Too Much Information !!!

No I’m not talking about your parents’ sex life or the details of your dental dramas.

I’m talking about how to avoid the ‘TMI’ ….which is THE most common of all public speaking mistakes.

Speeches and presentations are either intended mainly to inform, persuade, or entertain. In fact, you need a combination of the three styles for the presentation to be both memorable and effective. The trouble is that this is not always understood.

The common speaker’s mistake is to focus too much on what they know, and not enough on presenting that knowledge in ways that the audience will engage with and remember.

Take a look at this venn diagram.

Whether you’ve found a cure for cancer, or have a new economic model that will rescue Greece, the art of presenting effectively requires mixing and mingling all three modes. If you don’t, your audience will wind up with information overload – and that’s going to start an epidemic of mind-wandering, day dreaming and going to sleep.

The art of being a great presenter is to balance load between the three channels so that you get the results you want.

When we smile we feel good – give your audience that experience. Entertain them with humour, stories and illustrative anecdotes so they are relaxed and receptive.

Persuade them by being emotionally engaging - your own passion and conviction will be infectious. And they’ll want to agree with you.

Inform them in ways they can make use of. Information doesn’t all have to be delivered verbally, it can also be provided in writing, as a report or supplementary paper. Choose only the most useful points of information to talk about and make it clear what you want them to DO as a result of what they’ve heard. That gives your presentation a purpose.