Professional research will not only help you choose the right content for your PowerPoint presentation, but also support your main points with solid evidence. If you know exactly how to prepare your topic and research it thoroughly, you can give the kind of presentation that will keep your audience captivated the whole time.
Unprofessional presentation preparations are pure waste of time
We all know the enormous time pressure that weighs on us in our daily work. If, in addition, the creation of a convincing PowerPoint presentation is pending, this is an enormous additional burden. Ideally, a professional presentation agency is commissioned with the preparation, which creates a professional presentation after the right briefing. In the case of very good agencies, the speaker also receives preparatory training so that he or she can present the slides convincingly.
It is not uncommon for a company to try to meet the challenge with its own “on-board” resources. The additional task is somehow still squeezed into the daily routine. So it makes sense to keep the time required as short as possible in order to achieve the goal somehow quickly. But without comprehensive, professional preparation of a presentation, the result can be mediocre at best. Unfortunately, planning, creating and moderating a good presentation takes some time. If you try to come to a conclusion quickly and without good research , you can save yourself the trouble . It’s wasted time. The audience will not be convinced by a poor or mediocre presentation.
A convincing presentation needs a lot of preparation time or professional help
A successful, convincing presentation needs extensive preparation, otherwise the result will disappoint. If you are already sloppy with the research, you will create the PowerPoint presentation with insufficient or even wrong content . That can then before public no longer function.
If you want to succeed with your presentation, you better consult an experienced presentation agency. This will give you the results in a short time, which you need to achieve your presentation goal. If you want to manage the presentation with your own resources, then the first crucial step to success is professional research. You will get some tips here for the steps you need to take to research for your presentation like a professional !
Step 1: Go deeper into your presentation topic and get specific
What exactly do you want your audience to understand? Don’t stay vague and general, but narrow down specifically what your presentation is about. It’s better to research two topics really well than to just skim over a broad field. Vague and general topics usually require even more research, and you still end up with a boring presentation that brings your audience little .
Don’t stay vague and general, but be specific in narrowing down what your presentation is about.The more you can narrow down your topic and clearly define the scope, the better you can research and find the right data and information to support your main points.
Step 2: Define what you want your audience to take away from your presentation.
Your own objective dictates the way you research. A compelling PowerPoint presentation provides a main objective for the audience . What overarching goal are you pursuing with your presentation? What do you want the auditorium to take away from your event? What information, findings do you want to share? What new wants or needs might you want to create? Do you want to impart pure knowledge, or do you want your audience to act in a certain way after the presentation?
Before you do your research, determine what you want to convey. Then you can make your data search much more targeted. You know what data, facts, and information are needed to achieve your presentation goal and to inform your audience. Of course, if you want to deliver an emotional message to your audience, you need to think about how to create the desired emotions in your audience. Here, for example, storytelling is a suitable tool.
Step 3: Research who is sitting in the audience during your presentation.
It makes a significant difference whether you give your next PowerPoint presentation to experts, or to an audience with little knowledge of your presentation topic. What backgroundw does your audience have? What level of knowledge can you assume?
For example, if you run a mechanical engineering firm pand give a presentation to other mechanical engineering professionals the information you share will be completely different than what you share with a group of local business owners who know very little about the subject.
Ideally you should not only know what level of knowledge your audience already has, but also find out if they all perhaps have something in common. Perhaps you are all in the same associations, or all struggling with a particular problem. This will help you research appropriate content for your presentation and search for specific examples or information to present.
Stept 4: Design anew outline
The more comprehensive your presentation is to be, the more important it is to develop an outline. It serves as your guide to the flow and structure of your presentation. Don’t worry, the outline doesn’t constrain you. If you find during your research that you need to change the focus or the process, adjust your outline accordingly. But will give you a roadmap to follow so you know exactly which points you need to research .
Step 5: Keep an eye on the timing for your presentation
You need to know how much time you have for your presentation . Assuming you only have 10 minutes, you know from the outset that there is not enough time to present, for example, 20 different examples of success. So you can greatly reduce the research time for such examples. In this case, look for only 2 particularly compelling examples and use the rest of your time for other research.
Step 6: Prepare for audience questions
Try to anticipate what questions your audience might have about your topic. Try to anticipate what questions your audience might have about your topic.This can help you narrow down your research and fill in gaps that your topic might currently have. What follow-up questions can you think of? What additional things might your audience want to know from you after you have completed your presentation?
If you allow questions from the audience, be prepared for critical questions as well. It would be a pity if you had mastered the presentation with flying colors, but then failed because you reacted incorrectly to an audience member’s question.
Step 7: Research particularly interesting information
Good presentations are those that do not bore the audience to death. In your research, ptry to findspecial interesting information that adds color to your topic. When you have found perhaps 30 examples of how to use your product, pick out the most original one. Is there perhaps an interesting anecdote to the information in your presentation? Or a funny punch line? When looking for suitable images for your PowerPoint slides, consider which motifs or perspectives are particularly exciting.
Step 8: If research, then with system
Use a system suitable for your purposes to organize and categorize all your information and sources. This will make it much easier for you, when you start creating the individual PowerPoint slides.
Consider You also have a logical labeling system so that the right information appears under the right topics in your outline. Consolidate your research in a place that is accessible to everyone involved in the presentation. This can be a folder on a shared drive, a cloud solution, or even a notebook if need be.
Professiona research is the backbone of a eruccessful PowerPoint presentation. By following these 8 steps, you will be able to gather the information you need to reach your presentation goal and structured to work on your presentation.
