A Presentation in Thirty Minutes
I thought it would be beneficial to share with you the presentation I did for the Colorado Chapter of the National Speakers Association. The good and the bad! As you know, I only use Powerpoint sparingly and believe that it should only be used to enhance and clarify your presentations. Well, Saturday turned out to be the day I sparingly used it. There were approximately 100 people in attendance and the rows went straight back-The folks in the first 10-15 rows had a good view of the slides. The next 15 rows did not fare as well. First lesson,
If the slide is important enough to put up-you had better put it on your handout so everyone can see it. The wireless microphone conked out-I just kept talking and they replaced it with a hand held while they replaced the batteries. Second lesson: Don’t get flustered, things will act up now and again 
I attempted to cover a lot of material in thirty minutes and answer questions-It’s easy to overwhelm an audience and have them miss key points. A smarter way is to tell your audience up front-I’ll cover these 3-5 key points in the first twenty minutes and leave the remaining ten minutes for questions. I love to have audience interaction during my presentations but trust me, thirty minutes flies by, especially when you entertain questions from the audience!!
My audience was a great audience and very easy to communicate with-and they are always hungry for new and better ideas for their business. Thank you National Speakers Association-Colorado chapter for allowing me to share some ideas with you on blogging.
Steve Mertz
Lessons From the Trenches!
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