7 Things To Remember When Making A Presentation, Defence, Seminars Or Conference In 2024

For your seminars, defence, conference presentations, pitch sessions… always be prepared and take charge of the stage. Here are (7) things to remember when making a presentation.

1. Do not put too much on one slide. At most 3-4 figures is okay. Don’t make it busy.

2. Give each slide enough discussion. Don’t rush through. If you show a slide only briefly, you send a message “It’s not important”. Let the audience absorb information.

3. Every detail shouldn’t be supported by a figure. You can just tell the audience about your findings without providing a visual "proof" for every detail. Tell the story, not the details!

4. DON'T put titles on each slide. They are often useless. Audience don’t need titles. Titles attract attention and defocus the audience from other parts of the slide.

5. Be consistent with font size and layout. Avoid tiny figures and small fonts that people can’t read. Most people don’t have perfect vision, and when you don’t see what the person is speaking about, you get upset.

6. DON’T end your presentation with the slide “Thank you!” or “Questions?” or “Acknowledgements”. The last slide is your MOST valuable! It stays on the screen while you’re answering questions. Your audience keeps looking at it for quite some time!

Use the last slide for (1) your most important message(s) and (2) list of your papers relevant to the talk. Encourage the audience to take a photo of it.

7. Do not wave your laser pointer around too much. A pointer guides the attention. But when it keeps jumping up and down on a slide, the audience is getting tired. Use it briefly. One or twice on each slide.

Good luck