Know Your Tools

We have talked about understanding the reason for your presentation, the audience you are presenting to, and about making sure you have a solid base of information to start with. Next, we are going to discuss presentation tools and how to use them effectively.

As we said in the last section, technology should not form the basis of your presentation, content should. If you expect to be using technology, make sure you know what tools are available in the location where you will be presenting.

Example 1

What if you have a fantastic, 46-slide presentation planned for a client, and when you arrive at their site, you realize they don't have a projector in their board room?

This has happened more than once, and it is fairly easy to avoid.

First, take the time to confirm what equipment you will have at your disposal, and make sure you know how to use it. If you are giving a presentation in your own building, you can just walk over to your scheduled room and check out the physical setup. If there is no projector screen, and no sound equipment, then you'll know you can't rely on music and PowerPoint. If you have scheduled a conference call, make sure the room is equipped with adequate phone technology.

If you will be presenting at a client site, make sure to speak with the person who has arranged your room so that you're sure to understand what will be available to you. You may end up in a space that was never intended for presentations, and may not have a good spot to project anything. If that's the case, wouldn't you rather know before you get there?

Once you know what your tech setup will be, see if you can take some time to practice with it. At your own location, you can do a practice run-through ahead of time to make sure you know how to use any teleconferencing or webconferencing software you might need. Also be sure you know how to turn on all monitors and projectors in the room. This might sound like a no-brainer, but many larger companies have communications setups that take on a life of their own after a while. You may know how to turn on all the equipment in Room 200, but find that Room 203 has a completely different setup that requires entry of five different sets of passwords. Worst case scenario, you would have to track down an A/V specialist and have your whole group watch the seconds tick by while you and the technician try to resolve the problem.

These problems are even more likely when you are giving a presentation in an unfamiliar location.