Whether you are a seasoned presenter or just a beginner, the thought of giving a presentation may give you butterflies in the stomach.

But don’t worry! There are ways to make your presentation more effective and connect with your audience from the beginning. For best results, you should start your preparation early – right from the day they rent seminar room and invite you to deliver a presentation.

Planning Your Presentation

You know that you need to plan your presentation, because “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!” But how will you plan it? Here are some useful tips.

• Tell a story – No matter what message you are trying to convey, consider presenting it through a story. Telling a story helps grab the attention of the audience right away.

• Keep it short and simple – Nobody likes a long, boring presentation. Think about your key message and how you can convey it in short, without beating around the bush. If you are planning to give a PowerPoint presentation, try to lower the number of slides as much as possible.

• Avoid a long intro – Some presenters turn the audience off, even before the actual presentation starts. They give an unnecessarily long speech in the introduction only to bore the attendees. Make it a point not to spend more than 2-3 sentences in the intro.

• Avoid generic statements – Don’t say something that is too obvious. Generic statements may make you sound dull. Instead, back every claim you make with facts or statistics. For instance, avoid statements like, “Everyone wants a salary hike.” Instead, say, “X percent of professionals said they want a salary hike, according to XYZ survey.”

• Use legible fonts – Simple things – from choosing the right training room rental company to using the right fonts in your presentation – play a major role in making an event successful. Ideally, you should avoid small, narrow, fancy fonts. Instead, consider using simple yet clearly readable fonts, such as, Arial and Helvetica.

Delivering Your Presentation

Even when you’ve plan everything right, delivering your presentation could still be a challenge. The good news is you can overcome this challenge, with the following tips and tricks.

• Check the setup beforehand – Make sure that all the necessary equipment and tools for your presentation are in proper working condition. If you rent seminar room from an acclaimed training room rental company, you don’t need to worry much about the setup. However, you may still want to check everything for your peace of mind.

• Make eye contact – When delivering your presentation, you should talk directly with the audience, making eye contact. That way, you can show your confidence and make it easy for the listeners to believe in your speech.

• Be careful about using humor – It is great if you can bring a little humor into your presentation, but be careful. Only seasoned presenters know how to use humor to make a presentation more engaging and lively. If are new to this art, it is better to avoid the humor element.

Use the above tips to prepare and deliver a great presentation.