Include news brings advantages
By using news, you can create a link between your topic and a current event. This underpins the relevance of your talk and gives you a good lead-in to your presentation. In the following article, I explain what you should pay attention to and how you can further substantiate the messages.
News yes, but relevant to the topic and up to date!
Look for hot topics on which there is currently public coverage or discussion, such as in the news on radio and television, in the daily newspaper, in magazines, in online media or in social media. To do this, check the news every day. Especially when you are working on a lecture or presentation and are mentally in the topic, you will easily notice a cross connection.
Which news from the fields of business, politics, culture or sports could relate to your topic? Consider what is still perceived as current at the time of your presentation. Some events lose their relevance very quickly, others can still provide a useful reference two to three years later or even longer. The crash of a small propeller plane into a meadow will be forgotten after a few days. The crash of the zeppelin “Hindenburg” can still be referred to even after about 80 years because of the unique circumstances.
Time is relative in our perception. Some events seem amazingly current to us, even though they happened several years ago. The destruction of the World Trade Center took place in 2001; however, it still seems quite current to us. For many people, the result of the last local election has already disappeared from their consciousness after just a few weeks. Often an event seems much closer in time or even farther away than it really is.
If your presentation has a scientific background, scientific journals provide reputable sources to support your own arguments. You can also look for regional references for your appearance. If you want to give your next presentation in Bielefeld, for example, you can search the regional news for useful articles. The “Miscellaneous” or “From around the world” sections may also contain topics that you can use.
Examples:
– Interesting sports duels, for example in tennis, boxing or even formula one can be used well as a derivation, for example when it comes to competitive pressure from competitors or internal rivalries.
– If your presentation is about the right marketing message for a company, you could analyze the election slogans of the parties in the current election campaign. Are these messages that get through? What can you learn from the examples for your own work?
– The story about a person who caused four accidents in one day can serve as a humorous hook to the presentation topic of risk management or insurance coverage.
Back up the news with pictures!
It is good if you take a photo of the item in question or take a screen snapshot (screenshot) on the computer and then show the photo on the screen or monitor. This increases credibility and immediately brings the viewer into the subject. Don’t forget to cite the source.
Tip: Get automatically informed about news and messages related to your presentation topic. Meanwhile, there is a whole range of automatic services that search the Internet for news on specific search terms. Two examples are given here:
https://www.talkwalker.com/alerts
Searching for appropriate messages for your presentation topic is a lengthy process, but it will lead to an improvement in your own performance.
Dipl.-Wirtsch.-Informatiker Matthias Garten is the expert for multimedia presentations. He is an entrepreneur, speaker (TOP 100 Speaker), trainer (TOP 100 Excellence Trainer), multiple book author, presentation coach (presentation training), member of the GSA and Club 55, organizer of the Presentation Conference, Presentation Bootcamp and Presentation Rocket Day. In addition to PowerPoint training and presentation training, he inspires and advises companies to present themselves even more effectively and thus stand out from competitors. He is the business owner of the presentation and PowerPoint agency smavicon Best Business Presentations and with his team has created over 15,000 presentations for over 150 industries since 1993.
