Last week I sat through 5 days of meetings and presentation that were pretty much nonstop.  Some of the presentations were good, some were terrible, most were average.  One was excellent.   All the other attendees I talked to were of the same opinion.  All wished it had lasted longer, and everyone wanted to hear the speaker again in the future.  Imagine that.  He left them wanting more, not wanting to get out of the room to the nearest coffee station.

I make notes of things I like about presentations and speeches, sometimes mental notes, sometimes written notes.

Below are some of my thoughts and observations about what made this particular presentation so good.

I’ll first describe the context (context being so important).  The audience was a group of 60 to 70 professionals, mainly in finance and most in management.  They were an international group, from the US, Asia, Europe and the Middle East.   It was a nearly even mix of men and women, and the ages ranged from early 30s to mid 60s.   We were seated in a large conference room with around four rows of crescent shaped tables.  There were two large flat panel screens in the front of the room for the display of PowerPoint slides.

The speaker was a German man in his mid 50s.   He presented in excellent English.  The presentation lasted one hour and he used PowerPoint.

The scene is now set (one reasonably familiar to many business people these days).  So how did my German friend manage to excel in his talk?

First, he has a passion about his topic.  He described both business he manages as well as the steps and methodology he has taken to transform it from a lackluster rather sleepy business to a fast growing and successful one.  He spoke about something he lives and breathes every day.   He spoke with expertise, energy, and excitement.

Second, his slides were informative and varied in nature.  He employed a well balanced combination of words, numbers, pictures, graphs, charts, video and color.

Third, and more importantly, he presented in a way that people looked at the slides only when he wanted them to.  The rest of the time they were looking at and listening to him!  He accomplished this feat through a combination energy, humor and physical movement.  He moved back and forth across the front of the room from one end to the other.  He engaged with various individuals through direct eye contact.  He used plenty of examples from professional and personal life that would resonate with the audience.  When he employed humor it was in the way of a personal anecdote that pointed at his one foibles and mistakes, not others, but that most people would find common in their own experience.

And he smiled.  He smiled throughout the presentation, at the audience as a group and directly at individuals.

Finally, he started and ended on time.  What a concept.

The next time you’re lucky enough to hear a speech or presentation that you consider very good, or unlucky to have the opposite experience, try jotting down a few notes to yourself about what made it so.