Episode #123: Presentation Visuals Mastery Part Four

We keep with our theme of dealing with all aspects of the visuals part of your presentation.

I have seen lots of people get lost with their notes. They have copious notes and then they start reading them to us. Don’t. That’s my advice. Don’t. Don’t read your notes. Have your points, sure. Have some points, have some notes. That’s fine. No one will begrudge you looking at some notes to trigger the next phase of what you going to talk about. But talk about it. You are the expert. Talk to what your topic is about. You have designed the talk. It’s your presentation. You know what the purpose is. Talk to the points and don’t read the points. It just takes away from what you are doing and what you are trying to achieve. You want to be seen as a professional, an expert, an authority in your field.

I forget where it was, it something I saw, someone actually reading a presentation. They did a reasonable job of reading it, but it would have been so much more impressive if they had not read it, if they’d actually spoken to it. And you can, you know, you’ve got points you can talk to. That’s enough. So try to avoid looking down and reading to us. It’s not effective. You are not going to have maximum impact with an audience when you do it that way.

Lecterns or podiums are a bit of a trap. Again, people who set up venues, tend to set them up without thinking. So they’ll put the lectern there on the stage with some sort of stand mic. You are now limited in what you can do, because of the positioning of the mic. Try and use a pin mic rather than a stand mic, so you can move around a little bit. If you can, move the lectern out of the way or get rid of it entirely.

If the lectern is just a platform to put your laptop on, fine. But move it out of the way. Put it to the side, so that yes, you can have the laptop there if you need to look at the screen. If you are not particularly tall, then you should definitely be very careful about being trapped behind a lectern. Often the lectern is a bit high and consequently all we can see is your head. It is just framed slightly above the lectern. Not a good look.

If you have to use a lectern, then get organized, get something to stand on, so you are going to be higher above the lectern. That is why we must get there early and correct all the errors the venue set up team have devised to make our presentation fail. If you can get rid of the lectern then do so because that way, we can see your whole body. We now have all your body language available to us. This is great for getting messages across.

If you are stuck with a mic stand, then take the mic out from the stand and try and move away from the lectern. Even if you can’t move the lectern then try and stand in front of the lectern, in between the audience and the lectern. Or stand to the side of it if you can.

Definitely check out the room. Room layout is very critical. Often uninformed people lay out rooms the wrong way. Crazy things happen. I’ve been to venues where the room organizers obviously never give presentations. They set up my speaking position directly in front of the projector. Right in front of the projector. Now I am going to become the screen. Just crazy stuff, so get there early if you can. Actually, go the day before. That is even better. Then you can check out how it is going to look. What is the room like? Make any needed adjustments. Certainly the day before is best because you have more time.

If that is not possible for whatever reason, then definitely get there early on the day and check everything because crazy stuff happens. As I have previously noted, the people who are the most ignorant about presenting, are given the task of setting up for the speaker. In almost 100% of cases, they won’t set it up correctly.

With the positioning on stage, if you can, always try and stand on the left of the screen. By that I mean audience left. We read from left to right, so what we want is the audience looking at us and then they read what is on the screen. Look at our face, then read the screen. Look at us, read the screen. It often happens that the people putting the presentation together or hosting it, will set it up so that you are on the audience right side of the screen. There will be power outlets, cables, equipment etc., arranged that way.

They will have the laptop stand there, they will have the mic set up there. Again, if you can get there early enough try and move it. If you can’t, well okay. You have to present from the right side to the audience, but it is better if you can present on the left side of the screen.

Also check on where you are standing, in terms of audience lines of sight. Sometimes if you are on the same level as the audience, you might actually be blocking the view of the people on the far extremes of the seating. So be careful that you’re not standing in front of the screen, such that they cannot see it.

Now sometimes you may have a stage platform and those huge screens behind you. You might be standing in front of the screens, so you are actually blocking part of the bottom of the screen. That’s okay. The power position is at the center of the stage. But don’t stay there, move. Walk slowly across the stage from the left and talk from there. Come back to the center. Move slowly across to the right. Then come back to the center. In this way, you are not entirely blocking what is on screen, all the time, for every slide. And with most slides it won’t matter.

Microphones seem to scare people. If you have a big venue or if you have a reasonably large audience size, say more than 30 people, microphones are good to use. But if it is a small venue, only a small audience, you don’t need a microphone. However, some ladies have a soft voice and they can’t get their voice to carry. A microphone is definitely recommended.

I personally don’t use a microphone in a small audience, because it leaves both hands free for gesturing and I don’t feel restricted. But if it is a big venue then yes, I definitely use a microphone. When you are nervous, there is nothing worse than having a microphone obviously vibrating in your hand when you are speaking. So a good way of getting around that problem is grip the microphone with both hands and then hold your hands to your chest. Tuck your elbows in too. So now your body is anchoring the microphone and it will not sway, vibrate or show you are nervous. It is not the greatest thing because it restricts our gestures, but it’s much better than having the audience fixated on, “Oh look at that, that person is totally nervous. Look at that vibrating microphone. Wow they look really scared.”

No don’t have that. If you have got the calmness to hold it in one hand, great, do that. Swap hands so you can use both hands for gesturing. Also, don’t hold the mic right up to your mouth. Now this is sometimes funny at things like the Academy Awards. You see so called professionals dealing with the mic stand on the dais. The stand height is too low. So they bend down, leaning right over to speak into this little mic. Microphones are so sophisticated today, they catch the sound. You don’t have to lean down. You should be talking across the top of the microphone not jamming it up in front of your mouth. Hold it away from you and speak across the top. It will catch you just fine. If you can’t pull the mic out of the stand, then pick the whole thing up and speak using the mic.

We continue with part five next week.