After numerous requests for assistance from those wanting to hold the attention of their participants and perk up their presentations, I put together a few helpful steps and tips.

Determine Your Purpose
Before you ever get started creating anything, determine what you want your audience to do, see, hear, and experience as a result of attending your presentation. What outcome do you want? Give info? Learn something? Perfect a skill? Is there a problem to be solved? Get to know each other? Set a fun tone for the day? Since all my presentations are created from particular requests, I simply ask the client what their objectives are and design the presentation to fit their needs.

Know Your Audience
When designing a presentation, it is important to know your audience so you can design something they will appreciate. For example, a mostly female crowd may respond differently to certain activity than one that is mostly male. Some questions to answer are:

	Who are they?
	What do they already know?
	What are their skills? / Attitude?
	What do they expect?
	What are their needs?
	What are they interested in, what do they want?
	Demographics: %male/female, ages
	What is your relationship to them?
	What do you have in common?

Identify possible objections and problems the participants may have, then find solutions ahead of time. What you will say? How you will address the issue? What further info they will want? (Don’t tell them there are some great resources without being ready to give them the phone number or web page so they can get it!)

Subject Matters
Once you establish your goal, determine what topic would best accomplish that goal. Again, your client may have a certain subject in mind. When you have your topic, ask yourself what you know about it. If you already know a great deal…great, you are one step ahead! If not, read books, articles, browse the web, watch videos, interview people, research it, study it, OVER-STUDY it! If you are going to use any quotes or research, make sure it is valid and up to date, or don’t use it. Make sure you are not just spreading urban legend.

The Championship Title
Many people will roll their eyes and groan at the thought of yet another “required” course. Catchy titles catch attention. They motivate the reader to want to find out more. Using a play on words or repeating sounds are appealing to the ear. However, it is important to not confuse the reader. Some people really appreciate calling a “duck a duck.” When choosing your title, consider your audience. Will they be grateful for a little intrigue or humor, or get irritated by it? Especially if your presentation is in competition with others in the same time slot, your title can make the difference between filling the room or not. Put some thought into it, then move on.

Keep a Story Journal
If I had to pick the most important suggestion from all the ones I will be discussing, I would say this one is it. Keep a spiral notebook, journal or tablet with you to write down stories. When people share a story about something that happened to them, ask if you can use it. Any time you find yourself sharing a story, situation or dilemma with others, write it down. Not only can you come back to it later to more objectively find a solution to your challenge, or at least an alternative that could have worked better, you can use it to help others. This journal will become a tremendously effective tool you can use to enhance your presentations. Instead of using stories you’ve downloaded from the web, or repeating those of other speakers, you will have your own unique ones. Frequently, it is these stories that will help you illustrate your point or make your instruction come to life, become real to the participant. Note: Don’t always be the hero of your stories. Audiences bore quickly hearing someone boast. Don’t be constantly be the “bad guy” either, you could lose rapport. I have found in most cases that it’s best to switch the names of the characters involved in stories, yourself included. This preserves confidentiality and avoids the impression that you are taking sides…unless that is the impression you want to give.

Handouts: To Have or Not To Have
Think of the point of having a handout. Make it visually appealing and usable. If participants will be writing notes, give them room to do so. If it is for reference, let them know they can read it later. Supply resources for further exploration and study when applicable. Make sure to include contact information and your name, in case they don’t remember it. If it really isn’t necessary, skip it.

Use the guidelines at the sidebar as a template during the actual design stage of your presentation.