What is a presentation and the factors affecting presentation?

Most presentations suck. Businesses, schools and organisations all around the world waste millions year after year because of bad presentations. If you add the time and money spent creating bad slides, delivering ineffective presentations and attending meetings, conferences and lectures that simply waste your time, you will quickly realise that all around you, presentations are a problem.

Think of it in pure business terms:

  • If meeting participants remember nothing, the return on that investment is minimal
  • If your sales pitch fails to make customers want to buy from you, your revenues will suffer
  • If your leadership presentation fails to inspire your employees, they won’t be motivated to deliver on your strategy

At Ideas on Stage we understand what it feels like when you can't achieve your goal when presenting. Like you, we are frustrated when great ideas get lost simply because they aren't presented effectively. I wrote this article to help you find a solution.

Presentation SCORE 

There are five principles behind any successful presentation. We call them the Presentation SCORE principles: Simple, Clear, Original, Related, Enjoyable. 

Applied to your overall presentation, what does this mean?

SIMPLE

Every great presentation includes a simple message. One of the key mistakes most business leaders make when developing presentations is they think that everything is important. We often know so much about our subject – and we are also emotionally attached to it – that we feel we have to communicate everything. However, if you put yourself in your audience’s shoes, you’ll quickly realise that when everything is important, nothing is important.

If everything is important, nothing is important.

CLEAR

Every great presentation follows a clear storyline. You need to be able to choose the most appropriate storyline based on your audience, their needs, your objective, and the type of presentation.

If right now you aren't doing this, you’re making it hard for your audience to follow you, remember what you say and take action.

RELATED

Every great presentation is related to the audience. The first thing most business professionals do when preparing a presentation is to either open up a presentation tool (like PowerPoint) and put together some slides or start thinking about their key messages. 

In reality, whenever you choose to present, you are taking time from your audience. What you give them needs to be a good deal for them, in return for their time. This is why it is important to know as much as possible about your audience and what they need. Make sure your presentation suits them well.

ORIGINAL & ENJOYABLE

Every great presentation is also original and enjoyable. If you don’t think about these two principles, your presentations will remain dry, factual and boring. It’s important to avoid this because according to the author of Brain Rules, Dr John Medina, “the brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things”.

The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things. - Dr John Medina

Therefore, once you have a simple and clear message which is relevant to your audience, you need to spice it up. You need to make it Original and Enjoyable, so you can make a complete SCORE. 

There you go, here are the five principles every great presentation should respect: 

  • SIMPLE: The more you say, the less they remember, so keep it short, simple and to the point.
  • CLEAR: Your key messages should be obvious to everybody – including you.
  • ORIGINAL: Make your presentation stand out and people will remember it for longer.
  • RELATED: Make it relevant and useful for your audience.
  • ENJOYABLE: If the audience enjoys your talk, they will pay more attention, and remember more.

If you consistently apply these five principles, you will become the presenter everyone remembers. And you will also be able to achieve the following:

  • Sell your ideas
  • Grow your business
  • Advance your career
  • Make your brand stand out
  • Inspire your audience to take action

Want to learn more about each of these principles in detail?

Note: These sessions are in high demand. Register now to claim your space.

Common Reasons for Ineffective Presentations

  • Not engaging the audience in the beginning of the presentation
  • Poorly organized information (no order or logic) or lack of clear purpose
  • Poorly designed presentation materials (poor color contrast, background design, font size or type, etc.)
  • Incorrect or misleading graphs, charts and visuals
  • Too many bullets per slide, or too many lines for each bullet
  • Lack of preparation and rehearsal
  • Lack of confidence and enthusiasm about the topic
  • Inconsistent pace (too much time spent on one part and too little time left for the rest)
  • Lack of eye contact with the audience, poor body language and looking at or talking towards the screen
  • Inaudible or monotone delivery, mispronunciation of words and reading the slides verbatim
  • Not knowing how to use delivery technologies or not being prepared for the technology available
  • Poor or incorrect use of technology tools or spending too much to get the technology working
  • Not following time limits (too much material) and lack of consideration for other presenters
  • Mistakes in the content, and glaring spelling and grammatical errors in the slides
  • Ending the presentation abruptly, not leaving enough time for Q&A and not handling Q&A well

What are the factors of presentation?

6 Key Elements of a Great Presentation.
It has a clear objective. What are you trying to achieve with this presentation? ... .
It's useful to your audience. ... .
It's well-rehearsed. ... .
Your presentation deck uses as little text as possible. ... .
Your contact information is clearly featured. ... .
It includes a call-to-action..

What are the various factors affecting presentation?

Factors Affecting Presentation.
Audience Analysis. ... .
Communication environment. ... .
Personal Appearance. ... .
Use of Visuals. ... .
Opening and Closing Presentation. ... .
Organization of Presentation. ... .
Language and Words. ... .
Voice Quality..

What is oral presentation explain the factors affecting the oral presentation?

Oral presentation are usually short and less formal that oral speeches. It is delivered with demonstrations of audio-visual aids followed by answer to questions from the audience. Oral presentations have three basic purposes: (1) to inform, (2) to persuade and (3) to build goodwill.

What are the five factors that affect the effectiveness of a presentation?

They include the aim of the presentation, the subject matter, the audience, the venue or place, the time of day, and the length of the talk. All these will affect what you say and how you say it, as well as the visual aids that you use to get your point across.