Got any suggestions?
We want to hear from you! Send us a message and help improve Slidesgo
Top searches
Trending searches
solar eclipse
25 templates
autism awareness
28 templates
26 templates
16 templates
6 templates
32 templates
People Presentation templates
Highlight the human factor in your presentations with our free themes and templates for google slides and powerpoint. they contain illustrations or pictures of people working or being together..
Health, Wellness, and Lifestyle Choices - German - 10th Grade
Download the Health, Wellness, and Lifestyle Choices - German - 10th Grade presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. High school students are approaching adulthood, and therefore, this template’s design reflects the mature nature of their education. Customize the well-defined sections, integrate multimedia and interactive elements and allow space for research...
Women's Day Social Media Presentation
Download the Women's Day Social Media Presentation presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and start impressing your audience with a creative and original design. Slidesgo templates like this one here offer the possibility to convey a concept, idea or topic in a clear, concise and visual way, by using different...
Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Public Health Sciences
Download the Social and Behavioral Sciences in Public Health - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Public Health Sciences presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. As university curricula increasingly incorporate digital tools and platforms, this template has been designed to integrate with presentation software, online learning management systems, or referencing software,...
Business Accessibility Meeting
Download the Business Accessibility Meeting presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. Gone are the days of dreary, unproductive meetings. Check out this sophisticated solution that offers you an innovative approach to planning and implementing meetings! Detailed yet simplified, this template ensures everyone is on the same page, contributing to a...
People Pattern
Do you need a very versatile presentation to talk about clients, demographics, targets, market research or any related topic? Use this cool template now. We have included a section about the International Day of Peace and feelings.
Australian National Close the Gap Day
Download the Australian National Close the Gap Day presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and start impressing your audience with a creative and original design. Slidesgo templates like this one here offer the possibility to convey a concept, idea or topic in a clear, concise and visual way, by using...
Premium template
Unlock this template and gain unlimited access
Blue Business
We know that most important companies are located in big cities. Do you want to have a presentation that goes straight to the point for your next meeting? Look no further.
Non Profit Company Marketing Plan
Establishing non-profit organizations is a wonderful way to provide support and assistance to those who need it and to give back to the community. They can be focused on many different disciplines from religion and science to social and family. This template has all the elements you need to promote...
Alexander Graham Bell Day
Download the Alexander Graham Bell Day presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and start impressing your audience with a creative and original design. Slidesgo templates like this one here offer the possibility to convey a concept, idea or topic in a clear, concise and visual way, by using different graphic...
US Reconciliation Day
April 2 is the date when Reconciliation Day is celebrated in the United States. It's a day to patch difficult relationships and make amends between people. Now you can talk about this topic in front of an audience with the help of this new template by Slidesgo. To make it...
People Newsletter
It’s time to send a newsletter about… people! We’re all so different and we have so many things in common at the same time, how can you organize and speak about people in an eye-catching way? Well, start by editing this template! It has many cute doodle illustrations of people...
Healthy Relationships and Communication Skills - 11th Grade
Download the Healthy Relationships and Communication Skills - 11th Grade presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. High school students are approaching adulthood, and therefore, this template’s design reflects the mature nature of their education. Customize the well-defined sections, integrate multimedia and interactive elements and allow space for research or group...
Cultural Diversity
Aim for an international audience by giving a presentation about cultural diversity thanks to the new free template that Slidesgo has to offer. Its beautiful slide design and versatility allow you to easily engage everybody, putting a smile on their faces.
Happy International Day of Older Persons
As we age, it's easy to feel like we're being left behind in the fast-paced world we live in. But on International Day of Older Persons, October 1,, we're reminded that our experiences and wisdom are incredibly valuable. Established by the United Nations, this special day celebrates the contributions that...
Simple Business Plan
Boosting sales, attracting new customers, expanding the market... All of these are goals that businesses want to achieve. Aim high in your next presentation for your business plan, especially if you put your trust in this free template by Slidesgo.
Modern Business
Create a presentation with a professional design in just a few minutes with Google Slides or Powerpoint, where you’ll only need to know what information to include. A pattern full of geometric shapes will give consistency to the design, so the message will follow a common thread in every single...
People & Diversity Website Design
Design a website with this modern, creative and attractive template design! We have focused this landing on a very important matter: diversity! There’s so much beauty in diversity! On these slides, all genders, races, ages, colors and peoples are invited. Feel free to edit the designs and adapt them to...
Social Inclusion Project Proposal
Let’s aim for a fair society where everyone is given equal treatment! Edit this new template to present a project proposal about social inclusion. Its cool illustrations from Storyset and its clean layouts will do a great job. You could bring these slides to a social studies class too. Support...
- Page 1 of 43
New! Make quick presentations with AI
Slidesgo AI presentation maker puts the power of design and creativity in your hands, so you can effortlessly craft stunning slideshows in minutes.
Register for free and start editing online
- SUGGESTED TOPICS
- The Magazine
- Newsletters
- Managing Yourself
- Managing Teams
- Work-life Balance
- The Big Idea
- Data & Visuals
- Reading Lists
- Case Selections
- HBR Learning
- Topic Feeds
- Account Settings
- Email Preferences
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation
- Carmine Gallo
Five tips to set yourself apart.
Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).
I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.
- Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman (St. Martin’s Press).
Partner Center
- PERSONAL SKILLS
- Caring for Your Body
Personal Presentation
Search SkillsYouNeed:
Personal Skills:
- A - Z List of Personal Skills
- Personal Development
Check out our popular eBook now in its second edition.
The Skills You Need Guide to Life: Looking After Yourself
- Personal Skills for the Mind
- Emotional Intelligence
- Stress and Stress Management
- Anger and Aggression
- Assertiveness
- Living Well, Living Ethically
- Understanding Sustainability
- Measures of Wellness
- Wellness Testing and Tracking
- Positive Body Image
- Looking After Your Physical Health as a Teenager
- Self-Care For Teenagers
- Perimenopause and Health
- The Importance of Exercise
- Types of Exercise
- How to Exercise Safely and Effectively
- Top Tips for Exercising on a Budget
- Using Fitness Trackers to Exercise
- What is Sleep?
- The Importance of Sleep
- Food, Diet and Nutrition
- What is Protein?
- What are Carbohydrates?
- What is Sugar?
- Complex Carbohydrates, Sugars and Diet
- What is Fat?
- Cooking Fats and Oils
- What is Fibre?
- Dietary Minerals
- Vitamins - Nutrients Essential to Health
- Ultra-Processed Food
- Dietary Supplements
- Understanding and Improving Your Gut Microbiome
- Veganism and Plant-Based Diets
- Organic Food
- Debunking Some Food and Diet Myths
- Calorie Counting and Food Labelling
- Dieting for Weight Loss
- Body Mass Index - BMI Calculator
- Food Intolerances and Allergies
- Coffee and Health
- Alcohol and Health
Subscribe to our FREE newsletter and start improving your life in just 5 minutes a day.
You'll get our 5 free 'One Minute Life Skills' and our weekly newsletter.
We'll never share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time.
Personal presentation is how you portray and present yourself to other people. It includes how you look, what you say, and what you do, and is all about marketing YOU, the brand that is you.
What others see and hear from you will influence their opinion of you. Good personal presentation is therefore about always showing yourself in the best possible light.
We all know that you only get one chance to make a first impression. Most of us are probably also aware that it takes quite a long time to undo that first impression—and that if it is negative, we may never get the chance to do so. This page explains some of the skills involved in making a good first impression—and then continuing to impress over time.
Understanding Personal Presentation
Personal presentation is about you and how you present yourself to others.
This includes both in everyday situations and when under pressure, for example, at job interviews. It is best thought of as a form of communication , because it always involves at least two people—the person presenting themselves (you) and the person seeing and hearing you.
Personal presentation covers what other people both see and hear. It includes how you look, what you say, and what you do. It therefore requires a wide range of skills, from improving your personal appearance to your communication skills.
However, all these aspects start from one place: you.
To present yourself well and confidently, you need to believe in yourself—or at least, be able to act as if you do.
Perception is Truth
People who present themselves as confident will be perceived as such by others.
There is also plenty of evidence that once we start acting as if we are confident, we generally feel more confident too.
Confidence—but not arrogance—is a very attractive trait. Having a justified belief in yourself and your abilities helps other people to be confident in you too.
Good personal presentation therefore requires good self-esteem and self-confidence. It means that you have to learn about yourself, and understand and accept who you are, both your positives and your negatives, and be comfortable with yourself. This does not, however, mean that you believe that there is nothing that you can improve—but that you are confident in your ability to achieve, and know how to overcome your flaws.
Paradoxically, therefore, personal presentation is actually not about being self-conscious or overly concerned with what others think about you. People who present themselves well generally do so because they believe in themselves, rather than because they are worried about what other people think. These concepts are closely related to Personal Empowerment .
A complete picture—and a cycle
Personal presentation is about conveying appropriate signals for the situation and for the other individuals involved.
People who lack self-esteem and confidence may fail to convey their message effectively or fully utilise their skills and abilities because of the way they present themselves. However, by improving your communication skills and reducing barriers to understanding, you may also improve your self-esteem and confidence.
Our pages: Communication Skills , Barriers to Communication and Improving Self-Esteem provide more information.
Areas of Personal Presentation
Improving personal presentation therefore requires a look at several different areas.
These include:
Self-esteem and self-confidence – how you feel about yourself and your abilities
Personal appearance – how you look, and how other people see you
Non-verbal communication – your body language, voice and facial expressions
Verbal communication – how you speak and use your words to make an impression
Behaviour – how you behave more generally, including politeness.
Self-Esteem and Self-Confidence
Self-esteem and self-confidence are closely related, but not quite the same thing.
Self-esteem is how you see and value yourself .
Self-confidence is believing in or having faith in your ability , rather than yourself as a person.
Neither self-esteem nor self-confidence are static. They vary as a result of numerous factors, including different situations and the presence of different people, personal stress levels and the level of change. Low levels of self-esteem are often associated with low levels of confidence, but those with good self-esteem can also suffer from low confidence.
To improve your self-esteem and self-confidence, spend time thinking about how you value yourself. Remind yourself of what is good about you, and learn to manage the highs and lows of self-esteem. In particular, try to avoid being affected too much by others’ opinions about you.
It is also worth practising coming across as confident even when you are not, because those who appear confident are not only perceived as confident, but often actually become more confident.
See our pages on Improving Self-Esteem and Building Confidence for more discussion, tips and advice on this area.
Personal Appearance and Non-Verbal Communication
Personal appearance is the way that you dress and take care of your general appearance.
Much as we may hate the idea that appearances matter, this is an important factor in personal presentation. Whether you like it or not, others will make judgements about you based on how you look, which includes how you dress and your accessories. It is therefore worth taking time to think about what messages you are sending to others in the way that you dress.
Case study: The ‘gravitas bag’
Louise was a young graduate, working in a government department. She had been working there about two years, and had just started working for a new boss, a woman just a few years older than her.
One day, on the way to an important meeting, Louise’s carrier bag, in which she was carrying her notebook and pens, broke on the bus. Her boss laughed, but said to her, carefully,
“ You know, you ought to think a bit about how what you wear and carry affects what people think about you. I’m not sure it gives quite the right impression to wander into a meeting with pens and books spilling out of a split carrier bag—that’s why I keep a briefcase in my cupboard for the days when I’ve worn a backpack into work. This may sound stupid, but I always feel that people may be judging me because I’m both female and quite young. I don’t want to give them any reason to doubt my professionalism. ”
Neither did Louise. The next weekend, she went shopping. On the Monday, she proudly showed her boss a new handbag and matching briefcase—her ‘gravitas bag’, as she described it.
Your personal appearance is closely related to the body language, gestures and other non-verbal messages that you use.
Many people are unaware of how they are affected by body language, and also how they are affecting others. By being aware of positive and negative non-verbal signals, you can improve your image and the way people perceive you.
There is more about these ideas in our pages on Personal Appearance and Non-Verbal Communication , including specific pages on Body Language and Face and Voice .
Verbal Communication and Effective Speaking
What you say and how you say it are both important aspects of how you are perceived by others.
Verbal communication is all about the words that you choose. Those who are good at verbal communication understand the impact of their particular choice of words and choose the right words for the situation and the audience. They are skilled at getting their message across to others and ensuring that it has been received.
See our pages on Verbal Communication for more.
Good communicators also use their voices effectively to convey their feelings, and to influence their audience. Your voice says a lot about you and learning how to use it more effectively has many benefits. There are a number of aspects to your voice, including accent, tone, pitch and volume. Some of these are easier to change than others, but it is worth thinking about how each of these affects your audience, so that you can learn to use your voice more effectively.
See our pages Effective Speaking and Non-Verbal Communication: Face and Voice to learn more.
How you behave, and not just how you speak, will leave a strong impression on others.
For example, if you are habitually late, you may give other people the impression that you do not value their time. Good time management skills can therefore be helpful in giving the right impression—as well as enabling you to work more efficiently.
See our pages Time Management and Avoiding Distractions for some ideas of to improve your time management skills.
More crucially, your general politeness—to everyone, and not just people who ‘matter’—will create an important impression about how you value others. This is an essential element of personal presentation. It pays to consider your manners.
See our page How to be Polite for more.
Further Reading from Skills You Need
Our Communication Skills eBooks
Learn more about the key communication skills you need to be a more effective communicator.
Our eBooks are ideal for anyone who wants to learn about or develop their interpersonal skills and are full of easy-to-follow, practical information.
And finally…
It is almost certainly impossible to overestimate the importance of personal presentation, especially in creating a good first impression, but also in giving a longer-term view of yourself.
Improving some fairly basic communication skills and increasing your self-awareness will improve your ability to present yourself well. Knowing that you are more likely to say and do the right things, and look the part, will help to increase your confidence. All these will, in turn, help to ensure that you give the right impression.
This is especially true in more formal situations, culminating in improved communication and therefore better understanding.
Continue to: Personal Appearance Self-Presentation in Presentations
See also: Effective Ways to Present Yourself Well Building a Personal Brand That Will Boost Your Career 8 Ways to Effectively Market Yourself as a Professional
By navigating on the Owl Labs website, you agree to our use of cookies during your browsing experience. Learn More .
No matter what industry or department you work in, public speaking is typically part of the job. And whether you need to present for two minutes on the results of your latest marketing and sales campaign, or thirty minutes on your team's goals and results for the quarter, it more than likely makes you anxious.
If you're scared of presenting, you're not alone. In fact, surveys have found some people rate public speaking as scarier than death — no big deal though, right?
Fortunately, there are skills you can acquire to become an expert at public speaking. Here, we're going to explore the 11 top ways to improve your presentation skills, so you can excel at your next meeting. Best of all, you can learn presentation skills to apply these same skills to your presentation whether you're working remotely or in-person.
How to Improve Your Presentation Skills
1. be brief..
The average attention span for people who listen to speeches is estimated to be somewhere between five to 10 minutes , so, if at all possible, make your presentation brief and concise.
Try eliminating unnecessary data or information that isn't critical to your main point. If your presentation needs to be over 10 minutes, break it up using quizzes, a brief poll, or asking for your audience's opinion on a subject.
Additionally, it's said that ideas repeated three times stick more clearly in our minds. Rather than trying to make each slide unique, try weaving one or two similar ideas together throughout the entire presentation to ensure those main ideas stick in your audience's minds.
2. If remote, focus on your atmosphere.
If you're presenting from a remote location, it's critical you pay attention to lighting, your background, and potential noise distractions.
Don't present in a crowded coffee shop, or in a bedroom with distracting posters behind you. Instead, find a clean background to minimize distraction, and bring a lamp closer to your computer if you think the space is too dark.
3. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
One of the scariest parts of public speaking is the fear of the unknown — What am I going to say? How is the audience going to react?
By practicing ahead of time, you're minimizing some of these fears. Prepare so you know what you want to say for each slide, and even present ahead of time for a friend or colleague to get their feedback. The more you prepare, the less stressed you'll be.
If you're presenting from a remote location, try recording yourself ahead of time and playing it back to evaluate areas of improvement.
However, it's important to note — abiding to a strict script during your presentation will only make you feel more anxious. You'll be worried about missing that one word in the third paragraph on the second note card, rather than trusting your ability to expand on ideas in-person.
Instead of memorizing each word, jot down some general ideas and use them as jumping-off points in your presentation.
4. Make your slides short-and-sweet, and expand on the information in your presentation.
There's nothing worse than a presentation in which each slide is jam-packed with crowded text, and the presenter simply reads each slide to the audience -- this is a surefire way to lose your audience's attention quickly, or stress them out with information overload.
Instead, make your slides short-and-sweet with minimal visuals and text. Then, you can always expand on the information in your presentation .
For instance, let's say you're reporting on your latest campaign results. On your slide, you might put a graph with a "+25% CTR" text. Then, in your presentation, you can explain the information in an engaging way — "We found, just two weeks after implementing our latest campaign, that the number of click-through rates increased by 25% on our landing page."
It's more interesting to say that out loud than read it back to your audience, don't you think? The Owl Labs State of Remote Work survey found that Vice Presidents and C-level executives are the least likely to be visual learners, so focus on the story you're telling with your speaking to have the greatest impact on high-level meeting attendees you're presenting to.
5. Be enthusiastic.
Most people would prefer to listen to an enthusiastic speaker over an eloquent one. On the day of your presentation, harness your anxiety and turn it into enthusiasm and passion over the subject. If you're excited about what you're presenting on, your audience will be, too.
6. Watch other presentations.
Before your presentation, get inspired by watching impressive speakers. Consider checking out motivating TED Talks or compelling commencement speeches . Take notes on the aspects of their presentations you find most engaging, including tone of voice, body language, and their ability to transition from one idea to the next. Then try some of those tactics in your own presentations, and see which ones make you feel more confident.
For both inspiration and humor, check out How to sound smart in your TEDx Talk .
7. Use positive visualization.
Positive visualization is an incredibly useful ingredient for success. In fact, The Journal of Consulting Psychology released a study in which they provided two groups with career counseling and interview coaching, but one group also received visualization techniques. After two months, 66% of those in the visualization group had found new jobs — compared to just 21% in the non-visualization group.
Visualization can help increase your confidence and make you feel more mentally prepared for your presentation. Before your presentation, try turning negative thoughts into positive ones — rather than thinking, "I might forget my information," think, "I've practiced a ton, so I know I'm ready."
Additionally, try imagining yourself as an impressive, engaging speaker right before you present. Ideally, your positive visualization will boost your optimism and confidence, and lead you to doing a better job.
8. Exercise.
Exercising can boost your endorphins and eliminate anxiety related to public speaking, so try going for a short run or attending a morning cycle class before your presentation.
When you're nervous, you're more likely to speak quickly and rush through points to try to get the presentation "over with" -- but you'll end up making yourself more nervous by doing this, as you run out of breath and lose control of your pace.
Instead, don't be afraid to pause. Pauses can help you emphasize important points, and will give your audience time to digest what you just said. Additionally, speaking slowly can make you seem less nervous and more in-control.
10. Acknowledge it's normal to be nervous.
If you fight your nerves or tell yourself "this isn't something I should be nervous about", you're ultimately only going to feel more anxious. Instead, embrace the energy you feel from your nerves. Tell yourself, "Yes, I am nervous because I want this to go well … however, I know it will go well. I am capable of speaking on this subject and I know what I'm talking about. I'm prepared and ready to go."
If you're feeling exceptionally nervous, you might also try EFT Tapping , which is thought to relieve anxiety due to negative thoughts.
11. Try power posing.
In one of the most popular TED Talks of all time, " Your body language may shape who you are ", social psychologist Amy Cuddy discusses a study she published with colleagues at Harvard University, in which participants were asked to sit in either a high-power pose or low-power pose for two minutes.
Ultimately, Cuddy and her colleagues found participants who sat in high-power poses felt more comfortable and performed better in interviews, compared to those who sat in low-power poses. Additionally, they saw high-power posers experienced increases in testosterone, and decreases in cortisol.
In other words, their body language alone boosted hormones attributed to the feeling of "power", while simultaneously quieting hormones attributed to the feeling of "stress."
Next time you're about to present, give it a shot. At the very least, power posing should help you feel more in control of the situation.
Ultimately, becoming a good public speaker requires practice just like any other skill -- but, ideally, these 11 tactics should help you eliminate your fears and become a more engaging and inspiring speaker for your next presentation.
- Notifications
No notifications to show yet
You’ll see useful information here soon. Stay tuned!
- Animated icons
- Interface icons
Are you sure you want to delete this collection?
We’re sorry you canceled your Premium subscription
You can still enjoy Flaticon Collections with the following limits:
- You can choose only 3 collections to keep
- You can only add up to 100 icons per collection
- You can’t add Premium icons to your collection
The advantages of your collections have changed
Keep making the most of your icons and collections
20% OFF our Annual Premium Plan
Select 3 collections to continue:
You have 8 collections, but can only unlock 3 of them
Report download
Please indicate what problem has been found. Thanks!
Base 64 encoded image
Copy the base64 encoded data and insert it in your HTML or CSS document. Need help? Maybe this link can help you
CSS background
Using it for the web? Copy this link in your website:
How to attribute for other media?
Don’t you want to attribute the author?
Going Premium is easy and it also allows you to use more than 14,773,000 icons without attribution. Find out more information here
Select a color from the icon
Choose a new color
Custom palette
- Remove color
- Remove palette
- You have exceeded the number of color samples for this palette
Select a shape
Stroke width
You can only save 3 new edited icons per collection as a free user. Upgrade to save unlimited icons.
Your collection is locked. You can upgrade your account to get an unlimited collection.
You have reached the icons limit per collection (256 icons)
This feature is only available for registered users. Login or register
This icon has a gradient color and cannot be edited.
Group search results
You can group your results by author style, pack, or see all available icons on your screen.
Presentation people Icons
- Delete filters
- Add to collection
- Copy to clipboard. Copying this asset counts as a download Copy to clipboard SVG PNG
Set your own limits
Gain access to over 14,773,000 icons in formats SVG, EPS, PSD & BASE64
Download what you want, cancel when you want
Related tags
Collection:
Over 14,773,000 icons for 8.25 USD /month
- No attribution required
- 14.8M icons & stickers in SVG, EPS, PSD & BASE64
- Unlimited downloads
- Browse ad-free
You must attribute the author
How to attribute for other media? How to attribute?
How likely are you to recommend Flaticon to a friend?
How about giving us a rating on Trustpilot
If you can spare a few minutes to leave us a review, we’d be super grateful 😃
Please visit:
Improve your practice.
Enhance your soft skills with a range of award-winning courses.
How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples
August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard
For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.
Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.
Why is structuring a presentation so important?
If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.
Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information 40% more accurately than unstructured information.
In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.
What will affect your presentation structure?
Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:
- Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
- How knowledgeable the audience already is on the given subject
- How much interaction you want from the audience
- Any time constraints there are for your talk
- What setting you are in
- Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance
Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:
- What is your presentation’s aim?
- Who are the audience?
- What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?
When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.
What is the typical presentation structure?
This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.
1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself
Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.
Read our tips on How to Start a Presentation Effectively
2. Introduction
In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:
- Introduce your general topic
- Explain your topic area
- State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
- State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
- Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
- Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation
In this section also explain:
- The length of the talk.
- Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
- If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.
The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a sales pitch may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.
Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.
3. The main body of your talk
The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.
- Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
- Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
- Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
- Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.
When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.
4. Conclusion
In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.
Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.
Follow these steps:
- Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
- Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
- Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
- Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
- Move on to the last section
5. Thank the audience and invite questions
Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to ask any questions they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.
Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.
Other common presentation structures
The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:
Demonstration
Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.
- Explain why the product is valuable.
- Describe why the product is necessary.
- Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
- Demonstrate the product to support what you’ve been saying.
- Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.
Problem-solution
This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.
- Briefly frame the issue.
- Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
- Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
- Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.
Storytelling
As well as incorporating stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.
Storytelling for Business Success webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.
Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.
- Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma
Remaining method
The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.
- Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
- Rebut your opponents’ solutions – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
- After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.
Transitions
When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done using speech transitions which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.
Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:
Moving from the introduction to the first point
Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:
- Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
- First, let’s begin with…
- I will first cover…
- My first point covers…
- To get started, let’s look at…
Shifting between similar points
Move from one point to a similar one:
- In the same way…
- Likewise…
- Equally…
- This is similar to…
- Similarly…
Internal summaries
Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:
- What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
- What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
- How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
- What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”
Physical movement
You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.
A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:
- Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
- For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
- You discuss your second point from the centre again.
- You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
- The conclusion occurs in the centre.
Key slides for your presentation
Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:
- An intro slide outlining your ideas
- A summary slide with core points to remember
- High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying
There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:
- Don’t over fill them – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
- A picture says a thousand words – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
- Make them readable – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
- Don’t rush through slides – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.
Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a 10-20-30 rule :
- There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
- The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
- The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.
Here are some additional resources for slide design:
- 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
- 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
- 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea
Group Presentations
Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices. Clean transitioning between speakers is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:
- Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
- Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
- Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
- The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”
From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.
Example of great presentation structure and delivery
Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.
How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt
This presentation by ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.
Start with why – by Simon Sinek
Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.
The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby
Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.
However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.
As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.
By preparing a solid structure, and practising your talk beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.
It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.
Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.
- Public Speaking Classes
- Corporate Presentation Training
- Online Public Speaking Course
- Northeast Region
- Midwest Region
- Southeast Region
- Central Region
- Western Region
- Presentation Skills
- 101 Public Speaking Tips
- Fear of Public Speaking
How to Introduce Yourself in a Presentation [with Examples]
In this post, we are going to cover the best way, a very simple three-step process that will help you introduce yourself in a presentation. A summary of the steps is below.
- Start with your name and company (or organization or school).
- Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them.
- Share some type of proof (social proof works best) that you can solve this problem.
I will break down each step into a simple-to-follow process. But first… a little background.
First, Identify What Your Audience Wants from Your Presentation
So, before you design your introduction, think about what your audience wants from your presentation. Why do they want to spend their valuable time listening to you? Are going to waste their time? Or, are you going to provide them with something valuable?
For instance, I have expertise in a number of different areas. I’m a public speaking coach, a keynote speaker, a best-selling author, a search engine optimization specialist, and a popular podcaster. However, if I delivered that sentence to any audience, the most likely reaction would be, “So what?” That sentence doesn’t answer any of the above questions. The statement is also really “me-focused” not “audience-focused.”
So, when I start to design my self-introduction, I want to focus just on the area of expertise related to my topic. I’m then going to answer the questions above about that particular topic. Once you have these answers, set them aside for a second. They will be important later.
How to Introduce Yourself in a Presentation in Class.
Instead, you probably want to add in a fun way to start a speech . For example, instead of introducing yourself in your class speech and starting in an awkward way, start with a startling statistic. Or start with a summary of your conclusion. Or, you could start the presentation with an inspirational quote.
Each of these presentation starters will help you lower your nervousness and decrease your awkwardness.
If you are delivering a speech in a speech competition or to an audience who doesn’t know you try this technique. Just introduce yourself by saying your name , the school you represent , and your topic . Make it easy. This way you get to your content more quickly and lower your nervousness.
Typically, after you get the first few sentences out of the way, your nervousness will drop dramatically. Since your name, school, and topic should be very easy to remember, this takes the pressure off you during the most nervous moments.
Obviously, follow the guidelines that your teacher or coach gives you. (The competition may have specific ways they want you to introduce yourself.)
How to Introduce Yourself in a Business Presentation — A Step-by-Step Guide.
In a professional setting, when new people walk into a meeting and don’t know what to expect, they will feel uncomfortable. The easiest way to ease some of that tension is to chat with your audience as they come into the room.
By the way, if you are looking for a template for an Elevator Speech , make sure to click this link.
Step #1: Start with your name and company name (or organization).
This one is easy. Just tell your audience your name and the organization that you are representing. If your organization is not a well-known brand name, you might add a short clarifying description. For instance, most people outside of the training industry have never heard of The Leader’s Institute ®. So, my step #1 might sound something like…
Hi, I’m Doug Staneart with The Leader’s Institute ®, an international leadership development company…
Still short and sweet, but a little more clear to someone who has never heard of my company.
Should you give your job title? Well… Maybe and sometimes. Add your title into the introduction only if your title adds to your credibility.
For example, if you are delivering a financial presentation and you are the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of your company, you might mention that. Your title adds to your credibility. However, if the CFO is delivering a presentation about the value of joining a trade association, the CFO title adds little credibility. So, there is very little value in adding the title.
Step #2: Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them.
For instance, if my topic is how to deliver presentations, I have to determine why the audience would care. What problem will they have that I can help them with? For my audiences, the problem that I most often help people with is how to eliminate public speaking fear. Once I have the problem, I add that to my introduction by using the words, “I help people…”
Hi, I’m Doug Staneart with The Leader’s Institute ®, an international leadership development company, and I help people eliminate public speaking fear.
However, if my topic is How to Close a Higher Percentage of Sales Presentations , I’d likely want to alter my introduction a little. I might say something like…
Hi, I’m Doug Staneart with The Leader’s Institute ®, an international leadership development company, and I help people design more persuasive sales presentations.
I have expertise in both areas. However, I focus my introduction on just the expertise that is applicable to this audience. If I gave the first introduction to the second audience, they will likely respond by thinking, well, I don’t really get nervous speaking, so I guess I can tune out of this speech .
So, create a problem statement starting with, “I help people…” Make the statement apply to what your audience really wants.
Step #3: Share some type of proof (social proof works best) that you can solve this problem.
By the way, if you just do steps #1 and #2, your introduction will be better than most that you will hear. However, if you add Step #3, you will gain more respect (and attention) from your audience. Without adding some type of proof that you can solve this problem, you are just giving your opinion that you are an expert. However, if you can prove it, you are also proving that you are an expert.
This is the tricky part. For some reason, most people who get to this part feel like they haven’t accomplished great things, so they diminish the great accomplishments that they do have.
For instance, an easy way to offer proof is with a personal story of how you have solved that problem in the past.
A Few Examples of How to Introduce Yourself Before a Presentation.
For instance, one of my early clients was a young accountant. When I was working with him, he came up with the following introduction, “I’m Gary Gorman with Gorman and Associates CPA’s, and I help small businesses avoid IRS audits.” It was a great, audience-focused attention-getter. (No one wants to get audited.) However, as an accountant, it wasn’t like his company was getting a lot of five-star reviews on Yelp! So, he was kind of struggling with his social proof. So, I asked him a series of questions.
Me, “How many clients do you have?”
Gary, “Over 300.”
Me, “How many small business tax returns have you processed?”
Gary, “Well, at least a couple hundred a year for 15 years.”
Me, “So, at least 3000?” He nodded. “How many of your 300 clients have been audited since you have been representing them?”
He looked at me and said, “Well, none.”
So, we just added that piece of proof to his talk of introduction.
I’m Gary Gorman with Gorman and Associates CPA’s, and I help small businesses avoid IRS audits. In fact, in my career, I’ve helped clients complete over 3000 tax returns, and not a single one has ever been audited.
Here Is How I Adjust My Introduction Based on What I Want the Audience to Do.
For my proof, I have a number of options. Just like Gary, I have had a lot of clients who have had great successes. In addition, I have published two best-selling books about public speaking. I also have hundreds of thousands of people who listen to my podcast each week. So, I can pick my evidence based on what I want my audience to do.
For instance, if I’m speaking at a convention, and I want the audience to come by my booth to purchase my books, my introduction might sound like this.
Hi, I’m Doug Staneart with The Leader’s Institute ®, an international leadership development company, and I help people eliminate public speaking fear. One of the things that I’m most know for is being the author of two best-selling books, Fearless Presentations and Mastering Presentations.
However, if I’m leading a webinar, I may want the audience to purchase a seat in one of my classes. In that case, my introduction might sound like this.
Hi, I’m Doug Staneart with The Leader’s Institute ®, an international leadership development company, and I help people eliminate public speaking fear. For instance, for the last 20 years, I’ve taught public speaking classes to over 20,000 people, and I haven’t had a single person fail to reduce their nervousness significantly in just two days.
If my goal is to get the audience to subscribe to my podcast, my intro might sound like…
Hi, I’m Doug Staneart with The Leader’s Institute ®, an international leadership development company, and I help people eliminate public speaking fear. One of the ways that I do this is with my weekly podcast called, Fearless Presentations, which has over one million downloads, so far.
Use the Form Below to Organize How to Introduce Yourself in a Presentation.
The point is that you want to design your introduction in a way that makes people pause and think, “Really? That sounds pretty good.” You want to avoid introductions that make your audience think, “So what?”
If you have a speech coming up and need a good introduction, complete the form below. We will send you your answers via email!
Can You Replace Your Introduction with a PowerPoint Slide?
Is it okay to make your first slide (or second slide) in your presentation slides an introduction? Sure. A good public speaker will often add an introduction slide with a biography, portrait, and maybe even contact information. I sometimes do this myself.
However, I NEVER read the slide to my audience. I often just have it showing while I deliver the short introduction using the guide above. This is a great way to share more of your work experience without sounding like you are bragging.
For tips about how many powerpoint slides to use in a presentation , click here.
Remember that There Is a Big Difference Between Your Introduction in a Presentation and Your Presentation Starter.
When you introduce yourself in a presentation, you will often just use a single sentence to tell the audience who you are. You only use this intro if the audience doesn’t know who you are. Your presentation starter, though, is quite different. Your presentation starter should be a brief introduction with relevant details about what you will cover in your presentation.
For details, see Great Ways to Start a Presentation . In that post, we show ways to get the attention of the audience. We also give examples of how to use an interesting hook, personal stories, and how to use humor to start a presentation.
Podcasts , presentation skills
View More Posts By Category: Free Public Speaking Tips | leadership tips | Online Courses | Past Fearless Presentations ® Classes | Podcasts | presentation skills | Uncategorized
We use essential cookies to make Venngage work. By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Manage Cookies
Cookies and similar technologies collect certain information about how you’re using our website. Some of them are essential, and without them you wouldn’t be able to use Venngage. But others are optional, and you get to choose whether we use them or not.
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are always on, as they’re essential for making Venngage work, and making it safe. Without these cookies, services you’ve asked for can’t be provided.
Show cookie providers
- Google Login
Functionality Cookies
These cookies help us provide enhanced functionality and personalisation, and remember your settings. They may be set by us or by third party providers.
Performance Cookies
These cookies help us analyze how many people are using Venngage, where they come from and how they're using it. If you opt out of these cookies, we can’t get feedback to make Venngage better for you and all our users.
- Google Analytics
Targeting Cookies
These cookies are set by our advertising partners to track your activity and show you relevant Venngage ads on other sites as you browse the internet.
- Google Tag Manager
- Infographics
- Daily Infographics
- Graphic Design
- Graphs and Charts
- Data Visualization
- Human Resources
- Training and Development
- Beginner Guides
Blog Marketing
How to Adapt Your In-Person Presentation Into a Virtual Presentation
By Lisa Schneider , Dec 16, 2020
In May 2020, I gave my first formal talk on Zoom. I do a fair amount of public speaking, and generally I move about the stage quite a bit: it’s an expression of energy, serves as punctuation to what I’m saying, and supports an intentional effort to make sure I look at and connect with as many people in the audience as possible.
So when it came time for this remote talk, I figured that standing while I delivered it might feel more “normal” and akin to my regular modus operandi.
About halfway through, I realized that since I couldn’t pace in my normal fashion I was…swaying back and forth.
Fortunately this was an internal presentation for our new interns at Merriam-Webster, and while they are absolutely important, it wasn’t quite as bad as doing it in front of hundreds or thousands of strangers.
Two months later, I was indeed slated to give a remote talk to hundreds of attendees; this one pre-recorded followed by live Q&A. Mindful of my earlier gaffe, I walked through my talk several times thinking about how it might play differently on a screen than in person.
While the content of an in-person presentation versus an online presentation may be the same, there are some fundamental differences between how you deliver the presentation and in your presentation design .
Here are some practical virtual presentation tips I learned from this experience:
Replace your physical energy with vocal energy, replace physical cues with visual cues.
- Vary your slide layout
- Don’t count on reading the room
- Don’t count on audience interaction
Do use interactive virtual presentation tools
Think about your ending, prepare for your q&a.
Skilled speakers , of course, bring both to the stage. But when you’re limited to the video equivalent of a head shot, it’s even more important to vary the pace, volume, and intensity of your delivery throughout the virtual presentation.
Pause early, pause often.
This is a great tip for all speakers, especially if you’re a fast talker like I am. The best training I got was not to alter my natural cadence, but to pause more often to let what I’ve said settle, and allow people to catch up.
You can reinforce that pacing in your slides, by focusing on a single point per slide. This prompts you to pause as the speaker, and lets the point sink in for your audience.
In person, a pause is also a good opportunity to catch someone’s eye, smile, and make personal contact. When you don’t have the audience in front of you, the temptation is great to just run through at full tilt. Resist that temptation and remember: without a room to look around, pauses might feel awkward to you—but they’ll still read as natural flow to the audience.
Your physical cues add a layer of meaning to your presentation. When a presentation is given virtually, certain physical cues can be lost in translation.
That’s where adding visual cues to your presentation slides can come in handy. You can use icons, apply arrows and lines, use contrasting colors, or add shapes to grab and direct your audience’s attention. Here are a few examples of visual cues in action.
This slide design uses icons to reinforce content. The use of icons helps your audience not only make sense of the information you’ve shared, but process it and hold onto it for longer.
Arrows are simple ways to visualize a process . This slide design organizes information into a logical flow with the use of arrows. It helps your audience to organize and understand your content.
High-contrasting colors help to emphasize information. This slide is obviously tackling a problem. Other slides can be differentiated the same way when you describe a solution, next steps, and so on.
Shapes are also great ways to emphasize information or visualize data . In this slide, circles are used to convey the magnitude (and significance) of the statistics shared. Even without the numbers, you’d guess the circle on the left has the highest value.
In some instances, you may need to use PowerPoint to host your slides. But that doesn’t mean your creativity should be stifled by boring PowerPoint templates. With Venngage, design your entire deck in the editor and then export it as a PowerPoint file.
Use short, punchy text on your presentation slides
Keep in mind, the opening of your presentation impacts how excited and engaged people are throughout. A strong opening statement brings energy to your virtual presentation, and helps you start off strong.
Combine an impactful title with an image that reinforces the message to hook your audience:
Punchy sentences are a trademark element of a persuasive presentation . For a speaker, it adds emphasis and weight to your statements as you present. A presentation slide isn’t the place for fluff—stick to short sentences or even just phrases to really drive the point home.
Learning to effectively summarize information for your slides is an important skill. It enables you to repurpose blog content, present detailed reports, discuss research findings, and so much more in ways that are organized and clear.
Vary your slide layouts
Naturally, you can’t just rely on your title slide to do the heavy lifting. The slides that follow need to be equally as engaging and effective.
A rule of thumb is to vary your slide layouts. Different layouts will help offer something new for your audience to latch on to. In a virtual presentation, the same repeating layout can put them to sleep. Here’s a presentation example that uses different slide layouts to keep the information fresh:
Need more presentation ideas? This blog has all the presentation examples you need.
Don’t count on reading the room
This was a big one for me. I’m a natural-born storyteller , so I use a lot of anecdotes to illustrate my points, and am often more conversational than presentational. But all of that requires reading the room and pacing myself according to the audience reaction in real time. When you’re behind a screen running a virtual presentation, you don’t get any of that feedback. Your talk can still incorporate those elements, but it has to be very tightly scripted and balanced.
Usually when I’m sharing personal anecdotes I have a single, simple background slide. The focus is on my delivery of the story and how it connects with the audience. As you tighten that storytelling for a virtual presentation, think about amping up the infographics or illustrations on your slides for balance.
For example, the icons and illustrations on this presentation are bold, meaningful, and engaging and really help underscore the information and make it memorable.
Don’t count on audience interaction
Last year, I gave a talk at a Women in Publishing conference. One of my slides was a GIF of an epic eye roll—in context, it got the (mostly female) audience responding with an eye roll and enthusiastic head nod in response. It was a group bonding, amirite?! moment.
In another presentation, I reference learning on the playground “the longest word in the dictionary.” Usually at this point I pause, look around, and audience members will spontaneously call out what they think the word is that I’m referring to.
These moments of group comity can’t really be replicated on a recorded talk or virtual presentation, and I adjusted my slides and my script accordingly.
If you’re on the right platforms, of course, you can engage the audience with polls, chat boxes, and the like. But as with all platform changes, don’t lift-and-shift your exact interaction: what works in person might not translate as compellingly to a poll widget.
If you’re doing this, be sure to practice how integrating these tools changes the flow of your talk, and what you might do if the interaction or response are not what you expect.
Tools like Zoom, GoToWebinar , WebinarNinja and others let you conduct live surveys/polls, but the process can vary. With a tool like Poll Everywhere , you can create word clouds in real time. Online games like Kahoot are great for creating online real-time quizzes (ideal for smaller groups).
You can also use whiteboards to create diagrams as you’re explaining a process, which involves the audience’s attention as they follow along. Zoom, ClickMeeting and other platforms have a whiteboard feature.
How do you usually close your talk? Are there physical cues, such as moving to center stage and quieting your body language? Have you rehearsed with the moderator when they will come back on stage? Absent these cues, you’ll want to make especially sure you have a powerful and clear closing statement , ideally one that will resonate in people’s minds for a moment as the platform switches to the moderator or next speaker.
To close your virtual presentation, consider a strong call-to-action or next step for your audience. Asking people for what you want them to do is always powerful. You can also leave them with something worth thinking about, to help your engagement extend longer than the duration of the talk.
A simple thank-you also is a great way to sign off. It’s clear, concise, and reminds audiences that you appreciate their time. Plus, it’s the easiest slide you can design.
I gave the same talk, for the same conference, at two different locations (opposite ends of the country, different audiences).
At one, there were so many questions we ran out of time.
At the other, there were so few questions that the moderator (bless you, Rob!) filled the space with questions of his own.
For some virtual presentations you will still have a moderator who plays this role and is prepared to step in, but for others you may be tasked with checking the Q&A or chat box on your own. If the latter, be sure that you have some questions prepared so that you’re not fumbling if the audience is a bit quieter.
It’s fun and exciting to share something you’re passionate about and to connect with people as you do it. For a lot of us, pre-recording our talk or presenting from behind a laptop can throw us off our game. If public speaking was already a little tough for you, losing the in-person presence may be an even harder adjustment.
As you prepare for a virtual presentation, walk though your presentation with an eye to where you rely on that audience connection and adjust accordingly:
- Tighten the spots that are more interactive
- Think about using platform tools like upvotes and polls
- Practice a delivery that is more vocal than physical (and remember to pause and breathe!)
- Replace some of your physical cues with more illustrative and impactful slide design
- Prep your close and Q&A
You got this!
- Data, AI, & Machine Learning
- Managing Technology
- Social Responsibility
- Workplace, Teams, & Culture
- AI & Machine Learning
- Diversity & Inclusion
- Big ideas Research Projects
- Artificial Intelligence and Business Strategy
- Responsible AI
- Future of the Workforce
- Future of Leadership
- All Research Projects
- AI in Action
- Most Popular
- The Truth Behind the Nursing Crisis
- Work/23: The Big Shift
- Coaching for the Future-Forward Leader
- Measuring Culture
The spring 2024 issue’s special report looks at how to take advantage of market opportunities in the digital space, and provides advice on building culture and friendships at work; maximizing the benefits of LLMs, corporate venture capital initiatives, and innovation contests; and scaling automation and digital health platform.
- Past Issues
- Upcoming Events
- Video Archive
- Me, Myself, and AI
- Three Big Points
How to Create Slides That Suit Your Superiors: 11 Tips
When you’re pitching ideas or budgets to execs in your organization, you need to deliver slides that fit those particular people just right. This checklist identifies the key considerations.
- Workplace, Teams, & Culture
- Leadership Skills
Carolyn Geason-Beissel/MIT SMR | Getty Images
I recently interviewed 20 of my customers, all in senior roles at Fortune 100 companies, and asked them their biggest pain point in presenting to higher-ups and even colleagues. What I heard consistently was that it can feel like Goldilocks bouncing from one option to the next, testing to figure out what’s “just right.” Does the audience want deep reports? Sparse slides? Something in between? Like … what?
Teams often come to presentation meetings with vast amounts of backup content just in case an exec wants to take a deep dive on any given point. There’s often a struggle to anticipate every direction attendees might want to go. It’s frustrating, and it’s not efficient.
Get Updates on Transformative Leadership
Evidence-based resources that can help you lead your team more effectively, delivered to your inbox monthly.
Please enter a valid email address
Thank you for signing up
Privacy Policy
There are many ways to build slides. I’m not just talking about crafting them well versus poorly. I’m talking about all of the important decisions regarding how to organize them, how much text to use, when to lean into a chart, the best ways to use bullets and color, and whether to include an appendix with additional information. Before you make your next proposal or request of the executive team, use this list of 11 tips for your next set of slides as a guide.
Four Things You Must Have in Every Exec’s Slides
Before we drill down into the harder aspects, the ones where your executives’ tastes may vary widely, let’s quickly cover four aspects that you can consider the building blocks — the basics you should never proceed without.
Start with an executive summary. Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure. First, start with stating the current realities. Second, clearly state the problem or opportunity your idea addresses and its potential impact. Third, explain how your recommendation solves the problem or exploits the opportunity and the next steps you’re proposing.
Have a logical organization. The arc of the deck — the package from beginning to end — should make sense. If your audience reads only the headline of every slide, the order should be coherent and make most of the case for you. The content below each slide’s headline must support the statement made in the title. Remove everything that doesn’t support your point; as writers will tell you, you sometimes need to “kill your darlings” when you’re editing.
Begin the slide deck with a tight executive summary that follows a three-act structure.
Make it skimmable. Help your audience to quickly grasp the point without getting bogged down in details. Create a clear visual hierarchy. Guide the reader’s eye through the content: Use bold headings, bullet points, and numbered lists to break down information into digestible pieces. Highlight key takeaways or conclusions in a different color or font size to draw attention to these critical points.
Focus on concise insights. Succinct statements with clear insights are everyone’s jam. Every slide should serve a purpose and contribute directly to the decision-making process. Distill complex information. Don’t use 100 words when 20 words will nail it. If you’re having difficulty trimming, consider using company-approved AI tools to help you take out the fluff.
Five Preferences to Confirm With the Person You Want to Reach
Now we’ll delve into what your particular audience does and does not want. If you haven’t yet, start by asking the person you’re presenting to what they generally prefer. They probably know themselves well but have not been asked to articulate how they like to receive information.
Ask how dense is too dense. Some executives prefer detailed slides with comprehensive data. Others favor a more high-level approach. You’re weighing how to balance informative content with readability, ensuring that slides are not overloaded yet are sufficiently detailed to support decision-making.
Confirm the delivery format and timing. Some execs like information presented to them. Others prefer a pre-read of the material followed by a discussion. I always recommend our tool Slidedocs (I’ve written a free e-book on them), which are visual documents using both words and images. The templates help presenters organize their thoughts into a document for a pre-read or a read-along. They are designed to be skimmable and able to travel through your organization without the help of a presenter.
I’m a huge fan of pre-reads and prefer to use my time in meetings to ask questions and build alignment. If your audience didn’t review your material in advance, ask at the top of the meeting whether they would like you to present it or would prefer to read through it and then discuss it.
Find out how much data visualization they prefer. Charts, graphs, photos, and illustrations often communicate complex data more clearly than words alone. When execs can see what you’re saying, they often can better understand the impact of your idea. Does the exec want to understand exact numbers? Bar charts allow them to move their eyes across a series of specifics. Does the exec want to know the shape of a trend over time? Line charts can show the pattern. (See “Classic Charts Communicate Data Quickly.”) Some prefer charts with annotations that draw attention to what you think is the most important point. Others want to make their own conclusions from the data.
One of my clients, the CEO of a massive commercial real estate company, doesn’t want anything visualized. He prefers numbers, only in a table, and only in two colors — black and red. You might think this is archaic. But the fact that he’s clear to his teams about what he wants takes all the mystery out of how to communicate with him.
When the stakes are high, have a conceptual thinker help with diagrams and concepts. If you don’t have one on your team, and when it’s high stakes, find an internal designer to help you or hire one. You can’t afford to have the baby (your idea) thrown out with the bathwater (terrible slides).
Identify which details need spelling out. How well do the people you’re presenting to know the landscape and function of the company and products you’re talking about? For example, if your engineering team threw a slide into a deck about an issue that requires executive approval, do the execs all speak geek? Or do you need to explain the technology so that they will really understand the ask? Either eliminate internal jargon and acronyms or unpack those bits, especially if your proposal deeply involves expertise outside of the executives’ domain.
Ask whether appendices will be useful. When you’re organizing a presentation, you often troll data, read through complicated reports, and even hire external experts to figure out what’s best for the company. Do your execs want access to that supporting data? You can add a document to the end of the presentation as an appendix to show all of the data and source material. This allows the main content of the slides to remain focused and accessible while still providing comprehensive background information for those who want more.
Two Tips to Improve Your Presentation Skills
Getting materials in place is the biggest step. They will be your best tools for selling your ideas. But there are two extra areas to pay attention to as a presenter: how you handle questions and how you use every experience to improve.
Anticipate questions, and practice your answers. Before you have your meeting, gather a small team to challenge every point you make. Invite colleagues you trust to role-play as “a rapidly inquisitive exec” or “the doubting naysayer exec” so you are prepared to present your idea well. They’re gonna grill you, and practicing will help you remain unruffled when it happens.
Related Articles
Ask for feedback after the presentation. Establish a feedback loop with those you presented to. Ask what worked well and how you can improve. If attendees don’t have the time, find people who have had their ideas funded and talk to them about what they did that worked. Advice and some perspective will help you nail your performance even better next time.
Empathetically understanding your audience members and how they process information, whether it’s executives or peers, sets up your ideas for success. Clarity creates efficiency. When a presentation fits just right, you’ve given your great thinking the best chance of moving through your organization and having maximum impact.
About the Author
Nancy Duarte is CEO of Duarte Inc. , a communication company in the Silicon Valley. She’s the author of six books, including DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story (Ideapress Publishing, 2019).
More Like This
Add a comment cancel reply.
You must sign in to post a comment. First time here? Sign up for a free account : Comment on articles and get access to many more articles.
We’re sorry, but Freepik doesn’t work properly without JavaScript enabled. FAQ Contact
- Notifications
- Go back Remove
- No notifications to show yet You’ll see useful information here soon. Stay tuned!
- Downloads 0/60 What is this?
- My collections
- My subscription
Find out what’s new on Freepik and get notified about the latest content updates and feature releases.
- Presentation
- Illustrations
- Business character
- Character illustration
- Business cartoon characters
- Character constructor
- Student character
- Business character set
- Business woman character
Character Presentation Images
- Add to collection
- Save to Pinterest
- data illustration
- flat illustration
- employee working
- office work
- business website
- business flat
- university class
- university classroom
- college classroom
- people presentation
- character presentation
- office character
- office training
- corporate training
- entrepreneur
- five senses
- people holding
- banner people
- holding banner
- career jobs
- old character
- male and female
- men and women
- meeting room
- business report
- business illustration
- design team
- business teamwork
- illustration pack
- human illustration
- arrow graph
- growth graph
- business market
- business man character
- lady character
- business woman character
- people shaking hands
- team presentation
- horizontal banner
- website banner
- banner template
- office presentation
- business pack
- employee recognition
- best employee
- recognition
- digital illustration
- data backup
- character sitting
- woman animation
- people illustration
- Business cartoon
- presentation illustration
- call center woman
- call support
- business chart
- coffee meeting
- person talking
- company illustration
- corporate illustration
- business man illustration
- business man
- laptop illustration
- office illustration
- office flat
- people shopping
- man and woman
- couple shopping
Presentations that move audiences
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content quicker than ever before.
Prezi is good for business
Keep teams engaged and customers asking for more
Prezi is smart for education
Make lessons more exciting and easier to remember
Millions of people — from students to CEOs — use Prezi to grab attention, stand out, and capture imaginations
The most engaging presentations happen on Prezi
Create with confidence
Professionally designed templates.
Choose from hundreds of modern, beautifully made templates.
Millions of reusable presentations
Focus on your own creativity and build off, remix, and reuse presentations from our extensive content library.
Real creative freedom
Open canvas.
Create, organize, and move freely on an open canvas. Create seamless presentations without the restrictions of linear slides.
Ready-made asset libraries
Choose from millions of images, stickers, GIFs, and icons from Unsplash and Giphy.
A presentation that works for you
Present in-person.
Have the confidence to deliver a memorable presentation with presenter notes and downloadable presentations.
Present over video conference
Keep your audience engaged by putting yourself in the center of your presentation.
Your own ideas, ready to present faster
Prezi AI is your new creative partner. Save time, amplify your ideas, and elevate your presentations.
The specialists on visual storytelling since 2009
From TED talks to classrooms. In every country across the world. Prezi has been a trusted presentation partner for over 15 years.
*independent Harvard study of Prezi vs. PowerPoint
See why our customers love us
Prezi is consistently awarded and ranks as the G2 leader across industries based on hundreds of glowing customer reviews.
Prezi powers the best presenters to do their best presentations
14 Fun & Interactive Presentation Games for Teams and Students
So you've got an audience to energize, students to engage, or a team that needs a little extra fun — playing an interactive presentation game is an easy way to do just that.
We've done the research and found the best of these games for you: we looked specifically for games that are simple to set up, fun to play, and flexible enough to be used with a variety of presentations and audiences. Most of these activities work virtually with Zoom/PowerPoint and can also be used in person.
Which of these 14 presentation games do you like best? Take a look and let us know your favorites:
1. Live Trivia Competition
A great way to ramp up the excitement and engagement is to enable a little bit of friendly competition. Trivia is an easy way to do this—plus, it can be whole-group inclusive and large-audience friendly (if you use the right tools).
Here's a great trivia game you can run with your team, students, or any large audience. It's already created for you with questions and scoring built in to make it even easier:
Here's how to play:
- Make a free account here: https://slideswith.com/
- Click the slide deck and copy it.
- Launch the trivia game by clicking "Start Event."
- Invite your group to join in and submit answers using their mobile devices (show the winners automatically).
- Interact and play during your presentation!
This trivia game has questions on many topics to keep your audience's attention and appeal to everyone. It only takes 10-15 minutes to play, so it's a great game for long discussions! Also, this interactive activity is free for up to ten participants and is totally customizable.
2. Sing and Swing
To really liven up your group, encourage your listeners to play Sing and Swing. This activity is best for long presentations because it boosts energy, creates a fun, light-hearted environment, and makes people laugh a lot.
Here's how to play:
- Before your presentation, pick a well-known song and rewrite the chorus (replace parts of it with words and phrases from your presentation)
- When you're ready to play, show the song on your screen.
- Invite your audience to sing it with you!
If you have a fun group or a class of energetic students, consider adding choreography to engage your audience even more.
3. 20 Questions
If you want a presentation game that requires your listeners to talk more than you, 20 Questions is the one to play! A classic and simple activity, this game immediately boosts engagement and gets people laughing.
Here's how to play: Have someone put an appropriate image or word on the screen behind you (this can be an audience member you trust or a colleague or co-presenter). To make things more fun, put on a blindfold so that everyone knows you can't cheat. From there, ask 20 "yes or no" questions to guess what's displayed on the screen. Your group should respond "yes" or "no" to guide you to the correct answer.
4. Scavenger Hunt Challenge
To get your audience out of their seats, a scavenger hunt challenge is one of the best interactive games for presentations. It'll immediately energize your audience , team, or students while giving them a fun way to learn.
There are tons of in-person and virtual scavenger hunt ideas you can use to dive deeper into your topic or help everyone learn about one another. But if you want a ready-to-play game that you can instantly launch without having any tech skills, here's a fun one to play:
- Use an email address and password to create a free account here: https://slideswith.com/ (a free account guarantees up to ten people can play at no charge).
- Click the game and press "Copy and use this slide deck."
- In the top right corner, click "Start Event."
- Ask listeners to join the game by using their mobile devices to scan the QR code. Players should continue using their mobile devices to submit answers to questions.
- Have everyone start hunting for items!
This activity is a particularly fun game because it's a photo-hunt, show-and-tell challenge! That means your audience will not only get out of their seats to find items, but they'll also get to take pictures and share and discuss photos of what they find. This conversational element will help engage your group!
5. Group Word Clouds
Whether you're speaking to team members, students, or conference-goers, this activity lets you ask questions and get your listeners' thoughts on specific topics.
This game is the perfect way to start your presentation, especially if you're discussing something with a wide range of opinions or are unsure how much your listeners know about a certain subject. Group Word Clouds is also beneficial if you want to do a quick meeting pulse or know how your listeners feel going into your presentation—understanding their energy levels and mood can help you adjust (if necessary) to get maximum engagement and excitement.
To enjoy this activity, keep things simple by using a tool that already offers a ready-to-play Group Word Clouds game. Here's a popular one you can launch immediately:
- Create a free account by entering an email and password here: https://slideswith.com/
- Click the game and then copy it (the button to do so is right underneath the slide deck).
- Press "Start Event" in the top right corner.
- Tell participants to play by scanning the QR code.
- Create word clouds and have fun!
This interactive game only takes 5-10 minutes to play, so it's a fast, fun way to engage your audience and feel out the room. Players can use their mobile devices to answer questions. This activity is also free for up to 10 people and is easy to personalize.
6. The Get to Know You Game
This activity is one of the best presentation games if you have a small group that doesn't really know each other. The Get to Know You Game is a creative way to do introductions, and it's really simple.
Here's how to play the game: Before the event, ask group members to bring a favorite song or item to the presentation (you can do this by emailing them). When you're ready to play, ask each person to introduce themself, present their song or item, and explain why they picked it. For those sharing a song, have them play it on their phones before they explain why it's their favorite.
7. Live Poll Questions
When you have a large group, it's not easy to find ways to boost engagement—but poll questions are the solutions, especially when they're live and interactive. With this unique setup, large groups engage by answering questions and seeing their answers displayed in a fun way.
Your job is to make sure you actually find a game that showcases responses uniquely to captivate your group. For a quick and great option, here's a popular icebreaker activity that promises to display responses using fun formats like word clouds, donut charts, live graphs, and per-player:
- Create an account for free to access the game: https://slideswith.com/
- Click the slide deck and press the button to copy it.
- Look in the top right corner of the deck and press "Start Event."
- Invite your group to play the game. They only need to use their mobile devices to scan the QR code.
- Start polling your audience!
This activity is one of those fun presentation games everyone will want to enjoy, so invite all of your team members and students to participate. This game can accommodate up to 250 players and takes 5-10 minutes to complete. Tell your group to use their mobile devices to submit their responses.
8. Assumptions
This interactive game is a great way to break up your presentation to see who's paying attention and who can answer questions pertaining to your topic.
- Ask your audience to stand up (for virtual presentations, make sure everyone's video is on).
- Show true or false statements on the screen one by one.
- Tell people to raise a hand if they think the statement is correct and sit down if they think it's incorrect.
- Continue until one person is left standing.
- Award the winner.
This activity can be as short and challenging as you want. Also, if your presentation is long, you can play multiple rounds to break up your speaking time and test your audience throughout your discussion.
9. Controversial Questions
Want to see where your audience, students, or team lands on controversial topics? Then, energize your presentation with a fun, creative game called Controversial Questions. This activity has prompts that inspire lively debates, so it's a great way to get your group excited and chatty.
However, to maintain a positive environment, make sure to find a tool that offers an office-friendly, classroom-friendly, and conference-friendly game. You don't want to sour the mood by creating uncomfortable division during your presentation. To make sure this game is fun and light-hearted, here's a popular one that's suitable for all audiences and ages:
- Sign up for a free account by inputting an email address and password here: https://slideswith.com/pricing
- Click the game and press the button that says, "Copy and use this deck."
- Press "Start Event" (the button is in the top right corner).
- Have participants join the fun by asking them to scan the QR code with their mobile devices.
- Get controversial and play!
This interactive game for presentations asks fun (but appropriate) questions like:
- Does pineapple belong on pizza?
- Does the person flying in the middle seat get both armrests?
- Should the toilet roll go over or under?
Players should use their mobile devices to submit answers. Up to ten people can play for free, and you can customize the game by updating the questions!
10. Word of the Day
With this activity, you can keep your audience, team, or students engaged throughout your entire presentation. This game requires listeners to be alert and recognize whenever you say the word of the day.
Here's how to play: At the beginning of your presentation, tell your group the word of the day (it can also be a phrase if you'd prefer). Say that you'll weave the word into your presentation and that your audience must shout it out whenever you mention it.
11. Mini Activity: Group Icebreaker
Whether you're doing an in-person or virtual presentation, you need to warm up your audience to get things started on a positive note. The best way to do that is with a quick icebreaker game.
However, make sure your questions are fun, positive, and engaging. You can easily do this by finding a game that already has the best icebreaker questions included. Here's one that's ready to play (and requiring no tech skills to launch):
- Input an email address and password to make a free account here: https://slideswith.com/
- Click the deck and copy it (press "Copy and use this deck).
- Click the button in the top right corner that says "Start Event."
- Invite participants to play by asking them to scan the QR code.
- Break the ice to warm up your audience!
Your group should use their mobile devices to submit responses to poll questions. Also, this game accommodates up to 250 players, but only ten people can join for free.
12. Process of Elimination
This activity is one of the best games for presentations because it's simple yet fun and great at helping listeners get to know each other. You can play it at the beginning of your presentation or in the middle to give your group a chance to stretch their legs.
- Before your event, create a list of "yes or no" questions.
- Once you're ready to play, tell your group to stand up (if you're doing a virtual presentation, make sure everyone's video is on).
- Ask each question one by one.
- Tell attendees to stand if their answer is "yes" and sit if their answer is "no."
The questions can relate to your topic or be totally random. Also, if you'd prefer to thin out the number of people standing, you can take a creative twist and ask your questions by saying something like this: "Stay standing if (insert scenario)." When phrasing each question this way, the game will end with one person standing. To acknowledge the winner, you can give them a round of applause or award them a prize.
13. Conference Opener Icebreaker
If you're speaking at a big conference, you need an interactive game for presentations that can get everyone involved and ensure every voice is heard. To achieve these goals, you should create an icebreaker game that works for large groups .
Using an easy, intuitive template is the best step to take. That way, you don't have to start from scratch or spend hours making your game. For a template that requires no code or tech-savviness to build on, here's the best option:
- Sign up by making a free account here: https://slideswith.com/
- Click on the game. On the next page, click the button to copy and use the deck.
- Customize the template using the instructions HERE .
- During your presentation, press "Start Event" in the top right corner.
- Ask the group to use their mobile devices to scan the QR code and join the fun. (Also, make sure participants use their mobile devices to submit answers.)
- Play and engage your audience!
This template has fun, interactive features built in to keep your large audience engaged. Those features include polls, word clouds, and ratings. Just make sure you sign up for a paid plan to accommodate the large number of people in your group—the free account only works for up to ten players.
14. Two Truths and a Lie
This classic game is a fun, energizing way to help your listeners get to know one another. It's perfect for small in-person or virtual groups and is an ideal activity for the beginning of your presentation.
Here's how to play: Pick any topic (for the purposes of this article, the topic will be "movies"). In no particular order, say two movies you've really watched and one you haven't watched. Ask your audience to guess which statement is the lie. The winner picks the next topic and says two truths and a lie.
Be Memorable With Presentation Games
Oftentimes, people forget presentations within a week or even days, and that's because the discussions are boring. But you don't work hard preparing a presentation for it to be forgotten. If you want your message to stick, all you have to do is make it enjoyable without being corny.
If you want to be remembered and actually get people engaged, you need to make your presentation fun and enjoyable, without coming off as corny or desperate to please. Ivan Dimitrijevic, 10 Secrets of Making Every Presentation Fun, Engaging, and Enjoyable
Luckily, the interactive presentation games in this article are unique and exciting—they're far from corny. So, use them for your upcoming presentations to make your messages compelling and memorable.
Subscribe for more articles like this
Try slides with friends for free.
The easiest way to host meetings your team will love
Engagement delivered to your inbox
We'll email you 1-2x per month with brand new, ready-to-run events and ideas. Subscribe to stay ahead of the curve and keep your lessons, meetings, and events fresh and engaging.
- Create a presentation Article
- Add and format Article
- Design a presentation Article
- Share and collaborate Article
- Give a presentation Article
- Set up your mobile apps Article
- Learn more Article
Create a presentation
Create a presentation in powerpoint for the web.
With PowerPoint for the web running in your web browser, you can:
Create presentations that include images, videos, transitions, and animations.
Get to your presentations from your computer, tablet, or phone.
Share and work with others, wherever they are.
If you're using the desktop version of PowerPoint on a Windows PC, see the PowerPoint Quick Start .
If you're using the desktop version of PowerPoint on a Mac, see Office for Mac Quick Start Guides and PowerPoint for Mac Help .
Create, open, and name a presentation
Go to powerpoint.office.com .
Select New blank presentation , open a Recent file, select one of the themes , or start with a presentation template .
To name the presentation, select the title at the top and type a name.
If you need to rename the presentation, select the title and retype the name.
Add a slide
Select the slide you want your new slide to follow.
Select Home > New Slide .
Select Layout and the you type want from the drop-down.
When working in PowerPoint for the web, your work is saved every few seconds. You can select File > Save a Copy to create a duplicate copy in another location.
Or choose File > Download As to save a copy to your device.
When you're online, AutoSave is always on and saves your changes as you work. If at any time you lose your Internet connection or turn it off, any pending changes will sync as soon as you’re back online.
Need more help?
Want more options.
Explore subscription benefits, browse training courses, learn how to secure your device, and more.
Microsoft 365 subscription benefits
Microsoft 365 training
Microsoft security
Accessibility center
Communities help you ask and answer questions, give feedback, and hear from experts with rich knowledge.
Ask the Microsoft Community
Microsoft Tech Community
Windows Insiders
Microsoft 365 Insiders
Was this information helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
Please contact the site administrator
Android Police
How to curve text in google slides.
Grab everyone's attention with curved text in presentation slides
Google Slides offers formatting options to tweak text, photos, videos, and other elements in a presentation. However, it lacks a few important add-ons. For instance, unlike PowerPoint, there isn't a built-in way to curve text in Google Slides. If you want to make your presentation stand out among the rest, use the tricks below to curve text in Google Slides.
Adding curved text is a neat way to elevate your presentation. Still, don't go overboard with curve text in Google Slides. It may create unnecessary distractions and make it hard for your audience to read a slide. Instead, highlight a few headings or text you want to separate from the other paragraphs.
Although Google Slides is available on mobile platforms like iPhone and Android phones , we focus on the web version in the steps below.
Curve text in Google Slides using PowerPoint
There are a couple of ways to curve text in Google Slides. If you have a Microsoft 365 subscription plan, use the PowerPoint desktop app to curve text and copy it into Google Slides. In another trick, you can use a web tool like Canva or InkPx to get the job done. Let's start with PowerPoint.
- Open Microsoft PowerPoint on Windows or Mac.
- Create a new presentation and go to any slide.
- Resize a text box and enter the text you want to add in Google Slides.
- Expand the text effects icon and click Transform .
- Check your curved text in action. Drag the white dots around the text box to resize it.
- Open a presentation in Google Slides and select a slide where you want to add curve text.
PowerPoint offers dozens of curved text styles. You'll have no trouble finding a style that matches your presentation tone and theme.
How to delete a text box in Google Slides
Use an online tool to curve text in google slides.
PowerPoint requires a paid Microsoft 365 plan. If you don't have a subscription, use the tools below to generate and upload curved text in Google Slides.
Curve text using Canva
Canva is one of the best graphic design tools available. The web app offers several editing tools to create curved text in a design. You can download the image with a transparent background and upload it to Google Slides. Follow the steps below.
- Use the top menu to tweak text style, color, size, and more.
The ability to download an image with a transparent background requires a Canva Pro subscription.
How to add transparency to an image in Google Slides
Curve text using inkpx.
InkPx is a web tool for creating curved text. You can make one and upload it on Google Slides.
- Visit InkPx .
- Enter text and pick a color, style, and size. Then, tweak the radius, spacing, and other details.
- Pick a PNG or JPG image type and save the image.
- Launch a presentation in Google Slides.
- Select your image and open it in Google Slides.
Unlike Microsoft PowerPoint and Canva, InkPx is free to download and use. And unlike other web tools, you don't need to create an account to use the service.
Make your presentation stand out
Aside from curve text, there are other ways to make an interesting pitch. However, creating an engaging presentation from scratch can be time-consuming. Check the top Google Slides templates to get started and complete an applaud-worthy presentation in no time.
We've detected unusual activity from your computer network
To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.
Why did this happen?
Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .
For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
People Presentation templates Highlight the human factor in your presentations with our free themes and templates for Google Slides and PowerPoint. They contain illustrations or pictures of People working or being together. Filter by. Filters. Filters . Sort by . Popular Recent Style ...
Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired ...
Apply the 10-20-30 rule. Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it! 9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule. Simplicity is key.
Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images. You'll make presentations at various ...
4. Practise presentation flow. As well as practising for the ideas and what you want to say, practise how you want your presentation to flow. Think of it almost as a symphony, with high points, slow movements and crescendos. If it's important, think about how you want your audience to feel, what emotions you want them to have, and when. 5.
9 Use Presentation Templates. Creating presentation slides doesn't need to be difficult or a stressful affair. When you use a Visme presentation as a foundation, you're on your way to being an expert on how to give a good presentation. To select a presentation template, you can either go for a topic-based template or a style based template.
Personal presentation covers what other people both see and hear. It includes how you look, what you say, and what you do. It therefore requires a wide range of skills, from improving your personal appearance to your communication skills. However, all these aspects start from one place: you. To present yourself well and confidently, you need to ...
5. Be enthusiastic. Most people would prefer to listen to an enthusiastic speaker over an eloquent one. On the day of your presentation, harness your anxiety and turn it into enthusiasm and passion over the subject. If you're excited about what you're presenting on, your audience will be, too. 6.
Download over 6,770 icons of presentation people in SVG, PSD, PNG, EPS format or as web fonts. Flaticon, the largest database of free icons. ... More. Other products. Freepik Free vectors, photos and PSD Wepik Online design tool Slidesgo Free templates for presentations Storyset Free editable illustrations Videvo Free videos and motion graphics ...
Make your friends talk over each-other, practice without notes, or put some loud music on. Whatever it is that distracts you the most. Try to remember your presentation in full detail in those conditions before you come out in front of an audience. This is a surefire way to radiate confidence during your delivery.
Use clear and legible fonts, and maintain a consistent design throughout the presentation. 2. Visual appeal: Incorporate visually appealing elements such as relevant images, charts, graphs, or diagrams. Use high-quality visuals that enhance understanding and make the content more engaging.
Choose a design from our presentation templates or create your own from scratch. Customize your presentation with colors, fonts, and key information. Add animations, videos, images, illustrations. Use assets and other media content from your Brand Kit (Pro) to stay consistent with your business or school brand.
This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there. Follow these steps: Signal that it's nearly the end of your presentation, for example, "As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…". Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation - "In this speech I wanted to compare…". 5.
Step #2: Tell your audience what problem you can solve for them. This is where all of the pre-work comes into play. In this step, you will use the answers to one of those questions that you answered earlier. For instance, if my topic is how to deliver presentations, I have to determine why the audience would care.
Here are some practical virtual presentation tips I learned from this experience: Replace your physical energy with vocal energy. Replace physical cues with visual cues. Vary your slide layout. Don't count on reading the room. Don't count on audience interaction. Do use interactive virtual presentation tools. Think about your ending.
First, start with stating the current realities. Second, clearly state the problem or opportunity your idea addresses and its potential impact. Third, explain how your recommendation solves the problem or exploits the opportunity and the next steps you're proposing. Have a logical organization.
People Presentation Vectors. Images 17.46k Collections 39. ADS. ADS. ADS. Page 1 of 100. Find & Download the most popular People Presentation Vectors on Freepik Free for commercial use High Quality Images Made for Creative Projects.
Character Presentation Images. Images 100k Collections 55. ADS. ADS. ADS. Page 1 of 100. Find & Download Free Graphic Resources for Character Presentation. 100,000+ Vectors, Stock Photos & PSD files. Free for commercial use High Quality Images.
Here are five compelling reasons to invest in executive presentation training: Enhanced Presentation Skills: Our training polishes your ability to design striking slides, narrate compelling stories, and deliver with a clear, confident voice. Masterful Storytelling: Learn the techniques to weave stories that engage, captivate, and drive your ...
Visual aids help clarify and contextualize your points for your audience. Whether you deliver your presentation in person or over the web, the goal is to clearly communicate with your audience. Presentation aids help achieve this goal. Visual aids also help a presenter stay on a predefined train of thought while presenting.
Millions of people — from students to CEOs — use Prezi to grab attention, stand out, and capture imaginations Unlimited presentations. ... Prezi has been a trusted presentation partner for over 15 years. 180+ countries. 140,000,000+ 140M+ people who ️ Prezi. 25%. more effective than slides* 40%. more memorable*
This activity is also free for up to 10 people and is easy to personalize. . 6. The Get to Know You Game. This activity is one of the best presentation games if you have a small group that doesn't really know each other. The Get to Know You Game is a creative way to do introductions, and it's really simple.
Thomas Jefferson writing to a friend in 1773, said, "The most valuable of all talents is never using two words when one will do.". The impact and memorability of a presentation is a function ...
Select New blank presentation, open a Recent file, select one of the themes, or start with a presentation template. To name the presentation, select the title at the top and type a name. If you need to rename the presentation, select the title and retype the name. Add a slide.
Custom binders are a unique and useful format for presentations, and they're also great for training manuals or documentation that changes frequently. With the option to print your business name or logo on the cover, this is an ultra-custom, ultra-versatile choice.
CNN —. For McCall Mirabella's 21st birthday party last month, she asked guests to bring only one gift: A PowerPoint presentation. Mirabella, a TikTok and YouTube personality with over 1.3 ...
Creating a professional presentation using Google Slides takes time and design skills. While the app provides professional pre-designed templates for business, personal, and school use, adding a ...
Create a new presentation and go to any slide. Select Insert at the top and click Text box . Resize a text box and enter the text you want to add in Google Slides. Expand the text effects icon and ...
March 26, 2024 at 10:26 AM PDT. Listen. 1:41. Apple Inc. plans to kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, when the company is expected to unveil its long-anticipated ...