Writing winning presentations

The Madrigal approach to presentations

Be structured

There are a lot of things that make a good speech or presentation but the most important thing is to be well structured. Focus your presentation on a simple message and structure the speech around that message. It seems obvious to say have a beginning, middle and end but it is not the usual way people present. How often have you heard a presenter give you a whole lot of facts and then say “oops I have run out of time I had better stop there”. Have a structure.
Start with your introduction: who you are, why you are speaking, what you want to tell them and very importantly how you are going to tell them. Then tell your story. When you have told the story you must have a finish, which is this is a summary of what I just said, this is what I want you to remember and this is what I want you to do.

Using slides effectively

Slides are a good way to illustrate what you are saying. They are there to support what you say. They are an alternative and complementary communication to listening to your voice. You must remember that if the audience is looking at images and reading words they are therefore not listening to YOU anymore. Manage that well.

There are a few rules for presentation slides:

• no more than 20 simple words on a slide
• avoid silly animated transitions they serve no purpose and are distracting
• remember in some countries 1 in 10 men are colourblind
• avoid stock backgrounds and clip art
• avoid elaborate fonts
• use easily understood graphs and images