On a number of occasions I’ve had the opportunity to work on presentations outside of my work environment. This has been a wonderful experience. As a consultant on these presentations, I noticed that the presenters are often so content-focused that they forget to let their passion for the topic shine through. But it’s often the passion that will impact the audience the most.
These presentations that I have worked on share a common denominator – passion by the presenter. The passion could be for someone they met, for sharing their knowledge and experience, or it could be compassion for animals or humans. Here are a couple of title slides from presentations in which I have seen the presenter’s passion for the topic shine.
The title of the presentation was taken from the presenter’s description of the Canadian Armed Forces medical group in Afghanistan. She was a (retired) civilian volunteer who did a relief tour. When she returned home she did a series of presentations about her experience. The presentation is primarily images from Kandahar with very little text. She always makes her audience cry. How’s that for impact? It will always be one of my favorite presentations to have worked on.
This presentation was designed for a stray and feral cat rescue society. The President of this Society presented the advantages of a Trap, Neuter, Return program as a strategy for their city to manage cat over-population. I believe the passion/compassion starts to shine from this first slide.
If you want your presentation to engage and impact the audience, content is important BUT don’t forget to let your passion (or compassion) shine through.
Joe Pops
Refuse to be boring