Attention

Four fail-safe routes to presentation stardom

The problem with many of the presenters I coach is diffidence. Often, they are so self-effacing that they write themselves out of their own story.

Before we had presentations, we had public speaking – a performance art on a par with drama, ballet or opera, in which personal magnetism played a prominent role.

But public speaking has been largely displaced by PowerPoint presentations, where the slides take centre stage and the presenter is reduced to acting as voiceover – a role that is all-but redundant when, as is often the case, all the text to be presented is on the slides and the audience can read it for themselves.…

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8 presentation hacks for holding attention

Presenting is a difficult business and presenters face numerous challenges if they are to be engaging, memorable and influential – the three key objectives of presentations.

Of these challenges, none is more critical – or more tricky – than holding the attention of the audience.

If you Google ‘audience attention span’, you will find endless dispiriting graphs of average attention, like this one from the Netherlands-based Syncat Academy for scientific leaders of the future.

Image result for Syncat Academy audience attention graph

You can see that practically everyone is listening at the start, hoping against hope that the talk will be inspiring and entertaining.…

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