How to give a good presentation to an international audience? Here you can get concrete advice for better presentations. You can also sign up for one of our presentation skills courses. Have you ever given a presentation where you were unsure whether the audience found the topic interesting? Whether they got the main points? Where the discussion didn't really get going when you finished your presentation? Where it fell flat when you tried to say something funny? Or where you felt limited because your presentation had to be in English? Then you're not alone! And luckily, there are some concrete things you can do to improve your presentation skills. Below, we've put together 7 tips for better presentations.
7 tips for better presentations
- Make personal contact with your audience before you start
- Start by being yourself
- Then be your professional self
- Take yourself and your audience seriously and avoid irony and jokes
- Start your presentation with your main message
- End the presentation with your main message
- Let the final slide open the dialogue
1. Make personal contact with your audience before you start
A presentation is a social event. It is an interaction between you and your audience. Therefore, it is important that you show interest in your audience by linking your topic to something they know from their own lives. Talk to your audience before you go on, during the breaks, or when the presentation is over. Ask who they are and what interests them.
2. Start by being yourself
Start your presentation by telling a short story or sharing a personal experience that is relevant to the topic you are going to talk about. This creates a relaxed and personal atmosphere, while maintaining your authority and having a professional conversation with your audience.
3. Then be your professional self
After you have made a personal connection with your audience at the beginning of your presentation, you can turn up the formality: Raise your voice and use body language and gestures in a way that exudes professionalism and engagement. This will make your audience listen to you.
4. Take yourself and your audience seriously and avoid irony and jokes
As Danes, we often tend to be very informal, even in professional contexts. But you have to be careful with that. Jokes and irony can work well in a Danish context, but when you are facing an international and multicultural audience, the informal style can do more harm than good. So if in doubt, the best advice is to keep the formal tone when giving a presentation.
5. Start your presentation with your main message
Start by presenting your main message or points. What specifically do you want to tell your audience? Be focused and professional and formulate clearly and precisely.
6. End the presentation with your main message
Round off your presentation by repeating your main message and relating it to what you have presented. Again, be focused and professional, and articulate clearly and concisely.
7. Let the final slide open up a dialogue
Make sure your closing slide inspires a conversation with the audience. Instead of writing 'Thank you for today' or 'Questions', use the final slide to summarise and underline your main points and let them be the starting point for questions and discussion.
Do you want to strengthen your presentation skills in English with the help of a course? Then read more about our presentation skills in English course here.
