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1. A good presentation should also be entertaining. Often educators assume if they know their subject matter well, and use the conventional methodology to parade it in front of potential learners; they have met their responsibility as "Trainer, Teacher, Speaker, or Instructor". Not so. I believe a reasonable attempt to infuse interest and humor into a presentation should be more than just a last minute consideration. Especially when you consider that you may be speaking to a group for long periods of time (2 - 8 hours). Positive emotions improve our ability to retain information. Most of us believe we have a good sense of humor, and we should put it to good use when we present. At the very least add some comical graphics to liven things up. Instead of deleting all those jokes and funny pictures you get over the internet, save them and use them to enliven your training materials.

2. Pepper your presentation with interesting information. Our brains respond well to information that is unique and surprising. Working in some "facts that amaze and impress" is a good strategy for keeping your audience riveted. Consider this; Speakers speak at a rate of 100 - 200 words per minute. Listeners have the ability to listen to 400 - 500 words per minute. The conclusion, "There's a lot of room to get bored". And that is exactly what happens. Studies show that the retention levels go from around 70% in the first 10 - 15 minutes of the presentation, to 20% after this. Given the rate that most all of us speak, people will just naturally become distracted.

3. Pulse between presentation and participation. When presenting it is imperative that you know one thing, WHEN TO STOP! Again we always see the objective as getting the information out. We look at the mounds of information we have to dispense and quickly realize that there is little time to take a breath, let alone, take a moment for audience participation. And I guess if the objective is to get the information out rather than help your audience to absorb what you have to say, the above strategy is fine. Engaging people means allowing them an opportunity to actively participate in the learning experience. Periodically (at least every 18 minutes) stopping to introduce an exercise or any activity that allows for participation will keep your audience engaged. In fact, your program should become more and more participative as you go. In our Newsletter 17 we showed you how you can incorporate interactive PowerPoint slides, which allow your listeners to interact (having your listeners reveal a hidden list of your key training points, rather than you spoon feeding them each point). In this Newsletter (18) we also show you how to add a random selector to your presentation. In this manner you can have fun selecting a team, a player, a category, a question or a participative exercise as you present.

4. Pick up the pace. Most experts tell us that the Gen X and Gen Y people in our audience will prefer a faster-paced presentation style. I'm not sure this is not true for all people. The faster pace almost naturally demands that we attend to what is being presented. It is not that we want to feed our audience so many facts that there is not enough time to assimilate the learning. After all we can only retain 5 - 9 bits of information within our short term memories. We do however want to keep new information flowing during the presentation. You may have found yourself listening to speakers and asking yourself "Where's the Beef?"

5. Tell an interesting story. Your presentation should be delivered as if you are telling a story. In this regard, slide transitions should be seamless as you move through your story. The slide text is really there to help your audience, and not for you to read from. You can't be in the middle of an interesting story, and suddenly need to stop to read a slide. The two just do not go together.