary, we have looked at …’, ‘I’d like to finish by …’, and ‘We’re coming to the end of the presentation. We’ve discussed …’. 

You can then ask the audience for any questions you haven’t already answered. 

What are your experiences of giving a presentation in English? Do you have any other tips to add? Share below!

Billie Jago is an ELT writer and teacher trainer, specialising in digital & assessments. She is the founder of the professional development podcast ELTcpd and co-founder of the digital ELT content agency, otterelt .

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Author: Oxford University Press ELT

Every year we help millions of people around the world to learn English. As a department of the University of Oxford, we further the University’s objective of excellence in education by publishing proven and tested language learning books, eBooks, learning materials, and educational technologies. View all posts by Oxford University Press ELT

before You start your presentation ,try please to mention the time duration . sometimes people should be informed so that we can take a coffe break or cigarettes break in order to make evry one happy with the topics

Here is the tip I would add according to my experience :

end your presentation on a positive note, for example with a funny sentence /image /meme / an inspirational quote, in short something that will make your talk pleasant to remember.

Valentina T.

You need to chill out and show calmness and confidence. You should rehearse your presentation on the stage some time before its previously stated time.

Clear, cogent & commanding. Thanks.

I think to get better respond to presentation you can do some mistakes in it and then explain it the end or in the next presentation. Because if anyone would like to learn something also should show involvement.

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make/give/do a presentation

• Thread starter Cecilio
• Start date Oct 18, 2006

Senior Member

• Oct 18, 2006

Hello. One question: What verbs can I use with "presentation"? "Make" and "give" are ok, but is it possible to say "do a presentation"? Would it sound too strange?  

Hi Deliver is used a lot. Provide Perform (if you're pretty enthusiastic about your subject) Make wouldn't be used. Give however is used a lot. Do would be used - but only informally. Cheers Neal Mc  

"Prepare and give a presentation" is all I hear.  

In all the reference material that I'm using it seems that "make" is the most usual verb for "presentation". Is this maybe the American usage?  

What kind of presentation are you talking about? If this is the presentation of a gift to someone in a formal context then I would expect make . If this is a powerpoint presentation of information to an audience, I would expect give .  

panjandrum said: What kind of presentation are you talking about? If this is the presentation of a gift to someone in a formal context then I would expect make . If this is a powerpoint presentation of information to an audience, I would expect give . Click to expand...

aqueoushumour

I would say either give a presentation or do a presentation although the latter is more informal. I've got to do a presentation. Using 'give' is better english but the use of 'do' is fine.  

• Oct 19, 2006

Thank you all for your help!  

sweet caramels

• Mar 18, 2011

Make a presenation or give a presentation. Both are correct but I'm just wondering which one you say. I say to give a presentation  

envie de voyager

I agree with you that give sounds better, but I would not correct someone who said make . To me, make a presentation sounds like what you would do to prepare the presentation. Then you would give the presentation .  

By "give a presentation" I assume you mean give an expose (possibly using Powerpoint or something similar). If you were presenting somebody with a gold watch upon his retirement, you would say "make a presentation".  

post mod (English Only / Latin)

• Mar 19, 2011

Cagey said: Yes, I suspect most of us feel we know which meaning of presentation you have in mind. However, it would be good for you to say which you mean, so we can be certain. Click to expand...

• Feb 7, 2012

NealMc said: Hi Deliver is used a lot. Provide Perform (if you're pretty enthusiastic about your subject) Make wouldn't be used. Give however is used a lot. Do would be used - but only informally. Cheers Neal Mc Click to expand...

• Feb 14, 2012

Cecilio said: When I asked the question (for than 4 and a half years ago!), I had in mind a presentation with the meaning of a lecture, or a public talk on a subject. Click to expand...

Lib' et Lule

• Nov 15, 2016

To be honest I'm a bit confused, I thought we could say "to make a presentation" when we talk about Powerpoint presentations and that kind of things. Look here: How to make presentations , it comes from a British university and the title on the tab says "how to make presentations"...and they're not talking about gifts. Any thoughts?  

Keith Bradford

...And the first sentence of the article reads: As part of an extended interview/selection centre you may be asked to give a short presentation . Both are possible; give is better for all the reasons stated above.  

• Nov 6, 2017

My understanding is that "make a presentation" refers to "creating" a presentation (although we wouldn´t use the word "create") and that "give a presentation" refers to the actual talking.  

• Sep 22, 2020

Keith Bradford said: ...And the first sentence of the article reads: As part of an extended interview/selection centre you may be asked to give a short presentation . Both are possible; give is better for all the reasons stated above. Click to expand...

Aguas Claras

• Jan 11, 2024

Emy_nasser said: Is there a difference between give presentation and give 'a' presentation? I mean with the article and without it... Click to expand...

Aguas Claras said: I can't think of any examples where you wouldn't use the article. Click to expand...

Emy_nasser said: I tried searching for it in dictionaries and all i found was it with the article. However, i saw some people writing it without the article and some were speaking without using it too. So i wanted to make sure... is it correct to write it without the article? Click to expand...

Aguas Claras said: Can you give a couple of examples where the article is not used? I would say it is wrong not to use it, but I may be missing something. Click to expand...

Were the people who said "make presentation" native English speakers?  

Emy_nasser said: Give Presentation synonyms - 186 Words and Phrases for Give Presentation Here is a website i was just reading and its title says: " Give Presentation synonyms" Click to expand...

Aguas Claras said: That looks as if they've just abbreviated it. Have you got any examples of full sentences where the article is omitted? Obviously, you can use it without an article in the plural: "The human resources department gave presentations on a variety of subjects". But, if it's singular, it needs an article: "The human resources department gave a presentation on the code of ethics". Click to expand...

Emy_nasser said: Yes, it's obvious thay we remove the article in the plural form. But here is an example i found: "I feel you should give presentation on soft skills". And i found it here👉 On which topic should I give presentation in communication skill class? So, it's like i thought, right? That it's wrong to write it without the article in the singular form. I guess people right it like that like... in an informal way? But looks like it's grammatically incorrect🤷‍♀️ Click to expand...

• Jan 12, 2024

Emy_nasser said: And i found it here👉 On which topic should I give presentation in communication skill class? Click to expand...

Myridon said: I suspect that Ashu Kaul (the author of that post) is not a native speaker of English. In another of her posts, she suggests buying a weighing machine to an overweight person. We generally call that a scale in English. Click to expand...

Aguas Claras said: Just looked him up in Google. He's Indian so would speak Indian English, which differs from AE and BE. Click to expand...

Myridon said: View attachment 91352 Click to expand...

Così fan tutte

• Jan 20, 2024

Cecilio said: Hello. One question: What verbs can I use with "presentation"? "Make" and "give" are ok, but is it possible to say "do a presentation"? Would it sound too strange? Click to expand...

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How to Give the PERFECT Presentation in English

If you are new here please read this first.

If I had to name The KEY to your success in giving a presentation, it would be PREPARATION and PRACTICE.

If you think about it, it’s not really a rocket science – you have to prepare slides for the presentation and that’s half of the job already done!

Yes, it’s the actual slides that make up the main part of the presentation and in theory you could give a decent presentation just by switching between the slides and describing what you see in them!

Therefore it would seem to follow that all you have to do to ensure successful performance during a presentation is to prepare the slideshow in a way that enables you to more or less read all the information off the screen, right?

Well, slide preparation is obviously crucial in order to give a presentation, there’s no doubt about that!

I mean – preparing the slides and presenting all the information to the audience is what makes the presentation a presentation.

For those unaware – if you’re just standing in front of people talking about a specific subject, it’s called a SPEECH.

Adding some visual clues to your speech makes it a PRESENTATION – at least in my opinion.

In reality, to engage the audience and make the presentation flow nicely, reading information off the slides just doesn’t cut it:

• You have to know how to address the audience.
• You have to use the best means of expression to comment on the slides.
• And you also have to use the proper English phrases to stress the main points and draw conclusions during the presentation!

That’s exactly where English presentation phrases step in , so without further ado let me give you the very cream of the crop!

Presentation Opening Statements

I’d like to take this opportunity – this is a typical phrase you can use to thank everyone for attending the presentation: “Hello everyone, my name is such and such, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all for coming along!”

I’m honored to be here – this is how you express your gratitude for being invited to give the presentation.

Having been given this opportunity to – this is another handy phrase to use when expressing gratitude during the opening statement of the presentation: “I’m really thankful for having been given this opportunity to speak in front of such a large audience!”

Without further ado – this may be an overused phrase, but it doesn’t make it less useful! Basically you can use it whenever you’re ready to proceed to the next stage of the presentation: “So, without further ado, let me introduce the main concepts I’m going to cover in this presentation!”

Providing an Overview of the Presentation

I’m going to address – when you’re announcing the topic of your presentation, this English phrase comes in very handy: “In this presentation I’m going to address the rise and fall of the Roman Empire.”

Give you a quick rundown – “rundown” is a synonym for “summary”: “Now I’m going to give you a quick rundown of the various companies I’m going to mention during this presentation.”

I’ll walk you through – here’s an example of how this phrase can be used: “… and then I’ll walk you through the different stages of a product lifecycle.”

Here are the main points we’re going to cover – this is a really practical phrase you can use in your presentation to list all the main points.

And finally, I’ll wrap up this presentation by looking at – here’s how you specify what you’ll do at the very end of the presentation: “And finally, I’ll wrap up this presentation by looking at how the new budget is going to affect the ordinary working class people.”

How to Mention Specific Facts and Present Data

…to paint a clearer picture for you! – this English idiomatic expression means “to make it clearer for you” and is perfect during presentations: “So, in order to paint a clearer picture for you, let me bring up this slide where you can see…”

This is a classic example of – when presenting specific facts, you can use this phrase to stress that the subject in question is a typical representation of the issue at hand: “Please have a closer look at this specimen – it’s a classic example of a mutated fish which is a direct result of waste water contamination!”

The most pressing issue – it simply means the most important issue.

Many studies have shown that – this is how you introduce some facts you don’t have a specific reference for, but you know them to be true: “Many studies with lab rats have shown that consuming genetically modified food increases the incidence of certain types of cancer.”

So, where were we? – if there’s been a short interruption during the presentation, this is how you resume it: “All right, so, where we? If I’m not mistaken, we were looking at the current euro currency rate…”

Ranging from … to – this is how you describe a range of objects: “As we already know, our competitors offer all kinds of children’s clothing ranging from shoes to school uniforms, so the best option for us is to specialize in a specific line of children’s clothing.”

More detailed information on it – if you have to tell your audience where they can find more information on a particular topic, this is the sentence to use: “… and you can find more detailed information on last year’s fiscal policy by visiting this website…”

Anything below (above)… is considered to be – this English presentation phrase helps you describe values below or above a certain threshold: “… and anything below 7 is considered to be a poor performance figure.”

Another important factor to consider – this phrase helps you to move on to the next point in the presentation: “Another important factor to consider when looking at the sales figures is the stock levels, so let me bring up this slide where you can see…”

Which brings us to the next point – this phrase is ideal in a situation when you have to make a transition from the previous point to the next one: “When dealing with crime, high conviction rate alone isn’t going to solve the problem, we have to look at how to avoid ex-convicts re-offending again, which brings us to the next point – rehabilitation.”

Currently stands at – do you have to present a specific figure during your presentation? This is the perfect way of doing it: “As you can see in the chart, the unemployment rate currently stands at 6% which is a 10-year low.”

Current estimate is around – when presenting estimates, this is a very handy phrase to use: “Speaking of last month’s turnover, the current estimate is around 70 thousand dollars, but we have to wait on the accountant’s report to get the exact figure.”

Speaking in purely … terms – a perfect phrase introducing a statement where you’re going to use industry-specific language: “Speaking in purely technical terms, the current average downtime is acceptable, so I don’t think this particular incident requires special attention.”

To put it in perspective – this English phrase is handy when you’re providing more information on the matter to make the audience understand the full scale of the issue: “Our company profits have dwindled heavily over the last few years. To put it in perspective – 10 years ago we could afford to employ twice as many staff members.”

The biggest contributing factor – when describing the major contributor to the issue, this is the phrase you want to use: “The biggest contributing factor in the high unemployment figure is unemployment among 18 – 25 years olds.”

Accounts for the vast majority of – do you have to specify what kind of data makes up the majority of the data pool? This is how you do it: “According to latest reports, burglaries and thefts account for the vast majority of reported crime.”

Working with Presentation Slides

As you can clearly see – this is a perfect phrase for drawing everyone’s attention to the slide: “As you can clearly see in this chart, the demographic explosion coincided with the massive increase in oil production.”

This image allows us to see – another great way of insuring that people have a closer look at your slide: “Now, this image allows us to see that the actual situation in the region is much different from what the mainstream media is reporting.”

Move on to the next slide – pretty self-explanatory; this is simply how you fill the gaps in your speech while you’re switching between the slides: “And now we’re moving on to the next slide where we’re going to have a closer look at how…”

Let me give you a more technical insight into – you can use this sentence right before bringing up a slide containing detailed information on a specific subject such as a chart or a diagram.

Emphasizing the Main Points During a Presentation

Let me remind you once more – this phrase is used when you’re about to repeat something you’ve stated previously during the presentation.

As I mentioned before – this English presentation phrase carries pretty much the same meaning as the previous one and can be used to put emphasis onto something by mentioning it again.

It’s worth mentioning that – when discussing factors that don’t play the central role in the issue but are also important, this is the phrase you want to use: “And by the way, it’s worth mentioning that the educational background also contributes to a lower birth rate.”

Plays a significant role in – this is how you introduce very important facts to the listeners of your presentation: “As a matter of fact, country’s geographical location plays a significant role in its foreign policy.”

Let’s not forget – nice English phrase to use when emphasizing a point that could be easily ignored: “And let’s not forget that the federal government funding in our sector has been reduced by 10% this year, which makes the whole issue of wage increase even more difficult.”

That’s exactly where… steps in – this is how you provide a solution to a problem: “Our current staff members can’t deal with the ever-increasing call volumes, and that’s exactly where outsourcing steps in!”

Let me draw your attention to the fact that – pretty self-explanatory phrase, isn’t it?

Everybody agrees at this stage that – this is how you explain that there’s a widespread acceptance of a particular fact – “And I think everybody agrees at this stage that global climate change is happening.”

Let me reiterate – this phrase is useful in situations when you have to repeat something to stress its importance: “And let me reiterate – one third of school children are obese, so it’s obvious that this issue needs to be tackled right now!”

Drawing Conclusions

It’s safe to assume that – this is how you begin a sentence where you’re going to make a safe assumption: “Considering that our sales figures have remained steady over the last few years, I think it’s safe to assume that this year’s figures are going to be in line with our expectations.”

Predicated on the assumption that – this phrase sounds very sophisticated, but if you memorize it, it becomes very easy and you can use it to explain reasons why certain things happen: “Next year’s budget recommendations are predicated on the assumption that the economy will grow by another 1.5%”

Figures can be extrapolated to – this fancy phrase can be used to describe the concept of using the available data from one particular range of subjects when making assumptions about a related group of subjects: “The 18 – 25 year old male customer conversation rate is 1.5% which can be extrapolated to 26 – 40 year olds, thus giving us the sales forecast of 150 thousand dollars.”

It begs the question – when something you’re discussing leads to a new question to be asked, this is the phrase to be used: “As you can clearly see, the current abstinence level is unacceptable, and it begs the question – what can be done about that?”

Shows the correlation between – if you want to explain that two processes are related, this is how you do it: “This chart clearly shows the correlation between the number of fast food outlets and cancer incidence in the general population.”

Inevitably leads to – when one thing always leads to another, this is the phrase you can use when describing this phenomenon during your presentation: “… it’s not really a solution because increase in social welfare handouts inevitably leads to the so-called “culture of entitlement.”

Which is a direct result of – do you have to explain the fact that a particular phenomenon occurs because of something else? Then do it this way: “…profits have gone up by 5% which is a direct result of the recent measures introduced to deal with absenteeism.”

Summing Up the Presentation

On the finishing note – this is how you start the ending of your presentation: “On the finishing note, I’d like to thank everyone for coming along!”

To sum it up – this phrase is quite similar to the previous one – the only difference being that “on the finishing note” doesn’t necessarily require you to draw any conclusions while this one actually does: “So, to sum it up, the third production line model is the most efficient one, and that’s what our company should go for.”

The bottom line is – this phrase can be actually used interchangeably with “to sum it up”, and it’s a perfect way of announcing the main premise of the entire presentation: “So, the bottom line is – based on all the available data, it’s not economically viable to maintain the current staff levels.”

I hope you find these phrases useful when preparing for a presentation.

I also hope you put on a great show  when giving the presentation!

P.S. Would you like to find out why I’m highlighting some of the text in red? Read this article and you’ll learn why it’s so important to learn idiomatic expressions and how it will help you to improve your spoken English!

P.S.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!

P.S. Are you serious about your spoken English improvement? Check out the English Harmony System HERE!

Thank you ever so much dear Robby. Really very helpful article.

Thank You ever so much dear Robby. Really helpful work. Well done.

Hi Ghazale,

I’m really glad you find this article useful, you’re welcome!

Thanks a bunch dear Robby. I got the most out of your great article. You explained everything in detail. Must have a heart of gold to share such marvelous information with your readers:)

Yes Sergio, I agree that the techniques you just mentioned are useful in terms of audience engagement but please let me point out that they don’t contradict with the main structure of the presentation. They’re just small additions, if you like; the purpose of this article was to provide my readers with a bunch of useful phrases to use when structuring and doing a presentation and obviously such attention hooks as asking rhetoric questions etc is something that anyone can use as they see fit!

No problem, you’re welcome!

Thanks a lot for the post Robby, by far one the most useful I have ever read. However, some experts say we should start a presentation with a question, a remark or something that holds the audiencie attention and makes them interested in what will come next. Similarly, the end of the presentation would be one phrase, statement, quotation, that invites to reflexion or action, depending on the purpose of the presentations. Could you elaborate a little bit on that?

Thanks Robby, you helped me to disappear my doubt and exaggerastions that plants in my mind for years. Best

Sorry for missing your e-mail!

Speaking of whether I’m focusing mostly on American or British phraseology, just let me tell you one thing – 99.9% of English I use is understood worldwide!

People tend to believe that there are huge differences between American and British English while in reality it’s a gross exaggeration.

Please read more about it here: http://accentadventure.com/american-phrases/ and also refer to the comments below the article.

Hi Dear Robby I have a question and sent an email to you about one month ago, but I haven’t any answer. I want to know the phrases you use in your articles belongs and common in British English or American English?I’m interested in American English vocabularies, phrases. How many phrases you introduce in your articles can be use in American English that the Americans who understand well and are familiar with them?

You’re welcome Alphonse, I’m really glad these phrases will come in handy for you!

Wow this is very useful. I always think of some transitional phrases for my presentations at school and only a few comes to mind. Thanks for compiling them up.

How-To Geek

6 ways to create more interactive powerpoint presentations.

Engage your audience with cool, actionable features.

Quick Links

• Add a QR code
• Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)
• Embed a Live Web Page
• Add Links and Menus
• Add Clickable Images to Give More Info
• Add a Countdown Timer

We've all been to a presentation where the speaker bores you to death with a mundane PowerPoint presentation. Actually, the speaker could have kept you much more engaged by adding some interactive features to their slideshow. Let's look into some of these options.

1. Add a QR code

Adding a QR code can be particularly useful if you want to direct your audience to an online form, website, or video.

Some websites have in-built ways to create a QR code. For example, on Microsoft Forms , when you click "Collect Responses," you'll see the QR code option via the icon highlighted in the screenshot below. You can either right-click the QR code to copy and paste it into your presentation, or click "Download" to add it to your device gallery to insert the QR code as a picture.

In fact, you can easily add a QR code to take your viewer to any website. On Microsoft Edge, right-click anywhere on a web page where there isn't already a link, and left-click "Create QR Code For This Page."

You can also create QR codes in other browsers, such as Chrome.

You can then copy or download the QR code to use wherever you like in your presentation.

2. Embed Microsoft Forms (Education or Business Only)

If you plan to send your PPT presentation to others—for example, if you're a trainer sending step-by-step instruction presentation, a teacher sending an independent learning task to your students, or a campaigner for your local councilor sending a persuasive PPT to constituents—you might want to embed a quiz, questionnaire, pole, or feedback survey in your presentation.

In PowerPoint, open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, and in the Forms group, click "Forms". If you cannot see this option, you can add new buttons to the ribbon .

As at April 2024, this feature is only available for those using their work or school account. We're using a Microsoft 365 Personal account in the screenshot below, which is why the Forms icon is grayed out.

Then, a sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of your screen, where you can either choose a form you have already created or opt to craft a new form.

Now, you can share your PPT presentation with others , who can click the fields and submit their responses when they view the presentation.

3. Embed a Live Web Page

You could always screenshot a web page and paste that into your PPT, but that's not a very interactive addition to your presentation. Instead, you can embed a live web page into your PPT so that people with access to your presentation can interact actively with its contents.

To do this, we will need to add an add-in to our PPT account .

Add-ins are not always reliable or secure. Before installing an add-in to your Microsoft account, check that the author is a reputable company, and type the add-in's name into a search engine to read reviews and other users' experiences.

To embed a web page, add the Web Viewer add-in ( this is an add-in created by Microsoft ).

Go to the relevant slide and open the Web Viewer add-in. Then, copy and paste the secure URL into the field box, and remove https:// from the start of the address. In our example, we will add a selector wheel to our slide. Click "Preview" to see a sample of the web page's appearance in your presentation.

This is how ours will look.

When you or someone with access to your presentation views the slideshow, this web page will be live and interactive.

4. Add Links and Menus

As well as moving from one slide to the next through a keyboard action or mouse click, you can create links within your presentation to direct the audience to specific locations.

To create a link, right-click the outline of the clickable object, and click "Link."

In the Insert Hyperlink dialog box, click "Place In This Document," choose the landing destination, and click "OK."

What's more, to make it clear that an object is clickable, you can use action buttons. Open the "Insert" tab on the ribbon, click "Shape," and then choose an appropriate action button. Usefully, PPT will automatically prompt you to add a link to these shapes.

You might also want a menu that displays on every slide. Once you have created the menu, add the links using the method outlined above. Then, select all the items, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then use Ctrl+V to paste them in your other slides.

5. Add Clickable Images to Give More Info

Through PowerPoint's animations, you can give your viewer the power to choose what they see and when they see it. This works nicely whether you're planning to send your presentation to others to run through independently or whether you're presenting in front of a group and want your audience to decide which action they want to take.

Start by creating the objects that will be clickable (trigger) and the items that will appear (pop-up).

Then, select all the pop-ups together. When you click "Animations" on the ribbon and choose an appropriate animation for the effect you want to achieve, this will be applied to all objects you have selected.

The next step is to rename the triggers in your presentation. To do this, open the "Home" tab, and in the Editing group, click "Select", and then "Selection Pane."

With the Selection Pane open, select each trigger on your slide individually, and rename them in the Selection Pane, so that they can be easily linked to in the next step.

Finally, go back to the first pop-up. Open the "Animations" tab, and in the Advanced Animation group, click the "Trigger" drop-down arrow. Then, you can set the item to appear when a trigger is clicked in your presentation.

If you want your item to disappear when the trigger is clicked again, select the pop-up, click "Add Animation" in the Advanced Animation group, choose an Exit animation, and follow the same step to link that animation to the trigger button.

6. Add a Countdown Timer

A great way to get your audience to engage with your PPT presentation is to keep them on edge by adding a countdown timer. Whether you're leading a presentation and want to let your audience stop to discuss a topic, or running an online quiz with time-limit questions, having a countdown timer means your audience will keep their eye on your slide throughout.

To do this, you need to animate text boxes or shapes containing your countdown numbers. Choose and format a shape and type the highest number that your countdown clock will need. In our case, we're creating a 10-second timer.

Now, with your shape selected, open the "Animations" tab on the ribbon and click the animation drop-down arrow. Then, in the Exit menu, click "Disappear."

Open the Animation Pane, and click the drop-down arrow next to the animation you've just added. From there, choose "Timing."

Make sure "On Click" is selected in the Start menu, and change the Delay option to "1 second," before clicking "OK."

Then, with this shape still selected, press Ctrl+C (copy), and then Ctrl+V (paste). In the second box, type 9 . With the Animation Pane still open and this second shape selected, click the drop-down arrow and choose "Timing" again. Change the Start option to "After Previous," and make sure the Delay option is 1 second. Then, click "OK."

We can now use this second shape as our template, as when we copy and paste it again, the animations will also duplicate. With this second shape selected, press Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V, type 8 into the box, and continue to do the same until you get to 0 .

Next, remove the animations from the "0" box, as you don't want this to disappear. To do this, click the shape, and in the Animation Pane drop-down, click "Remove."

You now need to layer them in order. Right-click the box containing number 1, and click "Bring To Front." You will now see that box on the top. Do the same with the other numbers in ascending order.

Finally, you need to align the objects together. Click anywhere on your slide and press Ctrl+A. Then, in the Home tab on the ribbon, click "Arrange." First click "Align Center," and then bring the menu up again, so that you can click "Align Middle."

Press Ctrl+A again to select your timer, and you can then move your timer or copy and paste it elsewhere.

Press F5 to see the presentation in action, and when you get to the slide containing the timer, click anywhere on the slide to see your countdown timer in action!

Now that your PPT presentation is more interactive, make sure you've avoided these eight common presentational mistakes before you present your slides.

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Writing tone, number of slides.

AI presentation maker

When lack of inspiration or time constraints are something you’re worried about, it’s a good idea to seek help. Slidesgo comes to the rescue with its latest functionality—the AI presentation maker! With a few clicks, you’ll have wonderful slideshows that suit your own needs . And it’s totally free!

Generate presentations in minutes

We humans make the world move, but we need to sleep, rest and so on. What if there were someone available 24/7 for you? It’s time to get out of your comfort zone and ask the AI presentation maker to give you a hand. The possibilities are endless : you choose the topic, the tone and the style, and the AI will do the rest. Now we’re talking!

Customize your AI-generated presentation online

Alright, your robotic pal has generated a presentation for you. But, for the time being, AIs can’t read minds, so it’s likely that you’ll want to modify the slides. Please do! We didn’t forget about those time constraints you’re facing, so thanks to the editing tools provided by one of our sister projects —shoutouts to Wepik — you can make changes on the fly without resorting to other programs or software. Add text, choose your own colors, rearrange elements, it’s up to you! Oh, and since we are a big family, you’ll be able to access many resources from big names, that is, Freepik and Flaticon . That means having a lot of images and icons at your disposal!

How does it work?

Think of your topic.

First things first, you’ll be talking about something in particular, right? A business meeting, a new medical breakthrough, the weather, your favorite songs, a basketball game, a pink elephant you saw last Sunday—you name it. Just type it out and let the AI know what the topic is.

Choose your preferred style and tone

They say that variety is the spice of life. That’s why we let you choose between different design styles, including doodle, simple, abstract, geometric, and elegant . What about the tone? Several of them: fun, creative, casual, professional, and formal. Each one will give you something unique, so which way of impressing your audience will it be this time? Mix and match!

Make any desired changes

You’ve got freshly generated slides. Oh, you wish they were in a different color? That text box would look better if it were placed on the right side? Run the online editor and use the tools to have the slides exactly your way.

Download the final result for free

Yes, just as envisioned those slides deserve to be on your storage device at once! You can export the presentation in .pdf format and download it for free . Can’t wait to show it to your best friend because you think they will love it? Generate a shareable link!

What is an AI-generated presentation?

It’s exactly “what it says on the cover”. AIs, or artificial intelligences, are in constant evolution, and they are now able to generate presentations in a short time, based on inputs from the user. This technology allows you to get a satisfactory presentation much faster by doing a big chunk of the work.

Can I customize the presentation generated by the AI?

Of course! That’s the point! Slidesgo is all for customization since day one, so you’ll be able to make any changes to presentations generated by the AI. We humans are irreplaceable, after all! Thanks to the online editor, you can do whatever modifications you may need, without having to install any software. Colors, text, images, icons, placement, the final decision concerning all of the elements is up to you.

Can I add my own images?

Absolutely. That’s a basic function, and we made sure to have it available. Would it make sense to have a portfolio template generated by an AI without a single picture of your own work? In any case, we also offer the possibility of asking the AI to generate images for you via prompts. Additionally, you can also check out the integrated gallery of images from Freepik and use them. If making an impression is your goal, you’ll have an easy time!

Is this new functionality free? As in “free of charge”? Do you mean it?

Yes, it is, and we mean it. We even asked our buddies at Wepik, who are the ones hosting this AI presentation maker, and they told us “yup, it’s on the house”.

Are there more presentation designs available?

From time to time, we’ll be adding more designs. The cool thing is that you’ll have at your disposal a lot of content from Freepik and Flaticon when using the AI presentation maker. Oh, and just as a reminder, if you feel like you want to do things yourself and don’t want to rely on an AI, you’re on Slidesgo, the leading website when it comes to presentation templates. We have thousands of them, and counting!.

How can I download my presentation?

The easiest way is to click on “Download” to get your presentation in .pdf format. But there are other options! You can click on “Present” to enter the presenter view and start presenting right away! There’s also the “Share” option, which gives you a shareable link. This way, any friend, relative, colleague—anyone, really—will be able to access your presentation in a moment.

Discover more content

This is just the beginning! Slidesgo has thousands of customizable templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. Our designers have created them with much care and love, and the variety of topics, themes and styles is, how to put it, immense! We also have a blog, in which we post articles for those who want to find inspiration or need to learn a bit more about Google Slides or PowerPoint. Do you have kids? We’ve got a section dedicated to printable coloring pages! Have a look around and make the most of our site!

What is a Gas Giant?

A giant planet composed mainly of gas

A gas giant is a large planet mostly composed of helium and/or hydrogen. These planets, like Jupiter and Saturn in our solar system, don’t have hard surfaces and instead have swirling gases above a solid core. Gas giant exoplanets can be much larger than Jupiter, and much closer to their stars than anything found in our solar system.

For most of human history our understanding of how planets form and evolve was based on the eight planets in our solar system. But over the last 25 years, the discovery of more than 5,600 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system, changed all that.

Gas giants, like Jupiter or Saturn in our solar system, are composed mostly of helium and/or hydrogen. Gas giants nearer to their stars are often called “hot Jupiters.” More variety is hidden within these broad categories. Hot Jupiters, for instance, were among the first exoplanet types found – gas giants like Jupiter, yes, but orbiting so close to their stars that their temperatures soar into the thousands of degrees (Fahrenheit or Celsius). These large planets make such tight orbits that they cause a pronounced “wobble” in their stars, tugging their stellar hosts this way and that, and causing a measurable shift in the spectrum of light from the stars. That made hot Jupiters easier to detect in the early days of planet hunting using the radial velocity method.

Similar in size to Jupiter, these gas-dominated planets orbit extremely close to their parent stars, circling them in as few as 18 hours. We have nothing like them in our own solar system, where the closest planets to the Sun are rocky and orbiting much farther away. The questions about hot Jupiters are as big as the planets themselves: Do they form close to their stars or farther away before migrating inward? And if these giants do migrate, what would that reveal about the history of the planets in our own solar system?

To answer those questions, scientists will need to observe many of these hot giants very early in their formation. The detection of the exoplanet HIP 67522 b , thought to be the youngest hot Jupiter ever found (in June 2020), could expand our understanding. It orbits a well-studied star that is about 17 million years old, meaning the hot Jupiter is likely only a few million years younger, whereas most known hot Jupiters are more than a billion years old. The planet takes about seven days to orbit its star, which has a mass similar to the Sun's. Located only about 490 light-years from Earth, HIP 67522 b is about 10 times the diameter of Earth, or close to that of Jupiter. Its size strongly indicates that it is a gas-dominated planet.

The discovery offers hope for finding more young hot Jupiters and learning more about how planets form throughout the universe.

5 Key Gas Giant Facts (with artists' concepts of these alien worlds)

First of many

51 Peg b was the first planet discovered around a Sun-like star in 1995.

Deadline pressure

It is thought they form within the first 10 million years of a Sun-like star's life…or not at all.

Hot, hot, hot

Hot Jupiters orbit so close to their stars that their temperatures soar into the thousands of degrees.

And hottest of all

KELT-9 b, the hottest gas giant found so far, is hotter than most stars.

Jupiter has a twin, and it orbits a star that’s a twin of our Sun.

Migrating Giants?

There are three main hypotheses for how hot Jupiters get so close to their parent stars. One is that they simply form there and stay put. But it's hard to imagine planets forming in such an intense environment. Not only would the scorching heat vaporize most materials, but young stars frequently erupt with massive explosions and stellar winds, potentially dispersing emerging planets.

It could be more likely that gas giants develop farther from their parent star, past a boundary called the snow line, where it's cool enough for ice and other solid materials to form. Jupiter-like planets are composed almost entirely of gas, but they contain solid cores. It would be easier for those cores to form past the snow line, where frozen materials could cling together like a growing snowball.

The other two hypotheses assume this is the case, and that hot Jupiters then wander closer to their stars. But what would be the cause and timing of the migration?

One idea posits that hot Jupiters begin their journey early in the planetary system's history while the star is still surrounded by the disk of gas and dust from which both it and the planet formed. In this scenario, the gravity of the disk interacting with the mass of the planet could interrupt the gas giant's orbit and cause it to migrate inward.

The third hypothesis maintains that hot Jupiters get close to their star later, when the gravity of other planets around the star can drive the migration. The fact that HIP 67522 b is already so close to its star so early after its formation indicates that this third hypothesis probably doesn't apply in this case. But one young hot Jupiter isn't enough to settle the debate on how they all form.

Developing with the stars

In 2007, astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence showing that gas-giant planets form quickly, within the first 10 million years of a Sun-like star's life.

Gas giants could get their start in the gas-rich debris disk that surrounds a young star. A core produced by collisions among asteroids and comets provides a seed, and when this core reaches sufficient mass, its gravitational pull rapidly attracts gas from the disk to form the planet.

Scientists using Spitzer and ground-based telescopes searched for traces of gas around 15 different Sun-like stars, most with ages ranging from 3 million to 30 million years. With the help of Spitzer's infrared spectrometer instrument, they were able to search for relatively warm gas in the inner regions of these star systems, an area comparable to the zone between Earth and Jupiter in our own solar system. They also used ground-based radio telescopes to search for cooler gas in the outer regions of these systems, an area comparable to the zone around Saturn and beyond.

All of the stars in the study, including those as young as a few million years, have less than 10 percent of Jupiter's mass in gas swirling around them. This indicates that gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn have already formed in these young planetary systems, or they never will.

Explore the planet types: Gas Giant , Neptune-like , Super-Earth and Terrestrial

Or move on to the building blocks of galaxies: stars!

More to Explore

Flares of Fury Poster

Located less than 32 light-years from Earth, AU Microscopii is among the youngest planetary systems ever observed by astronomers, and its star throws vicious temper tantrums!

Llamaradas de Furia

Ubicado a menos de 32 años luz de la Tierra, AU Microscopii se encuentra entre los sistemas planetarios más jóvenes jamás observados por los astrónomos, ¡y su estrella tiene unas brutales rabietas!

Rains of Terror Poster

This far-off blue planet may look like a friendly haven – but don’t be deceived! Weather here is deadly. The cobalt color comes from a hazy, blow-torched atmosphere containing clouds laced with glass.

Lluvia de Terror

Este planeta lejano puede parecer un refugio amigable… ¡pero no te dejes engañar! ¡El clima en este mundo es mortal! ¡El color azul cobalto del planeta proviene de una atmósfera brumosa e incendiaria que contiene nubes de cristales de vidrio!

Discover More Topics From NASA

Search for Life

Black Holes

Faculty and Students Honored, Share Knowledge at Engineering Education Conference

• by College of Engineering Communications
• April 29, 2024

Four of the five top awards presented at the American Society for Engineering and Education Pacific Southwest Section, or ASEE PSW, annual conference this April went to faculty and students from the University of California, Davis, College of Engineering.

The 2024 conference was hosted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and attended by four-year university and community college affiliates from Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada.  

Learn more about the ASEE PSW awards and the UC Davis recipients:

Outstanding Undergraduate Student Award

Tiffany Chan, an undergraduate biomedical engineering student, was recognized for demonstrating strong achievement in a design project, research, community service and/or education-related activities.

Outstanding Graduate Student Award

Ph.D. student Allison Pickle, also in biomedical engineering, was recognized for demonstrating strong evidence of commitment to education in engineering-related areas.

Outstanding Early Career Teaching Award

The third award recipient from the Department of Biomedical Engineering, Assistant Professor of Teaching Xianglong Wang, was recognized for outstanding classroom performance and significant teaching-related contributions to the profession. “Early career” includes faculty members no more than five years into their first faculty positions.

Outstanding Teaching Award

Colleen Bronner, associate professor of teaching and vice chair for undergraduate studies in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, was recognized for outstanding classroom performance and significant teaching-related contributions to the profession.

In addition to the awards received, UC Davis College of Engineering was well represented in the conference program.

Carlos Trejo Vera, an undergraduate civil and environmental engineering student, presented his research while attending his first conference. Chan also gave a presentation, and Bronner co-facilitated a workshop on mental health in academia.

Primary Category

Secondary categories.

UAB Commitment to Athletes.org Draws Attention-and Scrutiny

Jim Cavale was just looking to get in a room.

Since co-founding Athletes.org (AO) last August, Cavale-the former founder/CEO of college NIL software company, INFLCR-had been pitching a number of football and basketball coaches around the country on the opportunity to give a presentation to their teams about joining his college players association. 

Though the coaches were uniformly receptive, according to Cavale, nobody had yet to actually tender an invitation until Alabama Birmingham football coach-and former NFL quarterback-Trent Dilfer finally did so earlier this month. On Monday, AO announced that it had signed up the entire UAB football roster, the first whole-team commitment the association has landed. 

Cavale hailed Dilfer, a "player's coach," for making it happen, but there were other connections as well: Cavale is based in Birmingham, Ala., and UAB was the third school to sign with INFLCR back in August 2021.

For now, AO's offerings are relatively modest: By signing up for free, members gain access to an app-based network of pro bono experts, from lawyers to marketing professionals. Cavale's grand hope is that AO will represent athletes in future revenue-sharing discussions. Juxtaposed the recent efforts of Dartmouth basketball players to unionize under the National Labor Relations Act, AO offers a top-down, management-friendly solution for athlete organizing.

With the Blazers in tow, Athletes.org now counts 2,925 members, more than halfway to Cavale's working goal of enlisting 5,000 NCAA athletes by the end of the year. AO had been slowly, incrementally building its official membership through direct messages to athletes on social media and calls to players' agents.

"We signed all of them up one by one," Cavale said in an interview. "It is a lot harder doing it that way then if we could have an opportunity to get in front of (a) team."

Calling it a "big get," Cavale hopes the attention from UAB's commitment-and the 10-minute highlight video Athletes.org created from it-will lead him into a number of other team meeting rooms. 

At the same time, the news gave rise to conflict-of-interest and other questions about Cavale's initiative, which he launched just weeks after stepping down as CEO of INFLCR, and four years after he sold that company for an undisclosed amount to Teamworks . According to Teamworks, Cavale would continue to be a company shareholder and advisor.

Following Monday's announcement of UAB’s commitment, which was first reported by ESPN.com, several prominent college athlete advocates took to social media to question the way in which Athletes.org has portrayed itself.

"I’m always in favor of athletes making steps for themselves, (especially) with my adopted home team at UAB," antitrust economist Andy Schwarz posted on X. "BUT… this feels like a fake/company union, at least from 30,000 feet."

Though not currently a union, Cavale says that Athletes.org was structured in a such a way––with various sport- and conference-specific chapters––that it could be converted into one if or when the need arises. By Cavale's appraisal of the college sports landscape, that date is still likely a couple years off, even with the recent union vote of Dartmouth men's basketball players.

"We don't know how that plays out, so instead of trying to figure it out now, we are offering them this value from the jump and putting them into chapters with flexibility of unionization as time goes on," Cavale said.

The idea of a players association actively relying on coaches and schools-potential adversaries in future collective bargaining negotiations-to facilitate membership sign-ups might seem to strain a core principle of organizing.

But Cavale contends that this is fundamentally similar to the role NFL teams have in helping the NFL Players Association sign up new members.

"The NFL owners and NFLPA are looked at as adversaries because they negotiate a collective bargaining deal," Cavale said, "but when all those guys get drafted last week, who do they automatically (become) members in? The NFLPA."

Asked about UAB's ongoing partnership with INFLCR, Cavale insisted that his former company did not present a loyalty conflict for Athletes.org. If anything, Cavale argues, that experience now redounds to the benefit of AO's athlete members.

"I don't own INFLCR and I am not involved in it in any capacity," Cavale said. "I have built businesses in the college athletics space for the last half-dozen years, so I understand how athletic departments work, who their leaders are and how their org charts work … We are trying to build a win-win on behalf of athletes. That INFLCR stuff is my past career that has given me context to really take a big risk and leave to do this."

In June 2023, Athletes.org applied for status as a 501(c)(3) federal charity. Cavale said it has yet to receive a determination from the Internal Revenue Service as to whether it qualifies and therefore had yet to accept any tax-deductible contributions. On its website, Athletes.org currently calls itself a "non-profit." As Sportico previously reported , AO has a written sponsorship agreement in place with Athletes Innovations, a for-profit entity that Cavale incorporated in April 2023. 

More from Sportico.com

• NCAA Names NIL Registry Partner After Five-Year Process