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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]
How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]
Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023
A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .
Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.
In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!
These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters.
No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.
Click to jump ahead:
What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?
Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.
When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:
1. Clear structure
No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.
Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion:
2. Engaging opening
Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!
The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.
3. Relevant content
Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.
4. Effective visual aids
Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.
With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.
5. Clear and concise communication
Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message.
6. Engaging delivery
Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!
7. Interaction and audience engagement
Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.
Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.
8. Effective storytelling
Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.
A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.
9. Well-timed pacing
Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.
10. Strong conclusion
Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.
In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations .
Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software .
Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.
1. Understand the audience and their needs
Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!
2. Conduct thorough research on the topic
Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.
3. Organize the content with a clear structure
No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.
Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.
Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong.
4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids
Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.
Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.
5. Practice, practice and practice
Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.
6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments
Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.
With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.
7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues
Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.
8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation
As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!
In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively .
Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!
From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.
1. Confidence and positive body language
Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence.
2. Eye contact with the audience
Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.
3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement
A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!
4. Utilize storytelling techniques
Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.
5. Incorporate multimedia elements
Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload.
Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.
6. Utilize humor strategically
Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.
7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback
Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.
8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule
Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!
9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule
Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.
Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.
1. How to start a presentation?
To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.
2. How to end a presentation?
For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.
3. How to make a presentation interactive?
To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.
In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started.
Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs.
Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:
Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account.
Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).
Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.
Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations.
Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!
By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!
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19 Top Presentation Tips for Work
By: Michael Alexis | Updated: April 17, 2024
You found our list of presentation tips for work.
Presentation tips are strategies that help workers deliver effective presentations. For example, planning ahead, understanding your audience, and using engaging narratives. The purpose of these tips is to make a positive impact during presentations. These tips are also known as “giving presentations at work” and “how to prepare for presentations.”
These presentation tips for work are related to team building PowerPoint topics , team meeting ideas , and public speaking tips .
This list includes:
- giving presentations at work
- business presentation tips
- how to prepare for presentations
- work slideshow tips
- work presentation skills
- how to make interesting slides
Let’s get to it!
List of presentation tips for work
From planning ahead to motivating your audience, here is our list of the best tips for giving great presentations.
1. Plan Ahead
Planning ahead is crucial when giving presentations at work. This process involves outlining key points, organizing materials, and practicing delivery. By taking the time to plan in advance, you can ensure a more polished and effective presentation.
Planning also allows for adjustments and improvements before the actual delivery. Practicing leads to a more confident performance. Successful presentations often result from careful planning and preparation.
2. Understand Your Audience
Knowing your audience is an important part of delivering an effective presentation. Before your speech, research the demographics, interests, and expectations of your listeners. Then, you can tailor your content accordingly. This step fosters engagement and ensures your audience receives your message positively. Understanding your audience leads to more impactful presentations.
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3. Research the Topic
Selecting a research topic is vital when preparing for work presentations. Your topic should interest you and meet your audience’s needs. Having a strong idea is essential for delivering a compelling presentation. While writing, think about the relevance, depth, and potential impact of the topic on your audience. By being thoughtful, you can add engagement and value to your presentation. By dedicating time to choosing the right research topic, you establish a strong foundation for your presentation.
4. Make Effective Slides
When wondering how to make interesting slides, be sure to be short and sweet. Effective slides are the cornerstone of making strong presentations. Slides should have concise and relevant info that matches your speech. Bullet points, charts, and images can help you share your image clearly. To avoid distracting from your points, avoid overcrowding slides with text or too many visuals. By making visually interesting and informative slides, you can capture the audience’s attention.
5. Use Presentation Tools
Tools for presentations are crucial for making engaging and polished presentations at work. These tools include software like Microsoft PowerPoint and online platforms like Prezi or Canva. These platforms provide various features, such as templates, animations, and collaboration options. By using presentation tools well, folks can give powerful presentations that connect with their audience. Plus, these tools can make it easy to create your slides.
6. Share Engaging Narratives
Narratives offer a compelling way to connect with your audience. By telling an engaging story, you can provide valuable insights in a memorable way. Stories should be relevant, easy to follow, and emotionally resonant. Adding personal anecdotes can humanize the information.
Also, using stories in your presentations can make them more digestible and engaging. An interesting narrative ties up facts and figures, making them easier to remember. Sharing your content through stories also promotes emotional connections. These bonds encourage audience engagement and open discussions. This tip makes your presentation informative and engaging.
7. Focus on Body Language
Body language is one of the most vital work presentation skills. This type of communication involves gestures, facial expressions, and posture. For instance, maintaining strong eye contact and open body positioning can build trust. Being aware of your body language can improve your presentation skills. Further, this behavior demonstrates professionalism in different work environments.
8. Control Your Voice
Controlling your voice is essential for work presentations. Speaking clearly and confidently is key to sharing your message with the audience. Monitoring your tone and volume helps emphasize important points and keeps listeners engaged. Practicing proper pronunciation and enunciation improves speech clarity. Improving voice control can greatly enhance the effectiveness of your work presentations.
9. Use Humor
Adding humor to presentations can engage the audience and enhance content retention. A well-timed joke or light-hearted story is one of the work slideshow tips that can create a relaxed atmosphere. Humor should suit the context and match the overall tone of the presentation. Ultimately, humor should support your message without overshadowing it. By using humor thoughtfully, presenters can connect with their audience and maintain their interest. Thoughtful humor can also simplify complex information in a more entertaining way. From clever comments to amusing visuals, humor can make presentations more enjoyable.
For example, here are icebreaker jokes .
10. Manage Your Time
Effective time management is key to giving great work presentations. While writing your speech, be sure to keep your time frame in mind. On average, it is a good idea to spend around two minutes on each slide. For instance, for a 20-minute presentation, you can make ten slides. Following this structure can keep you on track. You can balance information by trimming stories, prioritizing key points, and rehearsing your speech. These steps will ensure smooth transitions. Well-managed time helps with message clarity, engagement, and professionalism.
Learn time management tips .
11. Practice
Practicing your presentation is crucial to success. You can start by honing your content and then rehearse aloud often. Before the final presentation, practice in front of friends or colleagues to get feedback. Then, you can make adjustments as needed.
Practice also helps you engage your audience with better articulation and confidence. By rehearsing, you will improve your flow and create a more polished final product.
12. Accept Feedback
Accepting and using feedback is essential to creating a strong speech. This process helps you identify areas that need improvement and share your message effectively. Once you complete your slides, perform your presentation for coworkers and friends. These listeners can offer notes that can foster your growth. It is important to remember that constructive criticism is supposed to help you. Being resilient on this front can improve your presentation skills.
Read about constructive criticism .
13. Interact with Audiences
Interaction is one of the most important business presentation tips. You can engage the audience with questions or tasks to maintain interest. Body language, eye contact, and Q&A sessions can create connections. This interaction fosters a dynamic atmosphere, improves the discussion, and enables better understanding. Ensuring two-way communication makes your presentation highly effective and memorable.
14. Use Visual Aids
Images, charts, and graphs can improve a presentation by showing data or concepts visually. Using visual aids can help the audience grasp information and remember important points. When used well, visual aids can make a presentation more interesting and memorable for viewers. To prevent overwhelming the audience with excessive information, keep visual aids clear.
15. Overcome Nerves
Experiencing nervousness before a presentation is common. One way to overcome these nerves is by preparing well. For instance, make sure you have a deep understanding of your topic and rehearse your delivery. Also, practicing slow, deep breaths can help calm your nerves. Deep breathing can also improve your focus throughout the presentation. Feeling nervous is normal and can actually improve your performance by keeping you attentive.
16. Address Questions
Answering questions during a presentation is essential for sharing information. These sessions engage your audience and clear up any uncertainties they may have. When you respond to questions, it is crucial to be brief and confident in your responses. Before replying, take a moment to think about the question to ensure you give a clear answer. Questions provide an opportunity to showcase your knowledge and expertise on the subject. By addressing questions well, you show your grasp of the topic and establish credibility with your audience.
17. Stand Out
To stand out in a work presentation, you should engage your audience from the beginning. For this process, start with an interesting opening that captures the viewers’ attention. Then, use visual aids like slides or props to help folks remember important points. Finally, keep eye contact with your audience and show confident body language. By using these tactics, you can leave a lasting impact and help your message connect with your coworkers or customers.
18. Leave Strong Impressions
Closure in a presentation is the speaker’s way of concluding their talk. This step leaves a lasting impression on the audience. During these final moments, you can summarize important points and provide a call to action. Another closing option is finishing with a thought-provoking quote. A powerful closure can emphasize core concepts and encourage deeper thinking among listeners.
Here are good opening and closing statements for meetings .
19. Evaluate Your Performance
When wondering how to prepare for presentations in the future, be sure to take time after each speech to analyze it.
Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
- Were you clear and concise?
- Did you engage the audience?
- How was your body language and eye contact?
Evaluating your performance will help you identify strengths and areas for improvement. In addition, you should seek constructive feedback from your peers to enhance your presentation skills.
Examples of presentation topics
You can give workplace presentations on several topics.
Here are a few examples:
- Financial Planning : This presentation covers the basics of budgeting, saving, investing, and managing finances. Attendees will learn to achieve short-term and long-term financial goals.
- Effective Communication : Explore strategies and techniques for clear, concise, and impactful communication in the workplace. These tips foster better collaboration and understanding among team members.
- Project Management Essentials : Share essential skills and tools for planning, executing, and monitoring projects effectively. These methods ensure successful completion within scope, budget, and timeline.
- Customer Service Excellence : Teach techniques for providing exceptional customer service, building customer loyalty, and resolving issues.
- Team Building and Collaboration : Explore methods for fostering a positive team environment. Talks can promote trust, cooperation, and synergy among team members to achieve collective goals.
- Presentation Skills : Develop confidence and proficiency in delivering engaging and persuasive presentations. Learn to use effective visuals and engaging storytelling techniques.
- Time Management Hacks : Discuss practical strategies and tools for prioritizing tasks, minimizing distractions, and maximizing productivity.
- Leadership Development : Explore key principles of leadership, including communication, decision-making, motivation, and delegation.
- Conflict Resolution Strategies : Cover common sources of conflict in the workplace, and learn techniques for resolving conflicts.
- Stress Management Techniques : Talk about coping mechanisms and relaxation strategies to effectively manage workplace stress. This presentation promotes mental health and well-being.
No matter which topic you cover, these presentation tips will help you succeed.
Final Thoughts
Mastering the art of presenting at work can improve your professional impact. By adding these tips to your routine, you can become more confident in delivering presentations. Effective presentations should engage and inspire your audience. The more you present, the better you will become at it. By refining your skills and striving for continuous improvement, you can become a presentation pro.
Next, check out our posts on conference breakout session ideas and lunch and learn topics .
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FAQ: Presentation tips for work
Here are frequently asked questions about presentation tips for work.
What are some good tips for presentations at work?
Several tips can help you create strong workplace presentations. Examples include time management, presentation tools, and planning ahead.
How can you make presentations more engaging?
To make presentations more engaging, consider using storytelling to share your points. Visual aids like graphs or images can also illustrate points clearly. Q&A sessions can help clarify your points and add an element of interaction.
What tools can you use for better work presentations?
Several tools can help you make your presentations. For instance, Prezi offers a zoomable canvas, Google Slides is great for easy collaboration, and Canva has a wide range of templates.
What are some strategies to overcome presentation nerves?
Nerves are common before giving a presentation. To help beat the stress, practice your speech several times, focus on the message, and take plenty of deep breaths.
How can you use humor in work presentations?
Relevant jokes or stories are a great way to add humor to a presentation. Funny visuals and slides are another option. However, it is important to ensure the humor is appropriate and does not detract from the message.
Author: Michael Alexis
CEO at teambuilding.com. I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.
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How to give a good presentation that captivates any audience
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What are the main difficulties when giving presentations?
How to create an effective presentation, after that, how do i give a memorable presentation, how to connect with the audience when presenting.
If you’ve ever heard someone give a powerful presentation, you probably remember how it made you feel. Much like a composer, a good speaker knows precisely when each note should strike to captivate their audience’s attention and leave them with a lasting impression.
No one becomes a great public speaker or presenter without practice. And almost everyone can recall a time one of their presentations went badly — that’s a painful part of the learning process.
Whether you’re working within a small creative team or a large organization, public speaking and presentation skills are vital to communicating your ideas. Knowing how to present your vision can help you pitch concepts to clients, present ideas to your team, and develop the confidence to participate in team meetings.
If you have an upcoming presentation on the horizon and feel nervous, that’s normal. Around 15-30% of the general population experience a fear of public speaking . And, unfortunately, social anxiety is on the rise, with a 12% increase in adults over the last 20 years .
Learning how to give a good presentation can dismantle your fears and break down these barriers, ensuring you’re ready to confidently share your point of view.
It’s the week before your presentation, and you’re already feeling nervous . Maybe there’ll be an important mentor in the room you need to impress, or you’re looking for an opportunity to show your boss your value. Regardless of your countless past presentations, you still feel nervous.
Sharing your vision and ideas with any sized group is intimidating. You’re likely worrying about how you’ll perform as a presenter and whether the audience will be interested in what you offer. But nerves aren’t inherently negative — you can actually use this feeling to fuel your preparation.
It’s helpful to identify where your worries are coming from and address your fears. Here are some common concerns when preparing for an upcoming presentation:
Fear of public speaking: When you share your ideas in front of a group, you’re placing yourself in a vulnerable position to be critiqued on your knowledge and communication skills . Maybe you feel confident in your content, but when you think about standing in front of an audience, you feel anxious and your mind goes blank.
It’s also not uncommon to have physical symptoms when presenting . Some people experience nausea and dizziness as the brain releases adrenaline to cope with the potentially stressful situation . Remember to take deep breaths to recenter yourself and be patient, even if you make a mistake.
Losing the audience’s attention: As a presenter, your main focus is to keep your audience engaged. They should feel like they’re learning valuable information or following a story that will improve them in life or business.
Highlight the most exciting pieces of knowledge and ensure you emphasize those points in your presentation. If you feel passionate about your content, it’s more likely that your audience will experience this excitement for themselves and become invested in what you have to say.
Not knowing what content to place on presentation slides: Overloading presentation slides is a fast way to lose your audience’s attention. Your slides should contain only the main talking points and limited text to ensure your audience focuses on what you have to say rather than becoming distracted by the content on your slides.
Discomfort incorporating nonverbal communication: It’s natural to feel stiff and frozen when you’re nervous. But maintaining effective body language helps your audience stay focused on you as you speak and encourages you to relax.
If you struggle to incorporate body language into your presentations, try starting small by making hand gestures toward your slides. If you’re working with a large audience, use different parts of the stage to ensure everyone feels included.
Each presenter has their own personal brand and style. Some may use humor to break the ice, while others might appeal to the audience’s emotional side through inspiring storytelling.
Watching online presentations, such as TED talks, is an excellent way to expose yourself to various presentation styles and develop your own. While observing others, you can note how they carry themselves on stage and learn new ways to keep your audience engaged.
Once you’ve addressed what’s causing your fears, it’s time to prepare for a great presentation. Use your past experience as inspiration and aim to outshine your former self by learning from your mistakes and employing new techniques. Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience:
1. Keep it simple
Simple means something different to everyone.
Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You’ll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.
Say you’re giving a presentation on improving your company’s operational structure. Entry-level workers will likely need a more straightforward overview of the content than C-suite leaders, who have significantly more experience.
Ask yourself what you want your audience to take away from your presentation and emphasize those important points. Doing this ensures they remember the most vital information rather than less important supporting ideas. Try organizing these concepts into bullet points so viewers can quickly identify critical takeaways.
2. Create a compelling structure
Put yourself in your audience member’s shoes and determine the most compelling way to organize your information. Your presentation should be articulate , cohesive, and logical, and you must be sure to include all necessary supporting evidence to strengthen your main points.
If you give away all of your answers too quickly, your audience could lose interest. And if there isn’t enough supporting information, they could hit a roadblock of confusion. Try developing a compelling story that leads your audience through your thought processes so they can experience the ups and downs alongside you.
By structuring your presentation to lead up to a final conclusion, you’re more likely to keep listeners’ attention. Once you’ve reached that conclusion, you can offer a Q&A period to put any of their questions or concerns to rest.
3. Use visual aids
Appealing to various learning styles is a great way to keep everyone on the same page and ensure they absorb your content. Visual aids are necessary for visual learners and make it easier for people to picture your ideas.
Aim to incorporate a mixture of photos, videos, and props to engage your audience and convey your key points. For instance, if you’re giving a presentation on anthropology subject matter, you could show your audience an artifact to help them understand how exciting a discovery must have been.
If your presentation is long, including a video for your audience to watch is an excellent way to give yourself a break and create new jumping-off points for your speech.
4. Be aware of design techniques and trends
Thanks to cutting-edge technology and tools, you have numerous platforms at your disposal to create a good presentation. But keep in mind that although color, images, and graphics liven things up, they can cause distraction when misused.
Here are a few standard pointers for incorporating visuals on your slides:
- Don’t place blocks of small text on a single slide
- Use a minimalistic background instead of a busy one
- Ensure text stands out against the background color
- Only use high-resolution photos
- Maintain a consistent font style and size throughout the presentation
- Don’t overuse transitions and effects
5. Try the 10-20-30 rule
Guy Kawasaki, a prominent venture capitalist and one of the original marketing specialists for Apple, said that the best slideshow presentations are less than 10 slides , last at most 20 minutes, and use a font size of 30. Following this strategy can help you condense your information, eliminate unnecessary ideas, and maintain your audience’s focus more efficiently.
Once you’re confident in creating a memorable presentation, it’s time to learn how to give one. Here are some valuable tips for keeping your audience invested during your talk:
Tip #1: Tell stories
Sharing an anecdote from your life can improve your credibility and increase your relatability. And when an audience relates to you, they’re more likely to feel connected to who you are as a person and encouraged to give you their full attention, as they would want others to do the same.
Gill Hicks utilized this strategy well when she shared her powerful story, “ I survived a terrorist attack. Here’s what I learned .” In her harrowing tale, Hicks highlights the importance of compassion, unconditional love , and helping those in need.
If you feel uncomfortable sharing personal stories, that’s okay. You can use examples from famous individuals or create a fictional account to demonstrate your ideas.
Tip #2: Make eye contact with the audience
Maintaining eye contact is less intimidating than it sounds. In fact, you don’t have to look your audience members directly in their eyes — you can focus on their foreheads or noses if that’s easier.
Try making eye contact with as many people as possible for 3–5 seconds each. This timing ensures you don’t look away too quickly, making the audience member feel unimportant, or linger too long, making them feel uncomfortable.
If you’re presenting to a large group, direct your focus to each part of the room to ensure no section of the audience feels ignored.
Tip #3: Work on your stage presence
Although your tone and words are the most impactful part of your presentation, recall that body language keeps your audience engaged. Use these tips to master a professional stage presence:
- Speak with open arms and avoid crossing them
- Keep a reasonable pace and try not to stand still
- Use hand gestures to highlight important information
Tip #4: Start strong
Like watching a movie trailer, the first seconds of your talk are critical for capturing your audience’s attention. How you start your speech sets the tone for the rest of your presentation and tells your audience whether or not they should pay attention. Here are some ways to start your presentation to leave a lasting impression:
- Use a quote from a well-known and likable influential person
- Ask a rhetorical question to create intrigue
- Start with an anecdote to add context to your talk
- Spark your audience’s curiosity by involving them in an interactive problem-solving puzzle or riddle
Tip #5: Show your passion
Don’t be afraid of being too enthusiastic. Everyone appreciates a speaker who’s genuinely excited about their field of expertise.
In “ Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance ,” Angela Lee Duckworth discusses the importance of passion in research and delivery. She delivers her presentation excitedly to show the audience how excitement piques interest.
Tip #6: Plan your delivery
How you decide to deliver your speech will shape your presentation. Will you be preparing a PowerPoint presentation and using a teleprompter? Or are you working within the constraints of the digital world and presenting over Zoom?
The best presentations are conducted by speakers who know their stuff and memorize their content. However, if you find this challenging, try creating notes to use as a safety net in case you lose track.
If you’re presenting online, you can keep notes beside your computer for each slide, highlighting your key points. This ensures you include all the necessary information and follow a logical order.
Tip #7: Practice
Practice doesn’t make perfect — it makes progress. There’s no way of preparing for unforeseen circumstances, but thorough practice means you’ve done everything you can to succeed.
Rehearse your speech in front of a mirror or to a trusted friend or family member. Take any feedback and use it as an opportunity to fine-tune your speech. But remember: who you practice your presentation in front of may differ from your intended audience. Consider their opinions through the lens of them occupying this different position.
Tip #8: Read the room
Whether you’re a keynote speaker at an event or presenting to a small group of clients, knowing how to read the room is vital for keeping your audience happy. Stay flexible and be willing to move on from topics quickly if your listeners are uninterested or displeased with a particular part of your speech.
Tip #9: Breathe
Try taking deep breaths before your presentation to calm your nerves. If you feel rushed, you’re more likely to feel nervous and stumble on your words.
The most important thing to consider when presenting is your audience’s feelings. When you approach your next presentation calmly, you’ll put your audience at ease and encourage them to feel comfortable in your presence.
Tip #10: Provide a call-to-action
When you end your presentation, your audience should feel compelled to take a specific action, whether that’s changing their habits or contacting you for your services.
If you’re presenting to clients, create a handout with key points and contact information so they can get in touch. You should provide your LinkedIn information, email address, and phone number so they have a variety of ways to reach you.
There’s no one-size-fits-all template for an effective presentation, as your unique audience and subject matter play a role in shaping your speech. As a general rule, though, you should aim to connect with your audience through passion and excitement. Use strong eye contact and body language. Capture their interest through storytelling and their trust through relatability.
Learning how to give a good presentation can feel overwhelming — but remember, practice makes progress. Rehearse your presentation for someone you trust, collect their feedback , and revise. Practicing your presentation skills is helpful for any job, and every challenge is a chance to grow.
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Elizabeth Perry, ACC
Elizabeth Perry is a Coach Community Manager at BetterUp. She uses strategic engagement strategies to cultivate a learning community across a global network of Coaches through in-person and virtual experiences, technology-enabled platforms, and strategic coaching industry partnerships. With over 3 years of coaching experience and a certification in transformative leadership and life coaching from Sofia University, Elizabeth leverages transpersonal psychology expertise to help coaches and clients gain awareness of their behavioral and thought patterns, discover their purpose and passions, and elevate their potential. She is a lifelong student of psychology, personal growth, and human potential as well as an ICF-certified ACC transpersonal life and leadership Coach.
How to write a speech that your audience remembers
6 presentation skills and how to improve them, 3 stand-out professional bio examples to inspire your own, tell a story they can't ignore these 10 tips will teach you how, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, your guide to what storytelling is and how to be a good storyteller, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, 18 effective strategies to improve your communication skills, writing an elevator pitch about yourself: a how-to plus tips, how to disagree at work without being obnoxious, the importance of good speech: 5 tips to be more articulate, the 11 tips that will improve your public speaking skills, 30 presentation feedback examples, fear of public speaking overcome it with these 7 tips, how to not be nervous for a presentation — 13 tips that work (really), 8 clever hooks for presentations (with tips), stay connected with betterup, get our newsletter, event invites, plus product insights and research..
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6 ways to crush a presentation at work, from people who know
- Giving a successful presentation isn't always easy, but there are some key tips to make the process easier.
- Preparation is key, including practicing your presentation and structuring it properly.
- We asked three experts for their best tips for crushing a presentation at work.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Whether you're speaking at a weekly meeting or pitching a major proposal to your company's executive team, presentations are a common source of stress for employees everywhere.
It's natural to sweat under the spotlight, especially when you only have a short amount of time to get your point across.
But it doesn't have to be that way. It is possible to crush your presentation — each and every time — by keeping some key concepts and tactics in mind.
We spoke to three experts who know a thing or two about presentations for their best advice.
Talk it out
You might feel like you're back in high school practicing your lines for the school play, but rehearsing your presentation beforehand is an important way to prepare. That's what Adam Zukor, the director of executive communications at Microsoft who specializes in speech writing and content for top Microsoft executives, told Business Insider.
"There's no substitute for practicing out loud, ideally in front of someone you trust, to give you feedback, or at least to a mirror," he said. "How you think about your presentation and how it sounds out loud can be very different, so always practice out loud — in the shower, while you are getting dressed, or as you drive to work."
Focus on a few key points, and structure accordingly
When preparing, think long and hard about the main points you want to make, because you really only get a few, Zukor said.
"No matter how high-stakes or complex the presentation, your audience is only going to take away a few key ideas," Zukor said. "Make sure you're clear-eyed about what those important takeaways are, then start framing around them."
He added that this old speech-writing adage still holds true: Tell the audience what you're going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you told them.
"If something is worth saying, say it more than once to get the point across," he said.
Control those nerves
Being nervous is normal, but Mitch Grasso, CEO of the presentation software company Beautiful.AI , has some hacks to to help you relax before and during your presentation.
"First, give up on perfection — it will almost never go as planned," he told Business Insider. "Remember that you are an expert on your story and you have prepared for this moment."
Also, it's OK if you don't know every answer that your peers or even your superiors ask during your talk, he said.
"Never try to fake it — that backfires every time. Acknowledge that it's a great question, you don't have the answer, and try posing the question back to the group," he said. "It can help with audience engagement while giving yourself a short mental break."
Create simple visuals, and use the right tools
The KISS rule applies to any kind of visuals you're using for your presentation: Keep it simple, stupid. Kill the bullets, limit text, and use beautiful images, Grasso said. Less is more.
"Nobody wants to be messing around with text boxes at 2 a.m. the night before a presentation," he said. "Find a tool that makes it easy to visualize your story so that you don't spend endless hours creating your presentation. Poorly designed slides are going to be a distraction, and you risk losing your audience. Good design is transparent and fosters connection."
He noted that the actual presentation isn't the main attraction — your story is. So the slides should help take the audience on a journey while serving, and not distracting from, your primary purpose.
Be specific
Instead of pointing to larger trends to get your point across, zero in on a specific example that illustrates the trend to better connect with your audience.
"Someone smarter than me once said that a single death is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic," Jeff Kreisler, a behavioral science expert and editor in chief of PeopleScience.com , told Business Insider. " That's a little dark, but the point is, the identifiable victim effect confirms that highlighting individual examples and stories is a more effective way to have those stories connect with and impact an audience than the too-big picture."
For example, he pointed to how politicians on the campaign trail talk about meeting everyday people being impacted by a certain issue as a way to discuss their stance on a particular policy.
" They use that formula because it works. And it can work for you, too," Kreisler said. "You need a budget increase? Start by telling me how it's going to change one specific client's relationship with us, then go to the big numbers."
Stick the landing
Ending strong is crucial. Of course, you want to do well throughout the entire presentation, but, if there's one portion you really need to nail, it's the finish.
"According to the peak end rule , ending on a strong note will increase recall, rating and enjoyment of a presentation, and any experience, really," Kreisler said. "So, if there's one part of your talk you really want to nail — concise, emotional, and packed with takeaways — it's the ending. Finishing on a laugh never hurt, either."
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- PRESENTATION SKILLS
Top Tips for Effective Presentations
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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?
This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.
By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.
Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.
1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience
It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.
But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.
Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.
Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.
2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs
Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.
As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.
While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.
You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.
3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message
When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:
What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?
You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.
Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.
Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.
And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.
4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience
This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.
If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.
To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.
5. Start Strongly
The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.
They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.
Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.
6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows
This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:
- Contain no more than 10 slides;
- Last no more than 20 minutes; and
- Use a font size of no less than 30 point.
This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.
As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.
If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.
7. Tell Stories
Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.
Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.
Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.
Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation
To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:
Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.
For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:
- The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
- The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable
A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).
For example…
- Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
- Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?
8. Use your Voice Effectively
The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.
Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.
For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .
9. Use your Body Too
It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.
That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.
Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.
10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy
If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.
One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.
For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .
If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.
Improve your Presentation Skills
Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.
Start with: What is a Presentation?
Continue to: How to Give a Speech Self Presentation
See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides
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23 presentation examples that really work (plus templates!)
- 30 Mar 2023
To help you in your quest for presentation greatness, we’ve gathered 23 of the best business presentation examples out there. These hand-picked ideas range from business PowerPoint presentations, to recruitment presentations, and everything in between.
As a bonus, several of our examples include editable video presentation templates from Biteable .
Biteable allows anyone to create great video presentations — no previous video-making skills required. The easy-to-use platform has hundreds of brandable templates and video scenes designed with a business audience in mind. A video made with Biteable is just what you need to add that wow factor and make an impact on your audience.
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Video presentation examples
Video presentations are our specialty at Biteable. We love them because they’re the most visually appealing and memorable way to communicate.
1. Animated characters
Our first presentation example is a business explainer video from Biteable that uses animated characters. The friendly and modern style makes this the perfect presentation for engaging your audience.
Bonus template: Need a business video presentation that reflects the beautiful diversity of your customers or team? Use Biteable’s workplace scenes . You can change the skin tone and hair color for any of the animated characters.
2. Conference video
Videos are also ideal solutions for events (e.g. trade shows) where they can be looped to play constantly while you attend to more important things like talking to people and handing out free cheese samples.
For this event presentation sample below, we used bright colours, stock footage, and messaging that reflects the brand and values of the company. All these elements work together to draw the attention of passers-by.
For a huge selection of video presentation templates, take a look at our template gallery .
Business PowerPoint presentation examples
Striking fear into the hearts of the workplace since 1987, PowerPoint is synonymous with bland, boring presentations that feel more like an endurance test than a learning opportunity. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Check out these anything-but-boring business PowerPoint presentation examples.
3. Design pointers
This PowerPoint presentation takes a tongue-in-cheek look at how the speakers and users of PowerPoint are the problem, not the software itself.
Even at a hefty 61 slides, the vintage theme, appealing colors, and engaging content keep the viewer interested. It delivers useful and actionable tips on creating a better experience for your audience.
Pixar, as you’d expect, redefines the meaning of PowerPoint in their “22 Rules for Phenomenal Storytelling”. The character silhouettes are instantly recognizable and tie firmly to the Pixar brand. The bright colour palettes are carefully chosen to highlight the content of each slide.
This presentation is a good length, delivering one message per slide, making it easy for an audience to take notes and retain the information.
Google slides examples
If you’re in business, chances are you’ll have come across slide decks . Much like a deck of cards, each slide plays a key part in the overall ‘deck’, creating a well-rounded presentation.
If you need to inform your team, present findings, or outline a new strategy, slides are one of the most effective ways to do this.
Google Slides is one of the best ways to create a slide deck right now. It’s easy to use and has built-in design tools that integrate with Adobe, Lucidchart, and more. The best part — it’s free!
5. Teacher education
Here’s a slide deck that was created to educate teachers on how to use Google Slides effectively in a classroom. At first glance it seems stuffy and businessy, but if you look closer it’s apparent the creator knows his audience well, throwing in some teacher-friendly content that’s bound to get a smile.
The slides give walkthrough screenshots and practical advice on the different ways teachers can use the software to make their lives that little bit easier and educate their students at the same time.
6. Charity awareness raiser
This next Google slide deck is designed to raise awareness for an animal shelter. It has simple, clear messaging, and makes use of the furry friends it rescues to tug on heartstrings and encourage donations and adoptions from its audience.
Pro tip: Creating a presentation is exciting but also a little daunting. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed — especially if the success of your business or nonprofit depends on it.
Prezi presentation examples
If you haven’t come across Prezi , it’s a great alternative to using static slides. Sitting somewhere between slides and a video presentation, it allows you to import other content and add motion to create a more engaging viewer experience.
7. Red Bull event recap
This Prezi was created to document the Red Bull stratosphere freefall stunt a few years ago. It neatly captures all the things that Prezi is capable of, including video inserts and the zoom effect, which gives an animated, almost 3D effect to what would otherwise be still images.
Prezi has annual awards for the best examples of presentations over the year. This next example is one of the 2018 winners. It was made to highlight a new Logitech tool.
8. Logitech Spotlight launch
What stands out here are the juicy colors, bold imagery, and the way the designer has used Prezi to its full extent, including rotations, panning, fades, and a full zoom out to finish the presentation.
Sales presentation examples
If you’re stuck for ideas for your sales presentation, step right this way and check out this video template we made for you.
9. Sales enablement video presentation
In today’s fast-paced sales environment, you need a way to make your sales enablement presentations memorable and engaging for busy reps. Sales enablement videos are just the ticket. Use this video presentation template the next time you need to present on your metrics.
10. Zuroa sales deck
If you’re after a sales deck, you can’t go past this example from Zuora. What makes it great? It begins by introducing the worldwide shift in the way consumers are shopping. It’s a global phenomenon, and something we can all relate to.
It then weaves a compelling story about how the subscription model is changing the face of daily life for everyone. Metrics and testimonials from well-known CEOs and executives are included for some slamming social proof to boost the sales message.
Pitch presentation examples
Pitch decks are used to give an overview of business plans, and are usually presented during meetings with customers, investors, or potential partners.
11. Uber pitch deck
This is Uber’s original pitch deck, which (apart from looking a teensy bit dated) gives an excellent overview of their business model and clearly shows how they intended to disrupt a traditional industry and provide a better service to people. Right now, you’re probably very grateful that this pitch presentation was a winner.
You can make your own pitch deck with Biteable, or start with one of our video templates to make something a little more memorable.
12. Video pitch template
This video pitch presentation clearly speaks to the pains of everyone who needs to commute and find parking. It then provides the solution with its app that makes parking a breeze.
The video also introduces the key team members, their business strategy, and what they’re hoping to raise in funding. It’s a simple, clear pitch that positions the company as a key solution to a growing, worldwide problem. It’s compelling and convincing, as a good presentation should be.
13. Fyre Festival pitch deck
The most epic example of a recent pitch deck is this one for Fyre Festival – the greatest event that never happened. Marvel at its persuasion, gasp at the opportunity of being part of the cultural experience of the decade, cringe as everything goes from bad to worse.
Despite the very public outcome, this is a masterclass in how to create hype and get funding with your pitch deck using beautiful imagery, beautiful people, and beautiful promises of riches and fame.
Business presentation examples
Need to get the right message out to the right people? Business presentations can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
Simply press play and let your video do the talking. No fumbling your words and sweating buckets in front of those potential clients, just you being cool as a cucumber while your presentation does the talking.
Check out two of our popular templates that you can use as a starting point for your own presentations. While they’re business-minded, they’re definitely not boring.
14. Business intro template
Modern graphics, animations, and upbeat soundtracks keep your prospects engaged as they learn about your business, your team, your values, and how you can help them.
15. Business explainer template
Research presentation examples.
When you’re giving a more technical presentation such as research findings, you need to strike the perfect balance between informing your audience and making sure they stay awake.
As a rule, slides are more effective for research presentations, as they are used to support the speaker’s knowledge rather can capture every small detail on screen.
With often dry, complex, and technical subject matter, there can be a temptation for presentations to follow suit. Use images instead of walls of text, and keep things as easy to follow as possible.
16. TrackMaven research deck
TrackMaven uses their endearing mascot to lighten up this data-heavy slide deck. The graphs help to bring life to their findings, and they ensure to only have one bite-size takeaway per slide so that viewers can easily take notes.
17. Wearable tech research report
Obviously, research can get very researchy and there’s not a lot to be done about it. This slide deck below lays out a ton of in-depth information but breaks it up well with quotes, diagrams, and interesting facts to keep viewers engaged while it delivers its findings on wearable technology.
Team presentation examples
Motivating your team can be a challenge at the best of times, especially when you need to gather them together for….another presentation!
18. Team update template
We created this presentation template as an example of how to engage your team. In this case, it’s for an internal product launch. Using colorful animation and engaging pacing, this video presentation is much better than a static PowerPoint, right?
19. Officevibe collaboration explainer
This short slide deck is a presentation designed to increase awareness of the problems of a disengaged team. Bright colors and relevant images combine with facts and figures that compel viewers to click through to a download to learn more about helping their teams succeed.
Recruitment presentation examples
Recruiting the right people can be a challenge. Presentations can help display your team and your business by painting a dynamic picture of what it’s like to work with you.
Videos and animated slides let you capture the essence of your brand and workplace so the right employees can find you.
20. Company culture explainer
If you’re a recruitment agency, your challenge is to stand out from the hundreds of other agencies in the marketplace.
21. Kaizen culture
Showcasing your agency using a slide deck can give employers and employees a feel for doing business with you. Kaizen clearly displays its credentials and highlights its brand values and personality here (and also its appreciation of the coffee bean).
Explainer presentation examples
Got some explaining to do? Using an explainer video is the ideal way to showcase products that are technical, digital, or otherwise too difficult to explain with still images and text.
Explainer videos help you present the features and values of your product in an engaging way that speaks to your ideal audience and promotes your brand at the same time.
22. Product explainer template
23. lucidchart explainer.
Lucidchart does a stellar job of using explainer videos for their software. Their series of explainers-within-explainers entertains the viewer with cute imagery and an endearing brand voice. At the same time, the video is educating its audience on how to use the actual product. We (almost) guarantee you’ll have more love for spiders after watching this one.
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105+ Creative Presentation Ideas to Engage Your Audience
Written by: Orana Velarde
With most people tuning out of a PowerPoint presentation within the first 10 minutes , developing engaging slide show presentation ideas that keep your audience hooked till the end can be a challenge.
This is why we've created this post with 105+ creative presentation ideas to help you put together exciting presentations that don't put your audience to sleep. You can use these presentation ideas for business meetings, webinars, classrooms, online courses, pitch decks and more.
Here are some of the ideas we’re covering:
- Use neon colors and duotones
- Unify transitions horizontally
- Use a monochrome palette
- Tell a personal story
- Use isometric illustrations
In this article, you'll find unique slide examples, templates, designs and more. Put these slide show presentation ideas to practice using our customizable templates and create your own presentation in minutes.
We've also covered 31 creative presentation ideas to delight your audience in the video below.
Here's a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit Presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more below:
- Add bright and bold colors to make your presentation stand out and grab your audience's attention. Create a vibrant and dynamic look by using neon colors and duotones.
- Instead of using different transitions for each slide, use the same transition horizontally throughout your presentation. This creates a cohesive and visually pleasing flow.
- To create a sophisticated, minimalist look, limit your color choices to shades of a single color.
- Connect with your audience and make your message more relatable by incorporating personal anecdotes or stories into your presentation.
- Add depth and dimension to your presentation with isometric illustrations, which can be a fun and engaging way to present complex information.
- Sign up for Visme’s presentation software to start applying these creative presentation ideas.
105+ Creative Presentation Ideas
The ideas we've shared cut across various design concepts, industries and use cases. We've also sprinkled presentation design ideas from Visme's template library. If you're running out of creative steam, you can use these templates to jumpstart your designs.
And if you're running out of time, consider using Visme's AI presentation maker to bring these 100 creative presentation ideas to life. It's a user-friendly tool that effortlessly transforms your ideas into visually stunning presentations.
Now, let's jump into the creative presentation design ideas.
1 Use Neon Colors
Neon colors will give your presentation enough color kick to keep the viewer’s attention. Use neon colors either as the background, as specific elements or as details inside the slides. The trick with neon is to not go overboard with the contrasts. Instead of using a neon rainbow, think more along the lines of neon accents.
2 Be Minimal
Using a minimal design composition is one of the unique presentation ideas. The trick is to have just enough information and visual details for the viewer to feel comfortable seeing the slides. A minimal design can instill calm and awe in your audience when done right. The trick with minimalism is to know when enough is enough, you wouldn’t want to be boring instead of minimal.
RELATED: 20+ Examples of Minimalist Design to Inspire Your Own Creations
3 Use all caps
Another creative presentation idea is using all caps when you feel like the topic of your presentation can be delivered with few words. Using all capitals in your slides will give the message importance. This design might not be suited for a text-heavy presentation but maybe one with an audio narrative that goes along with it or bullet points.
Also, this kind of presentation design is suitable for captivating introduction slide ideas.
Image Source
4 Go vertical
Rectangular presentations are definitely the norm, but with the rise of Instagram Stories, this might be starting to change. This shift introduces a unique opportunity for those looking for ideas for presentation styles that stand out. Now that we can put archived stories into Highlights, why not publish vertical presentations there? Going vertical is just one idea. Along with that, you can add any other design technique.
5 Use duotones
Duotone doesn’t exactly mean “two colors,” it actually means “two tones.” The idea behind this design angle is to use two contrasting tonalities which can have different shades. The difference between duotone and two colors is that it has a more edgy look. Depending on what two tonalities you choose, it can be subtle or very powerful. The photos used in the design also need to be customized to the duotone color you chose.
6 Add a video in different shapes or snippets
Videos can be a powerful tool in your arsenal for engaging your audience during a presentation. Not only do they help to break up the monotony of a lecture-style presentation, but they can also help to explain complex concepts, add visual interest, and evoke emotions.
One way to make your videos stand out is by using different shapes or snippets. Rather than presenting a standard rectangular video, consider incorporating shapes such as circles, triangles or diamonds. These shapes can add a unique and visually appealing element to your presentation.
Another way to incorporate video snippets is by breaking up a longer video into smaller, bite-sized pieces. You can also convert some of your text into a video with HubSpot's Clip Creator if you're short on time. This can be particularly useful if you have a lengthy video that you want to show but don't want to lose your audience's attention. By breaking it up into smaller segments, you can keep your audience engaged and prevent them from losing interest.
Don’t worry about the design complexity. If you create your presentation in Visme, you can resize your videos instantly and turn them into any shape you want.
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7 Unify transitions horizontally
Unifying the transitions between slides is always a great idea, but doing it horizontally is especially effective. By keeping all the movements going in one direction, it's both easy to follow and will look great. You don’t need to just apply horizontal transitions to the switch between slides, you can also apply animation to the titles and images. As long as they all go in the same direction, you are gold.
Create a slide deck like this in minutes.
- Search for the exact slides you need from a library of 900+ layouts
- Choose a classic or modern style
- Create automatically animated presentations
8 Black and white + spot of bright color
This presentation design idea is highly effective if you're looking for a creative way to present information.
Adding a bright color to a black and white scheme can add just the right amount of attention-grabbing detail to your presentation. Try choosing a powerful color so that it’s really noticeable and pops visually. You can use the color in small amounts or in large sections. Up to you, just remember to maintain a balance throughout.
9 Use a color theme
A cohesive color theme throughout your presentation can engage your audience and create a more visually appealing experience.
To start, consider the overall tone of your presentation and what emotions you want to evoke in your audience. Are you presenting on a serious topic, such as healthcare or finance, where a more subdued color palette may be appropriate?
Or are you presenting on a more lighthearted topic, such as creativity or innovation, where bright and bold colors can help to capture your audience's attention?
Once you have a general idea of your color palette, try to use it consistently throughout your slides. This means using the same background, font and accent colors for headings and graphics– like the presentation template below.
Visme's presentation templates offer a wide range of professionally designed themes with 300+ slides in 20+ different categories, making it the best choice for exploring creative presentation ideas without PowerPoint. You can create visually stunning slides with our carefully curated color schemes and stylish designs.
Read this article about 25 free presentation themes in Visme and find the perfect one.
Visme's presentation maker and branded presentation templates have been helping businesses create impactful presentations while saving them time and money. That's why many businesses choose Visme over other tools.
But don't just take it for word. Here's what one of our satisfied customers has to say about Visme.
"Previously we were using PowerPoint, which is fine, but the interactivity you can get with Visme is so much more robust that we've all steered away from PowerPoint."
"PowerPoint templates are plain and boring, and we want to create more fun and engaging content. Visme has multiple slide templates to choose from, which makes this so much easier."
"I just made a deck recently and it took me about 15-20 minutes. I found a template I really liked and tweaked it and put it in our brand colors. In PowerPoint, it would take anywhere from an hour to an hour and a half."
- Kendra Bradley, Graphic Content Developer at WOW!
10 Add full-screen videos
The use of full-screen video in your slides can have a big impact on your storytelling. There’s a catch though. The wrong video will be detrimental to your message, be mindful of the videos you chose to grace the background of your slides. The video should either tell your story without words or be a complement that won’t interfere. The wrong video will confuse your viewers and it will be hard to get their undivided attention back.
If you’re looking for quick idea inspiration, check out our YouTube video where Mike shares 30 of our favorite presentation ideas at a glance.
11 Use an 80’s visual style
If looking for a unique design style, why not try an 80’s style for a change. Neon graffiti writing, disco balls, and brightly colored shapes might go well with your presentation’s topic. You can use 80’s visuals as small complementary elements or as the entirety of the presentation style. Nevertheless, if your presentation is about something quite serious then maybe you should try another style.
All you have to do is provide a text prompt, choose your preferred template style and the tool will generate text, images and icons and prepare a ready-to-use presentation within seconds.
The flexibility to customize these presentations in the Visme editor adds the perfect finishing touches to your visual storytelling journey.
12 Go vintage
Another creative presentation idea is the vintage look. This could work really well with a history-themed presentation or anything to do with recuperating old traditions. When we say “vintage” we mean sepia-toned photos, intricate picture frames, bold fonts which look like they came out of old posters.
A vintage color palette is usually pastel turquoise green, ochre yellow and washed out blue and orange. You could consider using vintage mockup sets to create scenes for your slides, or use vintage style fonts, and old photographs as backgrounds.
13 Use a monochrome palette
A monochrome palette is one that maintains a single tonality in different strengths. For example, you can create a presentation in shades of blue, or in shades of orange. Use the palest shade for the background and a stronger shade for the titles and decorative shapes. Try doing it the opposite way as well. You can even use photos with a bit of a filter effect in the chosen color by adding a color filter.
14 Tell a personal story
Telling stories from your own life—whether those stories are deeply moving, humorous tales, or just little snippets that allow someone to look into your history—can be a great way to make a presentation more meaningful.
Colin Stokes uses this to his advantage in his TED talk. He begins by talking about the movies he watches with his daughter and what she likes, and then moving into watching a movie with his son, and wondering how it has affected him, allowing him to move seamlessly into his actual points.
Watch the video below to learn how Colin Stokes did it
Choose a relevant story from your past, and tell it with all the honesty that you can. Your audience will feel that, sympathize, and therefore connect more with your message.
15 Creative photo crops
The photos in your presentations can be cropped hundreds of different ways. From simple circles or rectangles to more elaborate triangles, polygons, letter shapes or even a brushstroke. Analyze the message of your presentation to know which shape to use for the cropping of your photos. You can also create a collage with the shapes as long as they don’t distract from the information being presented.
16 Add fun illustrations
Adding fun illustrations is a great idea to engage your audience during a presentation. They can help break up text-heavy slides, make your presentation more visually attractive and reinforce your message, making it one of the best fun presentation ideas.
Hand-drawn doodles, icons and graphics and animated GIFs are all illustrations you can use. To maximize the visual impact of your illustrations, you can use them in 3D.
With Visme, you can enhance your presentation by adding 3D objects that allow you to customize their colors, size and alignment. Additionally, you can add 3D animated graphics to take things to the next level.
When using illustrations, it's important to remember to use them sparingly to avoid overwhelming your audience. Less is more when it comes to adding graphics to your slides. Remember to match the illustrations with your theme and color scheme to keep things consistent.
17 Thick and bold fonts
Huge chunky fonts are a great way to call attention to titles on slides. You could even try making the letters bleed over the edges or place the words vertical along the side. The best thick and bold fonts are the ones with minimal decorations. Try using fonts that have strong corners or the opposite, extreme rounded terminals. It will also work best if the title is short and sweet.
18 Go with nature
Freshen up your presentation with some natural elements around the edges or as a background. You could use full-screen background photos of leaves or palm fronds coming in from the sides of the slides.
Another presentation idea would be to use nature-related photography along with other design ideas like interesting photo crops. This technique could be used for presentations that relate to nature or natural topics, but also for a home decor proposal or creative direction pitch for a TV ad.
Integrating nature into your slides is a beautiful presentation example of how to connect with your audience on a different level. This technique could be used for presentations about environmental topics or even about home decoration.
19 Use circles
Circles represent wholeness and a natural sense of completion. They can signify eternity and constant movement. They can also make your presentation more friendly and emotionally accessible. You can try using circles as decorative elements or as the shape for cropping images and as backgrounds for illustrations.
20 Add some sparkle (glitter backgrounds)
Give your presentations a little bit of a festive feel with some glittery details. This PowerPoint idea can work great if you are presenting a creative proposal for a fashion label or clothing catalog. It can even work really well for holiday-themed pitches or products. There are different types of glittery graphics you can use, like a glitter texture, a glittering rain or even just a dash of glitter. You can find some great glitter backgrounds and textures over at Freepik .
21 Get crafty (ripped paper details)
Sometimes to tell a story, visual details can really help get a mood across. Ripped paper shapes and edges can give a presentation a special feel, almost as if it was done by hand. This visual technique works for any type of presentation except maybe in a corporate setting. Ripped paper can be found on creative graphics resource sites or you can do it yourself and take a photo.
22 Cut-out paper illustrations
Another crafty idea to design your slides is by using cut paper illustrations. This technique could look really crafty or quite elegant if done well. Cut paper can be used as an elaborate background, as the letters in titles or as decorative elements. There are some great cut paper bundles online to use as PNG files which can be uploaded to the Visme editor.
23 Pathway transitions
Create interesting transitions by designing scenes or pathways instead of just sliding them in one unified direction. By doing this, you can use a storytelling technique that will keep the audience’s attention throughout the presentation and information relay. You can find out how to do it in our free guide to creating captivating presentations .
Create an automatically animated presentation in minutes.
24 use isometric illustrations.
If you are looking for a different way to illustrate your slides, why not consider using isometric illustrations? This style of illustration is great for explaining things that can be separated into parts. The parts can be animated as well. An isometric illustration can work for any kind of presentation, from technology to corporate. It will give your presentation a modern edge and a professional look.
25 Use motion graphics
Motion graphics are a great way to illustrate an idea with animated objects . They don’t tell stories on their own, they support the context and illustrate the content.
For example, if your presentation is about travel, you could have flying airplanes across the slides or bags on a luggage conveyor belt. For something more abstract, you can use moving shapes and add effects to the titles. Your Visme editor has a variety of design tools to help you create all sorts of content with motion graphics.
Here’s what one of Visme’s satisfied customers Jessica L. | Small-Business Owner, has to say about Visme’s presentation tool:
"No need to go back to PowerPoint. Visme makes project presentations easy and fast. Lots of useful templates and excellent graphics. I enjoy the features they continue to add and update often. They make project work easy".
26 Add GIFs to your slides
GIFs can be fun, entertaining and humorous. They can also be informational. GIFs be sourced from sites like Giphy , where you can also create your own! Choosing to include a GIF in your presentation slide or a few different GIFs will depend on what message you want to send with your story. The theme and topic of your presentation will help you decide if you need a clip from a blockbuster movie or a quick representation of the process of your systems.
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Using Cool GIFs in Your Marketing
27 Use quotes between slides
Quotes can be good breathers between a bunch of informative slides. You can either use them to separate ideas inside your presentation or to start new sections of information. It’s important that your quotes represent the topic of your presentation so that they make sense and not confuse the viewer.
28 Start with “once upon a time”
One of the most effective and engaging ways to present a presentation is by incorporating creative storytelling techniques.
If a presentation can be created as a story, then why not go all the way and start the presentation with a classic story opening? Using the “once upon a time” phrase will instantly grab the viewer’s attention because it will be out of the ordinary. Make a slide especially for it with a visual that matches the topic of your presentation.
29 Turn the slides into a scrolling infographic instead of a presentation
To showcase your content in a unique and engaging way, consider using creative slide ideas that break away from the traditional slide-by-slide approach. For instance, you can arrange your slides vertically to create a scrolling infographic instead of a classic slide-by-slide transition presentation.
This innovative format expands the types of presentations you can create, offering a fresh perspective on information delivery.
An added bonus to this presentation style is to add parallax scrolling or interaction animation. As the viewer scrolls down, the information fills each slide progressively. It doesn’t continue until the viewer scrolls again. This technique is best for displaying online slide show presentation ideas.
Create a scrolling presentation in minutes.
30 engage your audience.
What’s one of the best ways to make your presentations more interesting? Make the audience a part of them.
Regardless if you’re presenting in person to a room full of people or via Zoom to viewers around the world, there are a number of techniques to engage your audience with both your content and yourself. The trick is to make them feel connected somehow, like they can relate. You can achieve this with humor, storytelling, asking questions and inviting them to leave comments in the webinar chat window.
Take this speech by Donovan Livingston. He delivers a commencement speech in spoken word poetry, and specifically encourages the audience to take part, saying they should clap, throw their hands in the air, or otherwise participate if they feel so moved. While not seen, several people are heard cheering and clapping throughout the video.
Participation can also be accomplished through things such as games, posing questions or something as simple as asking participants to raise their hands.
31 Use a scrunched paper background
Give your presentation a laid-back and grunge feel by designing it with a scrunched paper background. It can be any kind of paper really, depending on your topic. It could be notebook paper, or printer paper, it could even be recycled paper. Try a few different types of paper until you find the one that suits your story.
32 Add interactive pop-ups
Adding interactive pop-ups is a game-changer when it comes to creative ways of presenting. These pop-ups allow you to go beyond the traditional approach, giving your audience a more dynamic and engaging experience.
Interactive pop-ups can take many forms, from quizzes and polls to clickable infographics and interactive timelines. With Visme, you can access various interactive features that can help you create engaging and effective presentations.
For example, you can create clickable icons or buttons that allow your audience to explore additional information or resources. You can also create interactive timelines that enable your audience to explore different events or milestones.
One of the most powerful interactive features of Visme is the ability to create quizzes and polls. You can make interactive questions and answer options that allow your audience to engage with your presentation on a deeper level.
You can also use this feature to gather feedback from your audience, allowing you to tailor your presentation to their needs and interests.
Watch the video below or read this article to learn how to create an interactive presentation .
33 Use a back-to-school theme
A back-to-school theme can make your presentation look like a lot of fun. This is a great technique for teachers and educators welcoming their students back to a new school year. The background can be a sheet of notebook paper, an open notebook, or a blackboard. The edges could be decorated with pencils and paperclips, maybe an eraser or sharpener. The back-to-school theme has lots of possibilities.
34 Use a billboard-inspired theme
Use billboard mockups to create slides which look like billboards. This could look interesting and quite unique. You could use the same billboard for all the slides, or different ones for a more varied approach. This technique would work great with a pitch for an election or a local spot in a government office.
35 Use black-and-white photography
Black and white photography is a classic design technique. They import elegance and sophistication to any design by providing a minimalistic approach to the visuals. The photos can either be desaturated from color photos or given an artistic flair with extra contrast and fewer grey tones.
36 Explain your reasons
What people really want to know is why you’re giving the presentation you’re giving. This is especially true if you’re pitching to investors or potential new clients. When you share your why with the audience using storytelling and body language, you make meaningful connections and lasting relationships
Simon Sinek explains quite well why this is so important—the greatest leaders, the ones who inspire the most people, understand why they do the things they do, rather than just what or how.
When it comes to explaining your reasons, one tool that can significantly improve your presentations is Visme's AI writer . This advanced feature helps you write your presentation copy, break down complex ideas and edit or improve your existing words. With Visme's AI writer, you can make sure your "why" is clear and easy to understand alongside your visuals.
37 Add an audio narrative
Your presentation doesn’t need to be silent, especially if you won’t be standing by it to tell the story yourself. Adding an audio narrative can turn a viewable presentation into an experience. You can either set it up as a video that runs on its own and the viewer looks and listens, or it can be triggered by arrows that are clicked on.
RELATED: How to Create a Narrated Presentation With Voice Over Using Visme
38 Follow a space theme with photography
Most of the photos from Nasa are labeled as public domain. Meaning that you can give your presentation a space theme quite easily. Choose images of astronauts in space or more abstract and colorful images like distant galaxies and nebulas. The latter can make great backgrounds behind content without the topic necessarily being about space.
39 Do a space theme with illustration
An illustrated space theme can be either colorful and whimsical or sober and elegant. By choosing the style of illustration you use, you can either use this technique for presentations related to children or scientists. Cartoon astronauts can be lots of fun, line illustration planets can be educational and data-driven drawings can be informational.
40 Include music
Sometimes, when listening to someone talk for long periods of time, it helps to have something else to draw your attention. While images are great, including music can really help stimulate an audience and set the mood.
Dean Burnett talks about why this happens: “[Music] provides non-invasive noise and pleasurable feelings, to effectively neutralize the unconscious attention system’s ability to distract us.” Essentially, music is entertaining enough that, when in the background, can keep us focused on otherwise un-entertaining things.
Take, for example, this valedictorian’s speech. While peppered with humor and stories of his time through high school, he uses background music to help keep people’s attention—in fact, this is specifically stated to be his reason for including music, humorously quipping about giving the audience something to listen to while they “zone out” of his speech.
Whether incorporated into individual slides, in a video, done live, or with a music-playing device nearby, this creative presentation idea can be a great way to enhance the quality of your speech or talk.
41 Graffiti photography backgrounds and details
Using colorful backgrounds like photos of urban graffiti can give your presentation a bit of an edge. There are lots of free photographs of graffiti on sites like Unsplash which you can use straight away. Apart from graffiti murals, you can also incorporate graffiti letterings in your titles and quotes. You can find graffiti style fonts online quite easily.
42 Stop-motion
The stop-motion technique can take time but it can also make your presentation unforgettable. There are lots of ways to use stop-motion, either with characters doing actions or objects that move around and create a scene. Stop-motion can also be used to create titles that move into place. What the title is written with can be anything, from toys to plants. The theme and topic of your presentation will ultimately be the driving point to what kind of stop-motion can be used. But be sure that it works from educational to promotional to corporate.
43 Claymation
Very similar to stop-motion, claymation is the animation of things created with clay or play-doh. Anything can be created with clay, so the possibilities really are endless about what can be achieved. This technique really does take a lot of time, you can source it out to a professional or buy some already created footage. The claymation can be just a decorative element in the background or it could also be the center of the presentation.
44 Color blocking
The color blocking technique is another creative presentation idea that entails using color in large sections and in contrasting tones. The idea is that the color blocks will be strong and colorful. The color blocks can either be the shapes that determine where the information goes or just a way to separate the slides in specific sections.
Any type of presentation can benefit from color blocking. Just make sure you use colors that go together and don’t clash. Explore this technique for different presentation slide ideas, especially when aiming for a bold and visually striking effect. Take a look at this sponsorship deck and how it uses bright and bold color blocking techniques.
45 Get surreal
Surrealism is an avant-garde movement from the 20th century which was meant to tap into subconscious creativity. This might not be the kind of design technique for any sort of presentation but it can work for one that is about art, or literature or other creative outlets. There are plenty of surrealist artworks in the public domain sector or the Metropolitan Museum of Art. These can be used as subtle backgrounds or visual complements to the text.
Designing a presentation for an organization requires input from different stakeholders. However, when collaborating with others on a presentation design, keeping track of all the moving parts can be difficult.
That's where Visme's workflow management feature comes in. It helps organize roles, tasks, progress, deadlines and corrections all in one place to make your presentation design process efficient and smooth.
46 Polaroids
Polaroids, often a photography favorite, can inspire creative photography presentation ideas. The original Polaroids from the 70’s could be used as vintage polaroids that have been kept in a box for years. The newest Instamatic photographs, which are the new kind of polaroids, can be used for a fun way to show photos and visuals in presentation slides. You could either use one polaroid per slide or a collection of polaroids on a table or corkboard.
There are many topics that can work with Polaroid photography backgrounds and details in your slide show presentation ideas.
47 Use a Handwriting Font
Fonts come in all shapes and sizes, including lots of handwriting fonts. Handwritten fonts can be used for any type of presentation as long as the style matches the topic of the information. There are kid-style handwriting, calligraphy style handwriting, hand lettering, and novelty fonts as well. The options are wide and varied for this design technique. Creative Bloq has a great collection of handwritten fonts.
48 Use a geometric background
A geometric background can look really nice on any presentation. Geometric backgrounds can be tiled polygons or more abstract compositions of different size polygons. The decision to choose between tiled shapes and more creative compositions will depend on your creative angle and disposition. You can use these types of designs with any colors, so you can match the theme or your brand.
49 Coffee style design
Using a coffee-style design can work for any PowerPoint presentation idea, from office-related topics to digital nomads to anything or anyone who loves coffee. If the background is subtle, it can fit a more serious topic or data report. It can make a boring presentation just a bit more visually entertaining than the rest. Of course, it can also be perfect for a small coffee brewer pitching their company to investors.
50 Include memes
You’ve seen them everywhere by this point. You might be pretty sick of them. However, that doesn’t mean memes can’t be useful—in fact, using a couple strategically can surprise the audience and make them laugh.
The presentation " Memes, Memes Everywhere" focuses on, unsurprisingly, memes, and explains their purpose while using examples on every slide, which help support their points and add some humor to a very text-heavy presentation.
Choosing relevant memes and using them sparingly can really help add some personality to your presentation, without distracting from the work.
RELATED: 85+ Best Free Presentation Templates
51 Polka dots
Using a polka-dot background is suitable for various types of presentations. It can give your presentation a whimsical look or simply give it a subtle texture. The polka dots could be small and soft or big and punchy. A strong polka-dot background can work great in a creative setting or even boring data analysis. The style of polka dots will depend on the general topic of your presentation. You can use the polka-dot design as a full background or as a decorative section on the slide.
52 Metaphors
Visual metaphors can be useful in a similar manner; they can spice up your presentation, illustrate your point, and make your work far more entertaining. James Geary speaks about just how important metaphors are.
His presentation provides several examples of metaphors--such as the phrase “some jobs are jails”--and explains just how hard it is to ignore the lasting power of a well-used metaphor. Because of the connotations a metaphor can bring to the table, their use is an excellent way to imbue added meaning to your words.
53 Use timelines in your slides
Timelines can be used in lots of different ways inside a PowerPoint presentation, and the ideas are limitless. A timeline can either be inside one slide, or it can be connected between various slides. You can make a timeline with icons, connected shapes, or an inclined line. The timeline can be a visual way of explaining a chronological event or a plan of action that needs to be taken care of. Make sure the timeline fits the rest of the theme.
54 Use a comic book style
Comic books are a source of inspiration for many people. The visual aspect of a comic style composition can really make your presentation shine. There are a few ways you can use this technique. You could set up the slides as if they were snippets of a comic book, place the text in speech and thought bubbles and apply a background with a pointillist texture. If using characters, make sure the characters fit the theme of your presentation. For a perfect fit, hire a designer to create a comic book presentation just for your company.
55 Use a manga style
Looking for creative PowerPoint slide ideas that stand out? Consider taking inspiration from the Japanese art of Manga. Manga can give your presentation a distinct and eye-catching look, much like comic books.
It isn’t as versatile as a comic book because it has a more specific look, so it might not work for all topics. It can work for more creative outlets like fashion, art, and photography. Manga has a specific style for the atmosphere around the unique characters as well. They are more common in black and white and look very photographic.
56 Use psychedelic visuals
Psychedelia was a big part of the design world in the 60’s and 70’s. Music and creative event posters were so intricate and colorful that they took an important place in the design history books. This design style can be used for a unique visual approach in your presentations. Just like many other techniques we have mentioned, they can be used as a background in slides or as decorative elements. The swirly shapes and contrasting colors can call attention to the viewer in a positive way.
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57 Use neon lights
Neon lights are a great way to give your presentation some life when it’s otherwise visually bland. There are plenty of neon light fonts available online to choose from, from classic style neon tubing on a wall to a neon style given to a font to make it look like neon. Presentations of any topic can be given an additional visual with a bit of neon brightness.
58 Cinemagraph backgrounds
A cinemagraph is like a GIF loaded with elegance. The idea behind a cinemagraph is a photo with a moving section which makes it look cinematic. This kind of background can keep your viewers happily hypnotized while listening to your audio narrative or keep them on the slide longer to truly grasp the information being given. There are cinemagraphs available for all sorts of themes and topics. You can definitely find one that suits your needs.
59 Full-screen video backgrounds
A full-screen background can be really appealing. But just like other design ideas, the video you choose needs to match the theme and topic of your presentation. Your best bet is to have a video which is directly related to what your presentation is about. Videos can be created especially for your purpose, sourced with permission from YouTube or bought from a stock video site.
60 Visualize data
Staring at a large amount of numbers on screen can be overwhelming for most people, even if the realities of those numbers enforce your point. What’s the best way to avoid scaring your crowd? Put the data into easily understandable visualizations. This especially helpful when customizing sales, business or consultant presentation template .
If you want to take this a step further, you can use illustrations or create infographics to make these data visualizations even more engaging.
61 Use a wild west theme
The wild west is not a very versatile theme but can work for a history project or a proposal for a wild west themed party or event. What entails a wild west theme? Brown sandy tones, horses, cowboys, and tumbleweeds. If the full-on wild west theme is too much, you can also take a cue from the era and be inspired by the color scheme. Another approach would be to use photography from the actual west of the United States, mountains and deserts and so on.
62 Use mind maps
Mind maps are great visual tools for explaining concepts easily. By including mind maps in your slides, you can relay complicated information visually and creatively. There are eight types of mind maps, the most common being bubble maps, the tree map, and flow map. Each one has a different purpose and you can learn all about this in our guide about mind maps in the Visual Learning Center.
63 Use interactive geographic maps
The difference between a static map and an interactive map will define how much attention your slides get. Regions can switch colors according to a change in data over time, making the map more into a chart. With Visme, you can make your maps interactive with live data . All you need to do is sync your data from a Google Sheets file and when your presentation is published online, your map will always be synchronized to that data.
Want to create your own interactive map?
- Create a color-coded map to visualize geographical data
- Choose either the entire world map, a continent or a country
- Enable feature to have data values appear on hover
64 Color contrasts
Using contrasting colors in your slides will make the information pop out of the screen in a positive way. The trick to using contrasting colors is to know how colors match together. Contrasting doesn’t mean they need to clash. Try using a color palette generator like Adobe Color to find great palettes that will make this technique your new best friend. You can learn more about how color works in our guide about color perception in the Visme Learning Center.
65 Live data graphs
Adding live data to a presentation can turn your slides into evergreen content in a flash. You can use any type of chart and populate it with live data such as bar graphs, line graphs, pie graphs, and more. You can add live data graphs to one or two slides in your presentation or have a series of them. Creating a live data graph is easy with the Visme editor.
66 Color fade transitions
Transitions come in lots of different styles. We have mentioned horizontal transitions, animated transitions, and pathway transitions. This particular technique involves color as the ruling factor.
A color-fade transition makes each slide connected to each other through color. This can be achieved with gradients, color blocks, or colored photo filters. Make your PowerPoint presentation ideas stand out with color fade transitions.
67 “Grow” your presentation so it looks like one animated slide
This creative PowerPoint idea is quite interesting as it really only uses one slide that grows upon itself. The practical way to do this is to create the final slide with all the parts and information set up like a finished puzzle. Once you have the completed slide, duplicate it as many times as you need and systematically take off a bit of information until you’ve reached the first title slide. Once you have all the slides, make sure they are in order before downloading the entire thing.
RELATED: A Non-Designer’s Guide to Creating Memorable Visual Presentations [Free E-Book]
68 Use humor
Want a great way to connect with your audience and make a memorable, more engaging presentation? Be funny. When used strategically, this is a great way to capture attention. In fact, infusing humor into your talk is one of the most effective fun presentation ideas you can use.
Morgan Spurlock makes wonderful use of this in his TED talk. For example, in one of his earliest statements, he offered individuals the opportunity to buy the rights to name his TED talk—which he refers to again at the end, where he reveals the title. He peppers the entire presentation with humorous commentary that nonetheless supports his point.
Create relevant jokes or find a way to bring out the humor in your subject, and your audience will be much more engaged and more likely to remember your words.
69 Tree diagram transitions
A tree diagram is one of the eight thinking maps which help visualize idea and concepts. The purpose of a tree diagram is to classify and organize information. This map can help build a presentation by making sure each slide is a continuation of the one before. They might need to be grouped into sections so that all the information is relayed easily.
Want to create your own tree diagram?
- Get a head start with pre-made flowchart blocks
- Easily snap lines and objects together
- Dozens of shapes and lines styles to choose from
70 Journal style (with hand-drawn illustrations on the margins)
One creative presentation idea is to make your talk just a little bit different than the rest is to use a journal style. The general visual idea for this technique is to make your slides look like the pages of a journal. The style of the journal will depend on what your presentation topic is. It can be a whimsical bullet journal or an intricate botany journal. You could even consider handwriting on paper as a background.
71 Ink splatters
Use ink splatters to decorate your slides any way you like. They can be big and impressive behind the content, or they can be small and subtle like drops from a pen. An ink splatter can give your presentation a bit of an artistic flair and if done right, can make your slides look elegant and clean. Any style of presentation can benefit from some ink splatters as a decorative element.
If you're looking for fresh presentation slide ideas, why not experiment with ink splatters and see how they can enhance your next presentation?
72 Passport with stamps
Using travel stamps as a decorative element can work for a presentation with a travel-theme or a creative design proposal for a department store or airport mall. The stamps can be used as a background on a passport page or on their own around the content. A photo of a real passport page can be used for this technique but there are plenty of graphics available in this style on sites like Freepik .
73 Express your emotions
We can sometimes be afraid of expressing how we feel, even to those we’re close to, much less in front of a crowd. However, showing them makes your words more authentic and can generate compassion or excitement in your audience.
Take this TED talk by Thordis Elva and Tom Stranger , for example. While the two talk about their experiences, their voices break and crack. The emotional turmoil they went through is clearly heard, and viewers can clearly understand their pain.
This can take some getting used to, and some courage. However, the results are well worth the effort.
74 Use a video game theme
Video games come in all shapes and sizes. From kids' games to arcade games to car games. Each one has their own style, just like presentations do. If you think a video game visual style is good for your project, consider all the different kinds until you find the one that fits best. You can use game screenshots as backgrounds or infuse the entire design of the presentation with the video game style you chose.
75 Use postcards
One of the least-used creative presentation ideas is to turn your content inside slides into postcards which have been sent from around the world. They can be new postcards which could be used from either front or back sides. The back part would make a great text block for the content you need to display, the photo side can be on the sides or as a background. This design technique can work for presentations about literature, family connections, history or travel. There are postcard templates available on sites like Creative Market .
76 Incorporate robots in the design
Using robots in your slides can be a creative approach to visually elevate your presentation. There are different styles of robots you can add to your presentation design; realistic photography of anamorphic robots, cute illustrated robots, or robotic parts from factories. These visuals might only apply for technology-themed presentations or about robots themselves. Cute illustrations of robots can be great backgrounds for whimsical topics or other styles of storytelling presentations.
77 Chalk on blackboard
Looking for creative slides presentation ideas? Consider using a chalkboard design to add a unique and nostalgic touch to your presentation.
Writing on a chalkboard is not limited to a school setting or a bar menu. These two might be the most common yet they are not the only possibilities for using chalk on a blackboard. A good handwriting font is the best companion to a chalkboard design. Some of these fonts are already available with a chalky texture and others might need some professional tweaking to get the right texture.
78 Get inspired by a specific location
Even if the PowerPoint presentation ideas you are designing are not about a specific place in the world, you can be inspired by one to set up the color scheme and feel of the slides. For example, if you get inspired by Greece, you can use white and light blue hues or even photos of Greek islands. If you get inspired by Brazil, you can use photos of the beach, the texture of the boardwalk tiles or green, blue, and yellow color schemes.
79 Use props
Using props can quickly turn a run-of-the-mill presentation into a unique, interactive experience. Kenny Nguyen demonstrates this well. In his talk he often refers to the “sword of yes” and “shield of no.” Naturally he picks up a sword and shield from the table to help demonstrate his points.
Choosing similar props can help you really illustrate your points—and make it that much more entertaining, too.
80 Use hashtags as titles
In the age of social media, hashtags are used every day. They appear regularly on social media, in spoken and written conversations, and of course in content marketing. Why not include some hashtags as titles? This technique will work great in a presentation for a social media content management pitch, or an in an influencer marketing strategy. On another note, hashtag titles can even be used for any type of presentation geared at the digital generation.
81 Black background, white letters, and color accents
When you use a black background, the colors that you place on top will usually look brighter than if they were on a white background. When creating this kind of color palette, make sure the colors you use don’t clash with each other or with the black. Along with the bright colors, make sure you use white to make the composition pop! Neon colors or pastel tones are what will work best.
82 Vintage film edges
Even though we are used to taking photos with our phones, the classic nostalgia of film is still prevalent in the world of visuals and design. The graphic representation of a film negative is as recognizable as an envelope representing an email. Use a vintage film edge along the horizontal edges of your slides to give your visuals a cinematic feel. Even better if you make the edges animated so that it looks like it’s rolling along on a projector.
83 Adult coloring book inspired design
Using a coloring book design can be really creative. Practically anything can be turned into a coloring book style illustration. A great way to use this technique is to have the first slide with the un-colored illustration and then progressively color in the illustration as the slides progress. Furthermore, if the illustration is depictive of the information, the visuals can be even more engaging.
84 Stripes
A stripes design is as classic as it gets. From pinstripes to artistic colorful lines, you can use them as a subtle background or a powerful striped theme intertwined with text boxes. Stripes are the kind of design technique that can work for any type of presentation, from corporate to educational.
85 Make each slide look like a social media post
Just like postcards and polaroids, you could try a creative approach and use social media templates to put the content in. The most notorious social media visual channel is Instagram. It has been known to inspire offline events as well. Make your slides look like social media posts or social media pages. For this technique, you can either use screenshots or templates.
86 Ink in water
Dropping ink in water creates beautiful colorful bubbly designs which can be photographed at high speed. These images can be used as backgrounds for any type of creative theme presentations. Choose the color and thickness of the ink design to match the theme of your presentation. There are also animated versions of this effect which can be bought like video stock.
87 Lego bricks
Use lego bricks as inspiration to fill your presentation slides with color and fun. Use the bricks to create slide frames, letters or even charts. The best approach to a lego inspired presentation is to be creative. There are lots of things you can do with lego, you could go as far as using the legos to write the titles of the slides. Don’t use the Lego logo though unless you are specifically designing a presentation about lego.
88 Use classic storytelling techniques
A presentation is, in a way, like a story—you’re talking about your chosen subject and leading viewers on a journey to discover what that subject means. Moreover, stories hold an intrinsic interest for us. Therefore, you can easily use several storytelling techniques to help improve your presentation.
Alex Blinkoff goes into this in great detail, examining things such as “The Hero’s Journey” and provides several examples of ways to use storytelling techniques in your presentations. Check them out, and decide what might work best for your subject.
Click on image to view the interactive slide show created with Visme
89 Jigsaw puzzles
Pieces of a jigsaw puzzle can be used to make charts, infographic diagrams, or interlocking frames. The idea behind puzzle pieces is that things come together to form a whole and this concept can be used for any slide and any kind of presentation. Make sure to use a suitable color palette that matches your theme and the rest of the presentation.
90 Headlines coming in animated on boats/trains/airplane
Headlines or titles can be given a life of their own inside the slides. One interesting and creative approach would be to make the titles enter the slide on top of some kind of vehicle. The vehicle could be anything, from a train to a boat, to an airplane. Depending on the type of vehicle, this animated technique can be used for child-themed topics, transportation themes, travel ideas, or even about a corporate sales report.
91 Use a camouflage design
Camo doesn’t necessarily need to convey a sense of military, although it does carry a strong connection. Thankfully, camouflage comes in different styles, from jungle greens to desert browns. Other out of the box camouflage styles are the ones where the colors are completely off the charts, like pinks and blues. Camouflage designs are better used as backgrounds or small subtle sections.
92 Use unique novelty fonts for headers
There are so many novelty fonts to choose from out there these days! Using a unique novelty font for the titles and headers is a great way to add some visual pizzazz to your slides. Try looking for some really special fonts that carry personality. Once you have selected the font, add some color and texture to make it look even better.
93 Use a city skyline
Using a background of a city skyline can work great for a presentation related to business or corporate topics. It can also be perfect for an urban travel related theme or educational presentation. You can choose to use photography as a background or with the buildings cut out from the sky. Another choice is to find an illustrated city skyline and use it as a border on the slides.
94 Use a connected dots background
One of the design trends of the last few years is the connected dots visual. It’s used on websites and on printed flyers. It’s so versatile that it can be added to any kind of presentation in a heartbeat. The lines can be short or long between the dots and the composition can be tight or spread out. You can find connected dot visuals easily on sites like Freepik, in lots of different colors. If you can manage vector graphics , you can also change the composition of the dots quite easily yourself.
95 Use a bokeh background
Bokeh is a photography and light technique which turns dots of light into bright shiny spheres. With a bit of creativity, the lights can be turned into shapes, like hearts or stars. This design style is great for backgrounds since it’s mostly abstract. It works best as a complement to the content instead of an important visual aspect. You can find bokeh backgrounds in stock photo sites or make it yourself.
96 Use watercolor designs
The use of watercolor designs is an easy way of infusing some lively color into a presentation. Watercolors can be a splash on the background, shapes around the content, or colorful strokes intertwined with text boxes. Depending on the color of the paint used, the watercolor technique can be used for any type of presentation. A soft watercolor brushed background can work for a feminine theme and a deep intense splash can add visual creativity to an otherwise boring corporate presentation.
Just like watercolor graphics, paint can add a dose of creativity to any presentation. Different to watercolors though, paint is more intense. Paint based graphics come in all shapes and sizes, from thick brush strokes to paint drips. Digital paint compositions can also make great backgrounds for colorful and creative presentations.
98 Use bright fun colors
Why create a bland presentation when you can make it fun and colorful instead? Creative color palettes can include up to six different colors which look great together. Use shapes, cut-outs, color blocks, swashes, anything your heart desires. This technique is for letting go and being creatively free with color. Just make sure the colors go together by trying out some palettes first.
99 Use arrow graphics
Arrows symbolize direction. They can be a great addition to your charts, infographic visuals and slide sections. You could even do the entire presentation using arrows. According to their size, color, and thickness, they have different temperaments. Look for different styles of arrows and see if they fit your topic and theme. Freepik has some great arrow visuals and the Visme editor also has arrow icons and infographic visuals.
100 Use electronic visuals
Another great idea for a background visual is the inside of a computer system. The intricate details of a motherboard or a close up of a memory chip can make a great visual impact. Apart from using an electronic background image, little pieces of electronic devices can be placed around the slide as decoration. This technique is generally limited to electronic or computer theme topics.
101 Metaphors
Visual metaphors can be useful in a similar manner. They can spice up your presentation, illustrate your point, and make your work far more entertaining. James Geary speaks about just how important metaphors are.
102 Keep it feminine
A feminine style design can work for your presentation if your company makes products for women or if your targeted audience is women. By feminine design, we mean light and soft colors, subtle shapes and a general airy feeling to the composition. Feminine design can be minimal but it can also be decadent and full of style. Whichever you chose, make sure it fits with your audience.
103 Go futuristic
A futuristic style can fit any theme as long as the concept of the future depicted, fits the topic of the presentation. Futuristic design can be of many different styles; from spaceship driving controls to cosmos related atmospheres, to flying cars, and artificial intelligence. Even color palettes can look futuristic if you add some metallic tones.
104 Add a music background
A music soundtrack can be added to any presentation that doesn’t have any other sort of audio already. The best music for a presentation is one without lyrics, in other words, an instrumental track. A good track will accompany the content in a positive way and not interfere with the message. You can find audio tracks easily online.
105 Communicate with images
A picture can speak a thousand words. Naturally, they can be used to communicate concepts that, for the sake of space or time, you might not be able to include in the presentation itself. This slide deck uses this strategy to its advantage.
The presentation includes many images as backgrounds and minimal text. The images used always either enhance what’s being said or, in some cases, provide the answer for viewers. For example, the second slide states “The Landscape Today,” and includes a bleak background with a broken, tilted picture frame, emphasizing the idea that the following slides (which describe the landscape) offer some pretty disheartening information.
Using images in a related fashion can help express your views and emphasize your message.
Harness the power of Visme's AI image edit tools in your toolkit. These advanced yet easy-to-use tools let you effortlessly edit, touch up, unblur and upscale your images using simple prompts. It's an incredibly convenient way to add extra polish and clarity to your pictures to make your presentations more impactful.
106 Include artsy data visualization
Data visualization is a way of showing data and information in a way that is visually expressive. Creative data analysts can make some really beautiful creations and you can hire them to make them for you. If you haven’t seen any creative data visualizations, take a look at our collection of the best of 2018 and get inspired. You can either make the whole presentation into a data viz or add them to some of the slides.
By Beyond Words Studio
RELATED: The 25 Best Data Visualizations of 2018
107 Stay branded
This creative tip is a simple yet effective way to spark good presentation ideas. When creating your presentation, do your best to stay on brand. This, of course, will work only if you are creating a presentation for your own brand. If creating one for a client, then you should stay on brand with their own brand style guide. This means only use the brand colors and fonts, use photos, textures, and shapes that match the brand.
Use Visme's brand design tool to ensure your presentations perfectly reflect your brand personality. Just copy and paste your website URL, and the tool will automatically extract your branding assets, such as brand colors, brand fonts and company logo.
108 Ask questions
A great tip to make your PowerPoint presentations ideas more interactive is to ask questions from your audience. Like the example below, you can display only your question on the slide. Once the audience has pitched in their opinions and answers, you can click to reveal the actual answer. You can enable this type of interactivity on click when making a presentation in Visme .
109 Replace boring bullet points with visuals
While adding bullet points in your slides might be better than adding walls of text, they're still not the most effective way to get your message across and engage your audience. Take things up a notch and replace boring bullets with visuals, such as photos and even icons. Here's an example of how you can use icons to add a creative twist to the plain ol' bullet points.
110 Share your slide deck
Downloading your slide deck and presenting in front of an audience is not the only way to use your presentation. Make the most of your slides by sharing your presentation online.
Add interactive elements, such as clickable buttons, links, hover effects, popups, embedded videos and more so your audience can view and engage with your slides on their own.
If you've created your presentation in Visme, you can share your presentation publicly or privately using a link, or embed it anywhere you like.
Start Using These Creative Presentation Ideas
Ready to start creating your own presentation after over 100 pieces of inspiration? Choose your favorite creative presentation ideas and incorporate them into your own presentation.
You can add interactivity, animation, visuals and all kinds of creative elements to your presentations when you design them in Visme's online presentation maker. With our Dynamic Field feature , you can automatically update key information in real-time across all your slides or multiple projects. Customize existing dynamic fields or create new ones and format them to maintain design consistency.
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About the Author
Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com
3 Keys to Giving a Normal Presentation at Work (Because Not Every Talk Is a TED Talk)
You have a really important meeting at work—you’re giving a quarterly report, trying to sell a huge client, or talking to the big boss. So, you start prepping by reading up on public speaking tips . Then you remember that there’s no stage at work. No microphone. No TED logo. (Unless, OK, you work at TED—which you can do by clicking here .)
Instead it’s you, with the SVP, in a small conference room with no windows and the smell of an old apple still in the waste bin.
The vast majority of public speaking advice is focused on how to give a formal speech to a huge crowd. But at work, you’re probably giving project status reports, budget updates, marketing plans, a financial analysis, sales pitches to small groups, and updates to your boss’ boss.
Work presentations are primarily designed to inform and persuade—rather than to entertain and inspire. They are given to small groups, in an intimate setting, seated (not to crowds in an auditorium, standing up). They tend to be detail-focused and data-intensive, with assertions proven with facts and less of a reliance on anecdotes. And finally, they are rooted in a clear, logical structure—as opposed to a performance.
What does all this mean? It means that a lot of the traditional public speaking presentation tips are actually steering you off course. That doesn’t mean you should ditch the PowerPoint and the eye contact, but instead it means you should cater to your (small) audience’s needs. Here’s how to do that.
1. Don’t Lead With a Joke
“Hey boss, did you hear the one about the priest and the rabbi?”
Remember, your discussion with your supervisor, customer, or colleagues is not your opening night at The Improv. So, instead of writing jokes, spend your time identifying the question the other person wants you to answer. Write out your answer in advance in the form of slides.
Then, don’t wing it. If it's important enough to do, it's important enough to do well. Write a voice over script to accompany your slides. This script shouldn’t be a verbatim copy of what's in the presentation; instead it should be a translation and an elaboration.
Finally, map out in advance what you want your audience to do at the end of the meeting (after you’ve answered their question).
2. Don’t Create Overly Simple Slides
This one is controversial. You’ve likely heard (over and over) that slides should be simple—the simpler the better.
However, your manager and your clients don't want simplicity: They want clarity. Your slides should be clear, that’s much more useful than simplicity, for simplicity’s sake. Most times, this will require more than eight words and a photo. Maybe a graph and some data. Remember, if it's for internal use, you can send the presentation around after the fact—all the more reason to include more information.
Make sure the slides contain a single core message in the headline, with evidence supporting the main idea. Use a minimalist presentation design-style to focus the audience on your answer to their question—not on how pretty your deck is. (You can get a template from Graphic River or SlideHeroes .)
Display quantitative data and other evidence in simple and clean charts. Read up on chartjunk and how to eliminate it. Include enough text so that the presentation can be read in advance and understood.
3. Don’t Obsess Over Delivery
“Project your voice.” “Make eye contact.” “Smile!’” “Pause for at least 10 seconds for dramatic effect.” “Speak unusually slowly.” “Share a genuinely emotional story.” “Be aware of your body language.” “Gargle.”
This isn’t bad advice. It just misses the mark in terms of relevance.
Before you enroll in voice coaching lessons to improve your diction and projection, try following this four-step list:
Identify Who Your Audience Is
Profile them. Understand who the decision makers are, how decisions get made, how the audience likes to be spoken to, how they like to consume information.
Determine Why You Are Speaking to Them
Identify the question for which you will develop an answer. Often this is the presentation topic. Re-frame the topic as a question you’ll answer. In other words, “marketing plan” will translate to: How do we grow revenue by 25% next year?
Determine What Your Answer to Their Question Will Be
Do the analysis, thinking, and work required to develop a complete answer.
Decide How to Best Communicate That Answer
Obsess about how you structure your thinking. Use concepts like the Rule of Three ; Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive (MECE) , and the Pyramid Principle to create this structure and organize your ideas.
Those big presentations at work—they’re a key part of your business communication skills. Work hard to become good at them and your career will take off. And in the meantime, you’ll know what to do the next time you’re asked to speak at a meeting.
Photo of presentation courtesy of Shutterstock .
120 Presentation Topic Ideas Help You Hook Your Audience
Updated: September 23, 2024
Published: July 27, 2023
Cooking is easy. The puzzle is figuring out what to eat. As soon as you know that, you can get started. The same holds for presentations. The sooner you can whip up a good, informative, and catchy topic, the easier the rest of the process becomes.
Pick a good topic that resonates with you and your audience to set a strong foundation. But select the wrong topic, and it becomes difficult to connect with your audience, find mutual interests, or hold their attention.
So, let’s learn how to develop thought-provoking and relevant topics for your presentations. You’ll also find some best practices to make your presentation memorable.
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Table of Contents
How to Choose a Great Presentation Topic in 5 Steps
120 presentation topic ideas, 5 presentation tips.
Free Presentation & Public Speaking Kit
Everything you need to become more comfortable and effective during your next presentation, including:
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Presentation Topic Ideas for Industry Insights
- How new AI technologies are changing the industry: 5 examples
- Six key trends and industry forecasts for the future
- How to overcome these 10 challenges to succeed?
- Measuring and optimizing organizational marketing efforts using AI
- Using predictive analytics to extract key marketing insights
- 13 strategies to increase customer loyalty and retention
- Improve your online visibility and traffic: 15 tips from LinkedIn gurus
- Seven ways to create engaging video content for your company
- Five ways for businesses to create a strong social media presence
- Which social media channels are best for your brand?
- Is AI revolutionizing the retail industry?
- Digital learning and the future of traditional learning systems
Presentation Topic Ideas for Digital Marketing
- The next big thing in digital marketing unlocked
- The art of storytelling in marketing: 23 businesses that kill it
- Benefits of cross-channel marketing for software development companies
- Voice search and its impact on digital marketing in 2024
- Maximizing ROI for your startup marketing: 3 underestimated tactics
- Changes in consumer behavior: Reasons and implications
- Importance of personalization in digital marketing
- 10 Emerging marketing trends and technologies
- Designing an effective mobile strategy for your business
- Importance of infographics in content marketing: HubSpot’s case study
- Creating effective marketing funnels for health products
- The power of user-generated content for companies
Presentation Topic Ideas for AI
- Six top stories about AI in 2023
- Five weird, but true, facts about AI
- What these three business experts are saying about AI
- Three shocking ways AI can make you a better marketer
- The dark side of AI
- Why has Elon Musk called to pause new AI research?
- Five AI tools every marketer needs
- AI and Big Data: Changing the landscape of modern business
- Which jobs will AI actually replace?
- Why does Bill Gates love AI?
- AI in human resources: Recruiting and talent management
- The Ethics of AI: Balancing business interests and societal impacts
Presentation Topic Ideas for Sales
- Cold calls: Unethical tactics and grey areas
- Sales: Expectations vs. Reality
- Sales prospecting made simpler with AI
- Sales calls: Do’s, Don’ts, and Musts
- Six sales strategies you need to throw out the window
- Five skills every salesperson needs to develop
- Building long-lasting relationships with customers using these three tried and tested methods
- Dealing with rejections: Five ways and one bonus tip
- Patient waiting and seven ways to deal with it
- 13 effective sales strategies for building relationships and closing deals
- Developing effective sales training programs for new employees
- 20 effective sales communication strategies
Presentation Topic Ideas for Time Management
- How to achieve an ideal work-life balance for remote workers
- How much time should you ideally spend networking on LinkedIn?
- How to effectively delegate tasks
- Buy back your time: Ways and benefits
- Six business principles of time management
- How to effectively plan ahead? Three practices you can start today
- 15 ways to improve personal efficiency and productivity
- The five steps of the Pomodoro Technique
- Goal setting and prioritization: For IT start-ups
- Nine best multitasking strategies of insanely successful businessmen
- Time management for busy professionals: Where to start?
- Eight ways to avoid procrastination you can start with tomorrow
Presentation Topic Ideas for IT
- Advantages and risks of adopting cloud software
- Open-source software: seven best practices
- Machine learning: Pros and cons for marketing
- How to create user-friendly interfaces for software and websites
- The role of IT in digital transformation
- The Internet of Things: five opportunities for businesses and consumers
- Six ways to protect your digital assets
- Seven benefits and three risks of moving to the cloud
- How does Big Data work?
- Best strategies to protect organizational data: five tried and tested techniques
- Technology and its impact on society and culture
- Mobile device management: Where to start?
Presentation Topics Ideas for Business
- Optimizing collaborations to save time across all departments
- Eight time management tools and apps for businesses
- 12 common skills of successful businessmen
- 10 tips and techniques for a successful marketing strategy
- Harnessing the power of influencer marketing
- Allocating a marketing budget to maximize ROI in five steps
- Five manufacturing techniques to minimize costs
- Understanding ethical issues in business and marketing
- 10 ways to minimize your company’s carbon footprint
- Three old business models making a comeback
- Seven ways Google developed a strong company culture
- 12 strategies for building a sustainable and responsible business in 2023
The best presentation topics always put their audience first, offer direct solutions, and fill in some knowledge gaps. But there’s more.
Don’t think of your presentation as a mere speech — it’s a ride you’ll take your audience on. There should be highs, lows, and revelations with a bang for an ending.
That being said, use these five tips to ace your presentation.
4. Choose an appropriate presentation style.
There are many ways to present a topic. Your personality, the topic at hand, and your audience’s personas will help you determine which style would best fit you and your audience.
Select a presentation style that will communicate the main idea clearly and have a lasting impact on your audience.
For instance, explore a freeform style presenter by Sir Ken Robinson.
5. Engage with your audience.
Work on your presentation skills to make a strong connection with your audience, get through to them and leave a mark.
Think of the presenter as the link between the topic and the audience. A strong or a weak presenter can make a difference between a presentation being a thriving success or a boring failure.
Hone your skills by engaging and interacting with your audience. Make them feel like a part of the presentation and not just spectators. 70% of marketers have found presentations with interactive content to be more effective than those without.
Here are a few ways you can make your presentation interactive:
- Start your speech with uncommon questions to your audience. Involve them from the get-go, like ask to raise their hands if X.
- Make eye contact to build credibility and show confidence. Don’t stare at your slides or notes. Smile occasionally and talk to the audience directly.
- Have an active and confident body language. Don’t stand in the same place the entire time. Move around the stage.
- Don’t be monotonous. Speak as you would to a colleague — with enthusiasm.
- Ask close-ended questions in between to keep the audience engaged without losing time. Address them using their names to keep things interesting.
- Share personal experiences and stories that your audience will find fascinating and relatable.
- Practice thoroughly before you present so you’re fluent with the material and delivery.
- Energy and excitement can be quite contagious. Make sure you exude enough to spread some to your audience.
Feeling Inspired Yet?
Now you have all the right ingredients for choosing amazing topics and a hundred ideas to drive inspiration from. So, go ahead and start cooking presentations that will blow your audience away.
Don’t forget to choose a super-relevant topic and add meaty information. Do it with excitement to make it enjoyable for you and your audience. Best of luck!
Don't forget to share this post!
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8 Ways to Deliver a Great Presentation (Even If You’re Super Anxious About It)
- Joel Schwartzberg
Know your point, always.
Feeling anxious about a presentation? It’s likely about a fear of public humiliation rather than of public speaking.
- Shift the spotlight from yourself to what you have to say.
- Reject the voice in your head trying to destroy your confidence.
- Knowing what matters – and what doesn’t – will help you succeed.
I recently worked closely with a 24-year-old client — let’s call him Martin — who was tapped to deliver a five-minute presentation at his company’s annual town hall meeting. Martin had never given a public speech in his professional life, but his accomplishments impressed his supervisors, and they wanted Martin to share his success with the rest of the organization.
- JS Joel Schwartzberg oversees executive communications for a major national nonprofit, is a professional presentation coach, and is the author of Get to the Point! Sharpen Your Message and Make Your Words Matter and The Language of Leadership: How to Engage and Inspire Your Team . You can find him on LinkedIn and X. TheJoelTruth
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12 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills [for Work & Life]
According to research by the National Institute of Mental Health, around 75% of people list public speaking as their number one fear , even higher than their fear of death!
At the same time, though, presentation skills are among the most in-demand skills for just about any job out there .
Want to get over your fear of public speaking, improve your presentation skills, and give your career a huge boost?
You’re in the right place! This article is here to tell you everything you need to know about presentation skills from A to Z:
- 9 Types of Presentations and Delivery Methods
- 12 Steps to Giving Better Presentations
- 5 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills
How to Add Your Presentation Skills to Your Resume
And more! Let’s dive in.
What Are Presentation Skills?
Presentation skills are soft skills that allow you to present information clearly in front of an audience.
As such, these skills come in handy in all kinds of situations, including:
- Work. For example, giving a presentation in front of your team, pitching a new idea, etc.
- School or university. E.g., giving an oral presentation about a subject or presenting a master's thesis.
- Personal life. E.g. giving a speech at your best friend’s wedding or a toast at a restaurant.
No matter the situation, people with strong presentation skills typically possess the following skills:
- Body language
- Public speaking
- Communication skills
- Emotional intelligence
Why Are Presentation Skills Important?
But, what exactly makes presentation skills so important in basically every life area?
Here are their most noteworthy benefits:
- Increased employability. Presentation skills come in handy for many positions across all industries. 70% of respondents in a Prezi study said that presentation skills are critical for career success. As such, presentation skills are transferable skills that can instantly make you more employable.
- Higher academic performance. In the US, most university classes involve a presentation assignment or two. As such, being good at presenting is essential if you want to succeed academically.
- Effective networking. Having great presentation skills translates into great communication skills, which, in turn, helps you get better at professional networking .
- Improved confidence. Being able to speak in front of an audience can be a serious confidence booster, easily translating to other areas in life.
9 Types of Presentation and Delivery Methods
There are several types of presentations out there.
Some presentations are meant to inspire the audience (such as motivational talks), while others are simply meant to instruct or inform (HR giving a presentation about company policies to new employees).
Here are the five most common types of presentations, explained:
- Persuasive presentations are meant to persuade the audience to make a decision, support a cause, side with a particular argument, and so on. A salesman pitching a product to a potential customer is an example of a persuasive presentation.
- Informative presentations aim to inform the audience about a topic, procedure, product, benefit, etc. An example of an informative presentation is a weatherman reading the weather report on TV.
- Inspirational presentations are meant to inspire the audience and potentially boost their confidence or morale. In a business setting, inspirational presentations are meant to motivate employees to perform better or get through tough times. In day-to-day life, on the other hand, an inspirational presentation could be trying to motivate a friend to do better at school.
- Educational presentations , just like the name implies, aim to educate the audience. Professors giving a lecture or tour guides speaking to museum visitors are examples of educational presentations.
- Instructional presentations are about instructing or guiding the audience on a set of guidelines, a new policy, a certain law, etc. An example of an instructional presentation is a flight attendant instructing passengers on what to do in case of an emergency.
On the same note, there are also 4 common ways presentations are delivered:
- Extemporaneous presentations. These presentations are planned, but you deliver them without preparation.
- Manuscript presentations are presentations you deliver based on a script or notes.
- Impromptu presentations aren’t planned but rather delivered on the spot.
- Memorized presentations are those you learn by heart from start to finish.
11 Tips on How to Give Better Presentations
Looking to improve your presentation skills?
There’s good news and bad news.
The good news is that, with enough practice, you can get really good at delivering presentations.
The bad news, though, is that just like any other soft skill, in order to get good at delivering presentations, you’ll have to practice a lot.
To help get you started, below, we’re going to cover 12 of our best tips on how to improve your presentation skills, starting with:
#1. Prepare your presentation in advance
Impromptu presentations don’t happen that often in real life. Most times, you’ll have enough time to prepare for your presentation.
Needless to say, you should use that time to your advantage. Don’t just make mental notes of what you’ll say during your presentation and call it a day, but actually plan it out from start to finish.
When preparing your presentation in advance, make sure to consider the following points:
- What type of presentation are you making?
- What is your speech delivery method?
- How are you going to grab the audience’s attention from the get-go?
- What are the main points you need to cover?
- What is the best way to make the conclusion memorable?
- How much time do you have at your disposal?
- What visual aids and multimedia can you use?
- What does the audience expect to see/hear?
#2. Practice as much as possible
Just like with any other soft skill, the best way to hone your presentation skills is to practice as much as possible.
Some ways you can practice your presentation skills are:
- In front of a mirror or in front of your friends and family.
- Watch TED talks to get inspired and learn what good presentation skills look like.
- Read books on communication, presentation, and public speaking.
- Take extensive notes of what you need to improve.
- Record and time yourself when doing presentations.
- Hire a public speaking coach on Fiverr or another platform.
- Take a public speaking course at your local community college.
The more you practice, the better your presentation skills are going to get.
Also, when practicing, make sure to pay attention to your tonality, body language, and whether you’re using a lot of crutch words .
#3. Exercise
Yes, really.
Exercise can help improve your presentation skills!
Some ways it does so are:
- It boosts the levels of neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and noradrenaline, all of which are known to improve your mood and regulate your anxiety.
- It improves your ability to focus and pay attention, benefits which can last for up to two hours after your workout .
- It strengthens and protects your memory, making it easy to recall words.
Now, when it comes to how much you should exercise, that can differ from one person to the next.
We say - find a golden mean that works best for you. If you’re not big on exercising, you can always start small with something casual like biking to work or playing a sport once or twice a week.
#4. Arrive early
By arriving early for your presentation, you can deal with any possible setbacks (e.g. mic not working, USB failure, wardrobe malfunction, etc).
This will give you plenty of time to start your presentation on your terms, instead of running around trying to fix things at the last minute.
Not to mention, in certain situations arriving early can also help you to prepare mentally and emotionally for the upcoming presentation.
Obviously, a casual presentation in front of coworkers won’t require much emotional preparation. But if you have to, say, pitch a marketing idea to your clients or address a room full of strangers, getting to exchange some words with them before the presentation could break the ice and make it easier to engage with them later on.
#5. Know your audience
You should always keep your audience in mind when making (and delivering) a presentation.
At the end of the day, if your message is not tailored to its audience, chances are, it’s going to fall flat.
If your audience is a group of 50-somethings, high-level executives, chances are they won’t get your Rick and Morty references or appreciate any attempts to keep the presentation light, casual, and humorous.
Instead, stick to talking about facts and figures without any joking around, use straightforward language, and avoid over-the-top body language while delivering the presentation.
If on the other hand, you’re delivering a presentation to your class of 20-somethings, then you’re a lot more likely to make an impact if you joke around, make references, and make the presentation more casual.
In short, if you want your presentation to carry as much impact as possible, make sure to think about who you’re presenting to.
#6. Use Relaxation Techniques
Even the most seasoned public speakers experience some level of anxiety before giving a presentation.
To make sure nerves and anxiety don’t throw you off your A-game, you can take advantage of relaxation techniques.
One of the simplest (and most effective) ways to relax before a presentation is to breathe.
When we say breathing, though, we don’t mean the automatic in-and-out we do to stay alive. We mean taking deep, relaxing breaths from your stomach while being mindful of what you’re doing.
Here’s how breathing mindfully before your presentation can help you give a better presentation:
- Calms your nerves
- Reduces stress
- Helps with anxiety
To practice mindful breathing, focus on breathing from your stomach and push your stomach out each time you inhale. When you’re inhaling and exhaling, count to at least three for each breath.
Keep doing this and you’ll soon start feeling more relaxed.
#7. Acknowledge That You’re Nervous
People appreciate honesty.
If you go on stage feeling extremely nervous, use this neat little trick:
Instead of trying to play it cool, simply acknowledge that you’re feeling nervous by straight-up saying it.
Chances are, a very large chunk of your audience feels exactly the same way about public speaking, and you’ll build up some rapport just like that!
This same exact tip even applies to job interviews. You can simply tell the recruiters that you’re feeling nervous and need a minute - that’s totally acceptable!
Unless you’re applying for a job in sales, the job interviewer is not going to be evaluating you on how good you are at passing interviews.
#8. Tell stories
Storytelling is a powerful presentation tool. According to the Guardian, 63% of presentation attendees remember stories , while only 5% remember statistics.
That’s because a good story can take the audience on a journey, intrigue them, inspire them, and motivate them. In turn, they’re much more likely to remember your presentation.
There are several ways you can go about incorporating stories into your presentation.
One is to tie your own stories, along with what you experienced, learned, or observed, to make your argument more impactful and relatable. Alternatively, you can also create a story for the sake of the presentation that can be just as impactful in driving your point across.
Keep in mind, though, that not every presentation requires storytelling. If your presentation is packed with data and stats showing how you managed to improve profits by 20% in the last quarter, for example, then you don’t really need to include a story in there to make it impactful.
#9. Be humorous
This one’s quite self-explanatory; as much as you can, be humorous during your presentation. It helps ease tension, get the attention of everyone in the room, and connect with them more effectively.
Now, some people are born with humor. If you’re one of them, cracking a joke here and there should come very naturally to you.
Otherwise, you can practice your presentation in front of your friends and family and prepare your jokes in advance. If your mock audience laughs at your jokes, chances are, so will your real audience!
#10. Use visual aids and media
Using visuals and other media forms (e.g. music, videos, infographics, etc.), can make your presentation significantly more engaging, memorable, and striking.
Say, for example, that your presentation consists entirely of numbers and data. You can use data visualization (e.g. charts, graphs, and maps), to make the data stick with your audience better.
Or, if you’re a lecturer at a university, you’ll want to use as many pictures, videos, and even music to help your students remember the information you’re transmitting.
Some of the most popular ways to make your presentations as visual as possible involve using:
- Whiteboards
- Presentation applications
#11. Engage the audience
To give a truly memorable presentation, engage your audience as much as possible.
Instead of speaking to your audience, try to speak with your audience.
What we mean by this is that you should be very proactive in getting your audience involved in your presentation. Ask questions, get them to share stories, and so on.
Some examples of how you can effectively engage an audience are:
- Asking a random audience member to share their experience on a topic.
- Doing a count of hands (e.g. “Has anyone done X? Can I see a count of hands?” or “Which one of you guys likes Y? Raise your hands.” )
- Do an on-the-spot poll (e.g. “How many of you guys do X?” or “how many of you guys think Y?” )
- Making time for a Q&A at the end of your presentation.
6 Ways to Improve Your Presentation Skills
Just like any other skill, presentation skills can be learned and improved. So, if you’re looking to improve your presentation skills, follow the tips below:
- Take every public speaking opportunity you get. The best way to learn presentation skills is by doing it. So, take every opportunity you get. E.g. volunteer to present a project, say a toast at your friend's wedding, etc.
- Check these TED talks. Is there anything TED talks haven’t covered? Check out these talks that can teach you how to give awesome presentations: “ Giving Presentations Worth Listening To ”, “ the secret structure of great talks ,” and “ the science of stage fright (and how to overcome it) ”.
- Take public speaking classes. Udemy, Coursera, and LinkedIn all have great public speaking courses. Or, even better, take a class at your local college. This way, you’ll get a lot more practice than by taking an online class.
- Attend other presentations. This one’s pretty self-explanatory. The more presentations you attend, the more you can learn from others’ successes or failures.
- Grow your confidence. Speak in front of friends and family, film yourself, and accept constructive criticism. Soon enough, you’ll be confident enough to give excellent presentations!
- Ask for feedback. How can you improve your presentation skills if you don’t know where you’re lacking? After your presentation, ask one or two members of your audience for personal, one-on-one feedback on how you did.
If you want to show a potential employer that you’ve got presentation skills, you’ll need to highlight them on your resume.
And in this section, we’ll teach you just how to do that!
Before you do that, though, make sure to grab one of our free resume templates!
#1. List Your Presentation Skills Under Your Soft Skills
The first and most obvious place to list your presentation skills is under your skills section .
This part is pretty straightforward. Your skills section should be divided into “soft skills” and “hard skills” and look something like this:
Simply add “Presentation Skills” under the “Soft Skills” section, and you’re good to go.
#2. Mention Your Presentation Skills in Your Resume Summary
If presentation skills are super important for the role you’re applying for, you can also include them in your resume summary :
In a nutshell, the resume summary is a short paragraph on top of your resume that typically mentions:
- Your title and years of experience
- Your most noteworthy achievements
- Your top skills and qualifications
Done right, this section should highlight all your strong points right from the get-go and get the hiring manager to go through the rest of your resume in more detail.
Here’s an example of a resume summary that effectively mentions the candidate’s presentation skills:
- Sales professional with 7 years of experience in sales presentations and lead generation. Excellent public speaking skills. Track record of converting prospects into loyal customers.
#3. Prove Presentation Skills Through Your Work Experience
Lastly (and most importantly), you should use your work experience section to prove that you’ve got the presentation skills you mentioned in your skills section.
Here’s exactly how you can do that:
- Keep your work experience section relevant. List recent and relevant positions. Omit outdated and irrelevant ones. For example, if you’re applying for a customer service position, you can mention the time you worked, say, as a receptionist. Your teen job mowing lawns, on the other hand? Not as important.
- Focus on achievements instead of responsibilities. Instead of telling the hiring manager what they already know (your responsibilities), focus on showing them how you made an impact with your achievements. A way to do that is to write down a couple of achievements for every presentation skill that you include under your soft skills.
- Make your achievements quantifiable . Adding numbers to your achievements makes them significantly more impressive. “Delivered a presentation that closed a 6-figure client” is a lot more powerful than “Delivered client presentations,” right?
- Use action verbs and power words. Presentation skills are also about how you present yourself in your resume. Avoid dry and unimaginative language and go for these action verbs and power words instead.
Key Takeaways
And that’s about all you need to know to improve your presentation skills!
Before you go, though, here’s a quick recap of everything we covered in this article:
- Presentation skills are soft skills that allow you to present information clearly and convey your message effectively.
- Some important presentation skills include public speaking, communication, persuasion, creativity, humor, and emotional intelligence.
- Presentation skills can increase your employability, improve your academic performance, make it easier to network, and help you grow professionally.
- Some steps you can take to give better presentations are to prepare in advance, practice as much as possible, exercise regularly, be humorous, use visual aids and multimedia, engage the audience, and accept that you’re nervous.
- To improve your presentation skills, watch videos that teach you how to give great presentations, attend public speaking classes and other presentations, and grow your confidence.
- List your presentation skills under your skills section, mention them in your resume summary, and prove them with your achievements in the work experience section.
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10 Tips for Presenting at Work
So you have to do a presentation at work? Presenting in meetings or to your boss is always a bit nerve-wracking and yet it’s a critical part of project communications . Here are 10 tips for giving a fantastic work presentation.
1. Know your audience
First, know your audience. Who are you presenting to? And where are they in the organizational hierarchy?
The presentation you give to a team of technical system developers is going to be very different to the presentation you give to the CEO, even if you are talking about the same project.
You should plan to tailor your presentation and shape it for the audience, and for that you have to know a bit about them.
The good news is that you probably know your work colleagues quite well, even if they are clients. Think about what they want to know and how much knowledge they already have about your work.
When you are thinking about how to give a presentation at work, consider:
- What are the objectives of the presentation?
- How can you illustrate your points with data or facts?
- What will people be most interested in hearing (instead of what you are most interested in telling them)?
- What do you want them to do after the presentation (make a decision etc)?
You have to know your material, so that you can be prepared for questions. But more than that, you have to know how to shape it to tell the story you want them to take away.
Do they need to know the numbers? Focus on sharing the figures that have the most impact and explain your points most accurately. Share graphs, charts or other visual information to help get the point across, and be prepared to dive into the detail if requested.
Do they want to see progress? Share a Gantt chart or status update as a one-pager. Use a roadmap or timeline to illustrate the bigger picture.
Get your data together
Next, get the data together that you will need for your presentation. Plan the flow of your presentation so that you hit the key points and make the takeaways clear.
Once you have your key objectives in mind, you can start putting any slides or other materials together, bringing together your data, your objectives and the format you are going to use for presenting, whether that is Google Slides, Prezi, PowerPoint, a live demo of software or something else.
It’s also worth physically preparing by speaking your presentation out loud – a rehearsal (or several). You can rehearse your presentation with a mentor if you are worried. This can help you deal with anxiety about presenting.
3. Keep it short
You’re presenting in a meeting, or other work setting. This isn’t an evening seminar where you’ve got to deliver an hour-long speech, or an after-dinner-style humorous lecture. Keep it short.
People appreciate short. Go for 20 minutes, that’s often long enough. If you have a lot of material you will have to decide what to leave in, but remember you can always have extra data to hand to show if there are questions on something you didn’t cover in detail in your presentation.
Or you can print it out and hand it around if you are meeting in person, or follow up the presentation with an email with further information if people are interested.
Keep your slides short too. Not too many words on a slide. Remember the rule of 16:
- No more than 16 words on a slide
- No less than 16 point font on a slide.
And frankly, I’d go for much bigger font. However, most of the guidance on font size for presentations is aimed at people giving presentations in conference rooms, not meeting-sized rooms with a dozen people who have the presentation on their tablets or their PA printed it out for them. Go as big as you can, while still getting your message across.
4. Avoid jargon
This is a rule for all workplace communication. Avoid jargon and acronyms in your presentation, even if you are presenting to colleagues who know what they mean. Make it easy to understand at a glance. Give context. Help people understand by not making it difficult for them.
You’ll know what language is appropriate for your colleagues and customers. If you don’t, put some material together and ask someone who does not know about your project whether they can understand what you are on about.
If they don’t quickly and easily get the message, go back to basics and remove some of the terminology until you have a version that hits the right level.
Tip: Typically, the higher up the organization you go, the less project-specific jargon is relevant (or appreciated). But you know your colleagues, so factor in their prior level of knowledge as you choose your words.
5. Present successes as well as challenges
When you are presenting your work to your boss, remember to talk about the things you have managed to do well.
I know when I get ‘boss time’ I want to get her advice on the difficult situations, talk about the challenges I need her to unblock for me and work together to sort out the sticky things. But you should also make time for talking about what went well.
When you present your work to your manager, try to get a balance between getting decisions and support and also sharing some of your successes (either personally, or on behalf of your team).
6. Make eye contact
Whether you are meeting one or two people, or presenting to a room full of work colleagues at an internal Town Hall style event, make eye contact.
Focus on a few people around the room and share your gaze broadly. It helps make people feel like the talk is aimed at them and that you are interested in their responses. It also helps you spot who isn’t interested in what you are saying!
If you feel weird looking people in the eye, look at the middle of their forehead. They won’t be able to tell you aren’t making ‘true’ eye contact and will still feel included in the discussion.
7. Use body language effectively
If you don’t know what effective body language is, it will be hard to emanate it. Watch the powerful people at work, or your manager when she gives a presentation, and see how they move when presenting to groups.
In a meeting, you will be giving a presentation sitting down most likely, to your peers or colleagues.
In a larger setting, you might be behind a podium or in front of a meeting room full of people, some of whom will find it difficult to see you if they are at the back.
Think about your body language consciously. There are some easy things to do to make your body language more powerful.
- Do not read from a script
- Stand up if you think people can’t see you
- Ask questions – perhaps that’s not truly body language, but it’s another way to engage the audience.
The video below is quite old, but it shows Body Talk expert Richard Newman talking about the palms up/palms down gesture – so subtle, but so powerful, and so easy to incorporate into your work presentation.
8. Get creative: work presentation ideas
PowerPoint slides, anyone?
Slides are the classic way to put information into a presentation but you don’t need to be limited to that. See if you can include more creative ways to show your project or status updates . How about:
- A short video from a colleague or customer, telling a story
- A product demo, or something that can be passed around
- A set of wireframes or clickable demo
- A mock up graphic on a slide instead of a flat screenshot.
Even using full-screen images with an overlay for your text will help you make your slides more interesting.
This next tip will also help your meeting be more interactive and interesting…
9. Present with a colleague
If you are nervous about presenting at work, see if you can present with a colleague. This could even be your boss.
Here’s how to present with a colleague:
- Work out the content of your presentation
- Decide who is going to present each part
- Practice the handoffs so you can transition smoothly between each speaker. It’s less disruptive if you change speaker once or twice, not after every slide
- Agree who is going to field questions. Someone should invite and make the initial response to a question, even if that is simply handing it off to the other person to answer.
Presenting with a colleague is more work. You have to work together on the talk to make it look effortless, and that means planning in prep time. However, it’s worth it for lots of reasons, not least because it can help with anxiety to have someone with you on the day, and you can back each other up.
Switching between presenters means the audience isn’t constantly listening to just one voice, which makes the session more interactive and interesting.
Your colleague can also give you feedback about your presentation style (if you want it). You could both give each other feedback on how you come across during your rehearsals. It can be really valuable to have friendly, constructive feedback.
How do you start a presentation with your boss?
Follow the steps above to prepare the content. Personally, I would expect my boss take the lead in the presentation, unless she specifically asked me to. Therefore, I’d expect her to start the presentation, stating our names and who we were, and perhaps handing over to me so I could give a brief introduction off myself.
Then the content of the presentation starts, and we’d switch between presenters as planned.
I would let her field the questions, and provide expert input to the answers as required.
10. Prepare for questions
Sometimes there won’t be time for questions. Other times you need to expect to be grilled.
If you are presenting to management or to your boss, you should expect and welcome questions. It means they were (probably) listening!
If you know your topic, and you can get access to any extra information, then you’ll be fine. Don’t be put under pressure to answer on the spot if you don’t know the numbers or the details. Your work meeting is not Dragon’s Den or Shark Tank: just say you don’t have those details to hand and you’ll get back to them later that day.
Think about when you are going to invite questions. At a work based presentation given in a meeting setting, you should be prepared to answer questions at any point. Be ready to be interrupted. You aren’t giving a conference paper, so expect there to be someone in the room who wants to know more about everything . Be ready!
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Project manager, author, mentor
Elizabeth Harrin is a Fellow of the Association for Project Management in the UK. She holds degrees from the University of York and Roehampton University, and several project management certifications including APM PMQ. She first took her PRINCE2 Practitioner exam in 2004 and has worked extensively in project delivery for over 20 years. Elizabeth is also the founder of the Project Management Rebels community, a mentoring group for professionals. She's written several books for project managers including Managing Multiple Projects .
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100+ Creative Presentation Ideas You Can Steal Today
Renderforest Staff
20 Aug 2023
11 min read
Have you ever struggled with forcing yourself to stay awake during a presentation? Don’t worry, you are not alone.
In essence, a presentation is nothing but sharing ideas with others. Whether you intrigue and interest your audience or not depends on how interesting the topic is and how well you present it.
Whether you plan on making a PowerPoint presentation with neatly designed slides or a video presentation with dynamic transitions, you first need creative presentation ideas.
That’s why we’ve created a comprehensive list of the most captivating and creative presentation ideas you can put to use. We have separated them into three main categories to make things easier for you.
Let’s dive right in!
Business and Management Presentation Ideas
Education presentation ideas, general presentation ideas.
In business, presenting information and complex ideas in an easy-to-digest manner is crucial. If you already have a presentation idea, you only need to find a presentation template to bring it to life. But if you’re still looking for creative presentation ideas, read the list we’ve prepared below.
- Corporate Presentation : Have you ever wondered what the best way is to build and communicate your company’s identity? Corporate presentations are great for promoting your brand, services, and products by simply talking about them.
- Company Profiling : Introduce your team. Who are you? What are you passionate about? Your audience is interested to know more about your team members.
- Company Story : What can strengthen the ties between you and your audience better than a compelling success story told through creative presentations?
Use Template
- Product Promos : Create a buzz around your new product with an engaging promo presentation.
- Sales Pitch : Close that sale you’ve worked so hard for with a well-built sales presentation.
- Office Tour : Present the cool interior design of your office. Show your favorite spots where you like to wind down with a cup of coffee or, hey, maybe a beer.
- Product Features : Does your product have interesting features that not everyone knows about? Make a detailed presentation on all the hidden features of your product. Use images and videos to explain how everything functions.
- Fundamental Principles : Choose a general topic in Business and Management and discuss it through your creative presentation. Here’s an idea: “Fundamental Principles of Strategic Planning.” Could be a great prompt to start with, right?
- Best Strategies: Be it marketing, financial, or any other type of strategy, an overview of the best strategies can make for informative and useful presentation content.
- Industry Introduction : Make a presentation about the industry your business operates. Use strong visuals to complement your content and introduce your industry in the best light possible.
- Comparing Tactics : Make a presentation reflecting on and comparing various tactics.
- Calculated Risks : We are all worried about possible risks when taking action. Risks are unavoidable. It’s a great idea to prepare your audience for the risks before they come across them. There is a multitude of ways to do it through creative presentations. Cover “Risks in Investing,” “Risks Associated With Trading Derivatives,” and so forth.
- Advantages and Disadvantages : One never comes without the other. Introduce your team to the pros and cons of your plans, actions, and anything else you consider important.
USE TEMPLATE
- Debates : Make your presentation even more interactive by involving the audience in debates. Plus, debates and discussions are always helpful in establishing a better understanding of a topic.
- SWOT Analysis : You can never go wrong with a proper analysis of business strategies, marketing plans, and more. So consider making an analysis presentation to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of a specific business strategy.
- Portfolio Presentation : Showcase your best projects and works. Why should anyone be interested in you if they haven’t seen your work? Presenting your best projects in a compelling and attractive format will increase your reputation quickly.
- Current Trends : What are the current trends in business and management. Always keep an eye on them to stay one step ahead of your competitors.
- Challenges : Who doesn’t agree that challenges are tough? Making a creative presentation on challenges and the ways that you have overcome them will help you keep track of your development and also prepare for the future.
- Reporting Progress : Why don’t you make weekly or monthly presentations on your performance, such as financial statements? Measuring and reporting your performance will smooth your path toward your goals.
- Customer Testimonials : Present your customers’ responses and feedback on your product/service to see what steps you need to take to improve your offerings.
- Profiles of Successful People : Encourage your team by introducing them to the experiences and achievements of successful people.
- Tips and Tricks : If you want to cheer your audience up, provide them with hacks and tricks to deal with certain issues. This can include technical tricks and some tips on teamwork, for example.
- Rules and Regulations : What are some of the rules that your company never breaks? Discuss the rules and regulations that apply to your team.
- Top Criteria : Selecting a new quality management system is not easy, is it? Introducing the top criteria for a specific task can be a great presentation topic. How about making a presentation on “Top Criteria for Selecting a New Quality Management System?”
- Product Development Process : Sometimes, we are interested to see how a product was created. Showcase the development process of your product through a presentation.
- Most Effective Ways : It’s always good to be introduced not only to what to do but also to how to do it. So make a presentation on the best ways of conducting surveys, research, or anything else.
- Success Factors : This is something all of us are interested in. Introduce the success factors in different areas such as managing successful teams or product design tips.
- Cause and Effect : This simple and informative presentation structure will be ideal to dive deeper into the intricate world of cause and effect.
- Past vs. Present vs. Future : Growth will become more visible and obvious once you start comparing what you had before to what you have now. This can turn into a great summary of the major changes within a certain time period.
- Comparisons : Compare different products/services. It’s a good strategy that will help you emphasize the good and the bad sides of a particular thing.
- Positive and Negative Effects : It’s always important to show the two sides of a coin. Consider presenting the positive and negative effects of a certain thing. For example, the positive and negative effects of social media is a debated topic nowadays. Pick your topic and reveal it from both perspectives.
- Problem-Solution Presentation : Identify a relevant problem. A great presentation format would be to introduce not only the complicated problem but its solution as well.
- Training : Your presentation can become a training session. You can organize a theoretical part and add a practical portion, too, like quizzes and discussions.
- Graphs and Charts : One of the best ways to introduce your info is through statistical graphs and charts, combining survey and observational data. You can use visual animated scenes and infographics.
- Popular Misconceptions : People are often mistakenly drawn from one end to another due to inaccurate data. Help your audience avoid misunderstandings about entrepreneurs, investors, and business management in general. Your presentation will guide them in the right direction, drawing the line between truth and lie.
- Introduction to Business Topics : No matter the topic, it’s always useful to present basic ideas. Keep it short and clear. This can include an introduction to income statements, or any other important business concept.
- Stages of a Process : Don’t leave your audience confused with theory but let them see the practical stages of how things are accomplished. (e.g., “The Stages of User Journey”)
- Management : How do you efficiently manage a business? You can prepare dozens of presentations on management: be it resources, public relations, time, money, or anything else.
- Competitor Analysis : Know your enemy! You’ve probably heard the famous saying, haven’t you? Track down your competitors and share the info with your team.
- Appreciation : This presentation should be devoted to the team members who have done an exceptional job.
- Unknown Facts : Pick a topic and reveal facts that are unknown to most people. What are some of the interesting and truthful facts that they don’t know about branding?
- Restrictions : No matter what business you have, restrictions are guaranteed. Make a presentation on the restrictions and limitations you face. (e.g. “Restrictions in Integrated Web Design”)
- Big Breakthroughs : Want to feel proud of yourself and your team? Here is how you can do it: Reveal some cases when you have successfully overcome the toughest of obstacles and learned lessons as a result. Talk about the long path you have been on with your company.
- Partners and Investors : Tell about your partners. Give info about investors. Cooperation is way more successful when team members are acquainted with the investors. Your presentation can have a strong influence on the performance of your team.
- Business Ethics : As a significant part of business, it’s important to understand ethics. How about “Ethics in Marketing Research?” There are countless ethical issues.
- Theories : Gather some of the most important theories that you find useful and prepare a good presentation with examples and visuals.
- Product/Service Improvement : A briefing like this might include a recap of your product or service or a discussion of any possible improvement before the product is ready for the market.
- The Rise and Fall of Brands : Don’t avoid talking about the failures and successes of other brands. Doing so can help you with your own journey.
- Upcoming or Recent Events : Talk about exciting events that you are planning to organize or already have. For upcoming events, you can make a welcoming presentation, announcing the date and venue. Check out an example below:
- Inspiration : Get ready to give a professional and motivational talk to inspire your audience to take action towards targeted goals.
- Explain Business Concepts : How does a certain idea or concept work? Give a specific and clear presentation on the concepts that not everyone is familiar with. How does a franchise work? How do partnerships work?
- QA Presentation : Assure that your audience knows that your product/service is of the best quality.
- Announcements : Is there a cool and intriguing event that’s coming? Give an announcement through your presentation. It can be short and clear, covering all the key points.
- Discovery, Invention, Innovation : Share the most interesting discoveries and recent innovations in the business world.
- How-to Presentations : If you are skilled at something, then you can make a presentation to guide others. Present a step-by-step guide for a specific task, such as conducting surveys or managing conflicts.
Whether it’s a school project or an online class presentation, you need to make it attractive and engaging. So, choose the topic wisely. Below are some education presentation ideas you can use for your next project.
- Academic Presentation : If you want to educate and share info, then academic presentations with supporting visuals, presentation slides, and videos are what you need.
- Explainer : Explainers are a powerful way of sharing essential information. You can make short and engaging explainer videos to include in your presentations.
- Pros and Cons : Make a presentation explaining both pros and cons of a certain issue at stake.
- Best Methods : Talk about various effective methods, be it methods of teaching, learning, or preparing for an exam.
- Dos and Don’ts of Making Presentations : You can make a whole presentation just talking about presentation best practices . Separate what’s recommended and what’s not and then present those to your audience in a simple way.
- Guidelines : Present the most effective guidelines for teaching, studying, and co-working.
- Personal Experience : What can be more helpful for an audience than to learn from someone’s real-life experience? Make a presentation on your personal experience and share your most valuable insights.
- Quiz-Presentation : Test your students. Make a presentation quizzing their knowledge and competence in a certain field. Why presentation? Because it’s both visually and technically effective.
- Research : An attractive slideshow is one of the best ways to present your research. Try working on a visual and multimedia presentation to showcase the whole potential of your research in a visually appealing format.
- Problem-Solving : Decide on an issue and prepare a set of solutions to offer. Don’t leave any questions uncovered. If a problem exists, so does its solution.
- Project Proposal : How are you planning to get approval for your projects if you don’t propose the main idea and expected outcomes in a professional way? Give your project a classy presentation with this Minimal Titles Pack .
- Listing Presentation : Lists always work when you have big sorted data to introduce to your audience.
- Controversial Topics : Attract your audience’s attention and keep them engaged with a controversial slide deck. Bring forward debatable issues such as euthanasia, AI, and more. Let your audience join you or argue against you.
- Textbook Presentation : Introduce a textbook in a creative way through interesting visuals and supporting multimedia.
- Curriculum : What if presentations are the best way of getting your audience acquainted with a curriculum. Alternatively, you can make your next presentation about how to develop a well-organized curriculum.
- Dissertation : Prepare a presentation for your dissertation. But keep in mind that it has to be accompanied by proper supportive media.
- Predictions Presentation : What will happen next? It’s fun to predict, isn’t it?
- Instructions : Do you like giving instructions? Sometimes that’s what you need to do. Structure your presentation in a how-to format, giving instructions for certain actions, like “How to Work Out the Best Schedule?”
- Precautions : Prepare your audience for the worst and hope for the best. Make a presentation on a set of warnings.
- Case Studies : What’s the best way of demonstrating your case study? A multimedia presentation can be the answer.
- Tricks and Hacks : Tips and tricks are always appreciated by your audience. Create an informative presentation on studying tips, time management tips, or anything else you might find interesting.
- Success Stories : We are always eager to hear success stories. Why? Because they motivate us to move forward with hope for what’s to come. So, make a presentation, telling success stories to motivate teachers, learners, and everyone else.
- Fact or Fiction : Draw a line between truth and lie, fact and fiction. Bust some myths about a topic of your choice to educate your listeners.
- Data Analysis : Is a presentation the right place to start with data analysis? Not really. But once you have analyzed your data, showcase it in your presentation, demonstrating your analysis through charts and graphs.
- Techniques : What kind of techniques can you cover? How about “Techniques for Memory Improvement,” or “ Teaching Techniques ?” You can make up a number of similar topics to share.
- Recent Advancements : Share the recent advancement in the field of education. What are some of the newest teaching methods? What advanced methods do we need to implement to make the learning process more effective?
- Steps in the Process : What are the best steps to take towards certain goals? Each path is different and thus requires different steps.
- Interesting Facts : Gather a set of creative ideas and facts to cover in your presentations.
Recommended Reading
- 35+ Best Presentation Software: Ultimate List 2023
- The Art of Consulting Presentations
- Timeline Presentations: Extensive Guide to Creating Visual Narratives
Here we have random presentation ideas that can inspire you. Make your next presentation a blast by introducing a new creative topic through a unique presentation design.
- Introduction to a Topic : Often, we don’t really want to go deep into complex concepts but just need a short and clear intro to get a grasp of them. Make a presentation on the basics of the most intriguing and puzzling themes.
- Ethics of a Certain Field : There are a number of important fields that need to be discussed in terms of ethics. For example, ethics in journalism is a very trendy and essential topic to discuss nowadays.
- The Future : We are always interested in the future, aren’t we? We make plans for it. We carry hopes for it. Let’s make a compelling presentation that discusses the future of various fields, such as AI or the Internet.
- Benefits : What are the benefits of a bilingual brain? Try to cover the benefits of a number of issues, such as digital transformation, or a healthy diet.
- Risks : Discuss the risks of taking certain steps. When we know the risks we can circumvent them, can’t we?
- Evolution : How do things evolve? It’s super important to present the ways that certain things unfold and change. How did artificial intelligence grow and evolve to such degrees?
- Components: Pick some topics to discuss the components of. How about making a presentation on “Components of Web Applications?” Pretty interesting, isn’t it?
- Alternatives : We always feel a need for alternatives. Make a presentation offering alternatives for different tools and objects. One example could be a presentation covering “The Best Free Alternatives to Microsoft Office.”
- Memoir : Tell the stories of influential people or your own in a value-packed presentation.
- Video Games : You can reveal the pros and cons of a game or just talk about the trendiest games as of now. You could also reveal statistics about the influence they have on gamers.
- Music Album Presentation : Present a music album, composers, and musicians. You can talk about their tours, also including videos and audio files of the tracks.
- Reviews and Reports : Do a book or a film review. Present your criticism and reflections on a book or movie of interest.
- Scientific Presentation : What are the recent scientific discoveries? Not all people are aware, right? Bring forward some intriguing info about the latest discoveries.
- Job Interview Presentation : Impress your potential employers with a structured and clean job interview presentation. Our video portfolio editor can come in handy here.
- Important Skills : What are the top skills needed in your industry? Create your list and share it.
- Requirements and Qualifications : What are some requirements for a specific job position or a field in general? Share your experience and knowledge on this topic.
- “Best of ” Compilation : Gather a list of the best movies, games, books, tools, meals, and anything else, really.
- News : Sometimes, people don’t care to sit and listen to an hour-long news report. So, how about making a brief and informative summary of the most noteworthy news?
- Experiments : Make a scientific or social experiment and reveal your results; they might be different from what you expected.
- Life Story : Use presentation slides to tell about the life of a famous or personal story of an influential person. Use images, videos, and any other visual elements to make your story more vivid.
Making a compelling presentation doesn’t purely depend on presentation software , even though that’s also very important. To make an impactful presentation, one has to first figure out how to approach the topic and decide on the presentation design.
We hope you found your topic on the list of creative presentation ideas presented above. Best of luck with creating presentations!
Ready to create your video presentation? Find hundreds of slideshow video template options, browse stock images to find a background image, use hand-drawn illustrations, add your color palette, customize your entire presentation the way you want, and share your creative presentation idea in an interesting way. You can also use a recap video template to present the main takeaways of an event or a session in the form of a summary. Click the button to get started:
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COMMENTS
Sales teams often use persuasive presentations to win clients. 5. Problem-solution presentation. A problem-solution presentation aims to aid in decision-making efforts by describing a problem or a challenge and presenting an audience with a solution or a set of solutions.
What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation. Summary. Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or ...
Apply the 10-20-30 rule. Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it! 9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule. Simplicity is key.
9. Use Humor. Adding humor to presentations can engage the audience and enhance content retention. A well-timed joke or light-hearted story is one of the work slideshow tips that can create a relaxed atmosphere. Humor should suit the context and match the overall tone of the presentation.
Frame your story (figure out where to start and where to end). Plan your delivery (decide whether to memorize your speech word for word or develop bullet points and then rehearse it—over and ...
Here are five presentation tips to help you create a strong presentation and wow your audience: 1. Keep it simple. Simple means something different to everyone. Before creating your presentation, take note of your intended audience and their knowledge level of your subject. You'll want your content to be easy for your intended audience to follow.
When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences. As an ...
Tips for giving a great presentation. Follow these tips to help you create a presentation that will engage your audience: 1. Keep your presentation simple. When putting your presentation together, remember that simpler is better. Many presenters follow the "10-20-30" rule: use 10 or fewer slides, keep your presentation under 20 minutes and ...
The Outline. Research the daylights out of your topic. If it's a sales pitch, get the data you need to drive home the point. If it's for a larger audience, back up your main talking points with research-based data. This might sound like a lot of work, but a good outline will make your life so much easier over the next few days.
The KISS rule applies to any kind of visuals you're using for your presentation: Keep it simple, stupid. Kill the bullets, limit text, and use beautiful images, Grasso said. Less is more. "Nobody ...
Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage. Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible. 10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy.
We love them because they're the most visually appealing and memorable way to communicate. 1. Animated characters. Our first presentation example is a business explainer video from Biteable that uses animated characters. The friendly and modern style makes this the perfect presentation for engaging your audience.
21 Get crafty (ripped paper details) Sometimes to tell a story, visual details can really help get a mood across. Ripped paper shapes and edges can give a presentation a special feel, almost as if it was done by hand. This visual technique works for any type of presentation except maybe in a corporate setting.
Don't Obsess Over Delivery. "Project your voice." "Make eye contact." "Smile!'" "Pause for at least 10 seconds for dramatic effect." "Speak unusually slowly." "Share a genuinely emotional story." "Be aware of your body language." "Gargle.". This isn't bad advice. It just misses the mark in terms of relevance.
5. Be playful. If appropriate, add a little humor here and there throughout your presentation. The goal is to help your break the ice and disarm people. When you're presenting something new, you may encounter some resistance. A little humor might help you tear down some walls and keep people engaged.
Step 3: Be novel. Make sure you either select a new topic or bring an entirely new and unique perspective to an already covered issue. For instance, don't make a presentation on the "best lead generation strategies.". Your audience has probably heard those dozens of times already. Corny.
Shift the spotlight from yourself to what you have to say. Reject the voice in your head trying to destroy your confidence. Knowing what matters - and what doesn't - will help you succeed. I ...
21. Work with icons. Icons can often help you convey complex ideas in simple or condensed forms. You can also use them to create reference points in your content. Making an icon for each section in your presentation, then using that icon in each slide in your section can help anchor the theme of each section.
Take a public speaking course at your local community college. The more you practice, the better your presentation skills are going to get. Also, when practicing, make sure to pay attention to your tonality, body language, and whether you're using a lot of crutch words. #3. Exercise.
Go as big as you can, while still getting your message across. 4. Avoid jargon. This is a rule for all workplace communication. Avoid jargon and acronyms in your presentation, even if you are presenting to colleagues who know what they mean. Make it easy to understand at a glance. Give context.
Below are some education presentation ideas you can use for your next project. Academic Presentation: If you want to educate and share info, then academic presentations with supporting visuals, presentation slides, and videos are what you need. Explainer: Explainers are a powerful way of sharing essential information.