{"id":1219,"date":"2011-11-09T11:02:20","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T10:02:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elementally.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/?p=1219"},"modified":"2011-11-09T11:02:20","modified_gmt":"2011-11-09T10:02:20","slug":"rayboulds-rules-for-presentations-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/rayboulds-rules-for-presentations-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Raybould’s Rules for Presentations #3"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some things are more important than others<\/p>\n

Top of the List Of Important Things is your message, not<\/strong> you.<\/p>\n

You’re not<\/strong> that important, deal with it.<\/p>\n

Swallow your pride and learn the next of Raybould’s Rules for presenting… brace yourself, you might not like it…<\/p>\n

You’re not important.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Simon<\/a>

Simon Raybould - conference speaker on emotional resilience<\/p><\/div>\n

No one turns up to hear me speak: I do a lot<\/strong> of speaking at conferences about ‘emotional resilience<\/a>‘ and related issues such as stress. People don’t sign up ‘cos it’s me. (Actually that’s not literally true, some people do<\/em> come along to my presentations because they know it’s me, but you get the idea!). \u00c2\u00a0Generally people turn up to hear about the topic – and only then because they recognise they need (or might need) the things they will learn in the presentation (or think they will).<\/p>\n

Unless you’ve got yourself a bit of a reputation as a presenter or your name is Bill Gates or Tony Blair, no one comes to see you<\/em>.<\/p>\n

They’re not sitting in the audience thinking “How can I make this a great experience for the speaker?”.<\/p>\n

Nope.<\/p>\n

They’re thinking WIIFM – the old marketing adage of ‘W<\/strong>hat’s I<\/strong>n I<\/strong>t F<\/strong>or M<\/strong>e?”<\/p>\n

Why? \u00c2\u00a0Because you’re not important. \u00c2\u00a0Remember that – and design your presentation accordingly. \u00c2\u00a0It’s all about your audience and what you can do for them: they’ve given you the most important thing they can, their time, so the least you can do is do your best to give them something worthwhile back.<\/p>\n

How does that apply to what you do in reality? Lots of ways, but let’s focus on just a few. Before you start designing your presentation, ask yourself a few questions:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. What do you know about your audience – what do they want to know and why?<\/li>\n
  2. Can you do something to help them? If so, do it. \u00c2\u00a0If not, step back and get someone else in to do the presentation.<\/li>\n
  3. What’s the best way you can give people what they need? \u00c2\u00a0Do you need backup? Handouts? Slides? Props? Rehearsals?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    And while I’m talking about it – not being important is a great thing to think when you get hit by the Nerves Monster. \u00c2\u00a0But thinking that people are listening to you is just a kind of hubris! They’re there for what you might be able to tell them. That means that if you blow it, no one will want to kill you for it – so long as it hasn’t got in the way of the message, of course! :)<\/p>\n

    _____________________________<\/p>\n

    Rule one is\u00c2\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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