Guest Post - 6 Ways to Slay Your Next Presentation

The following was written by Christina Berger, Marketing and Communications Manager for Foundation for the Young Women's Leadership Academy of Fort Worth. Lauren was in the audience for a Foundation presentation earlier this year, and she noticed how smoothly the slides and technology ran. Christina kindly shared a few of her tricks of the trade for your next presentation!

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By day, I help craft and deliver powerful messages on important subject matter in support of a local nonprofit. By night, I roam the streets of Fort Worth, fighting crime.

Well, at least one of those statements is true.

As the most “tech-savvy” of three employees at the Foundation for the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Fort Worth, I do my part to help make my coworkers look and feel confident during any presentation. Donning my metaphorical cape, I’m the one preparing the A/V equipment, running soundchecks, and remotely advancing through slides so they can be hands-free. While my colleagues charge toward the basket, I’m the one lobbing the alleyoop for them to slam dunk. 

It’s been said that mistakes are often the best teachers — and for good reason. I’ve learned a lot about how to ensure a presentation runs smoothly, so take a page from my playbook with these dos and don’ts for setting up yourself, or your co-presenter, for success.

1.Use Google Slides over PowerPoint for showing videos.

While I have little against Microsoft products — my MacBook Pro might incriminate me here — I have found that Google Slides trumps PowerPoint.

Primarily, if you want to show off your technical skills or add some impact to your story, Slides are superior in that they integrate with YouTube. All you have to do is click “Video” within the “Insert” dropdown and enter the YouTube URL. Slides does the rest.

Once the video is embedded in the slide, you can play it within the slideshow — whereas, with PowerPoint, you jump out of the presentation and the video is automatically loaded on the default web browser. It can be a nightmare to get back to your slideshow after you’ve left the window. Why leave that up to chance, especially when presenting at another location or on someone else’s equipment? Or, where the default browser might still be Internet Explorer… 

2. Utilize “Presenter View” for high-level notes.

At the bottom of each slide, there’s a section for notes. In “Presenter View,” your notes show up on the laptop/computer monitor, but not the projected screen. These are your secret back-up notes to help you stay on track. If you’re a nervous presenter and like to stand behind a podium — or you have to, because there’s no clicker to allow you to remotely advance through slides — Presenter View is a Godsend. 

It’s easy to want to type what you’re going to say verbatim in these notes. Don’t do it. Keep it high level with bullet points or call-out stats. Presenter View has a scroll function, but it can be cumbersome to scroll through those notes, talk, and work the slides at the same time. I recommend only filling the immediately visible space for your notes.

3. Have your presentation backed up in at least 3 places.

This may sound paranoid, but trust me — you do not want to show up to a presentation without access to the slideshow you’ve meticulously prepared, especially if you’re relying on your notes in Presenter View.

My trusty backup spots are 1) on a USB flash drive that I bring with me, 2) on Google Drive as both a PowerPoint file and a Google Slides file, and 3) as an attachment in an email to myself as both a PowerPoint file and link to Google Slides. 

“Okay, that’s a bit overkill, don’t you think?” I counter your hypothetical question with my own: Did you know that flash drives can short? It happened to me in college, where the chip inside your flash drive shorts out — which means it basically goes on strike and won’t work, no matter where you plug it in. Be prepared for any number of technological errors when it comes to presenting… which brings us to #4.

4. Make sure you have access to WiFi (or some form of internet).

If, heaven forbid!, your flash drive takes the day off, make sure you can access the internet to retrieve your presentation from its backup locations. Because I regularly use Google Slides instead of PowerPoint, I must always have access to WiFi to present. Sometimes this means bringing my work hotspot with me. 

5. Be early. 

However you decide to present, show up early enough to run through your slides and practice multiple times. You don’t have to do a full dress rehearsal, but at least ensure technology is up and running smoothly and speak your high-level points on each slide. I try to give myself at least 20-30 minutes before people start to trickle in. 

6. Be flexible. 

No matter how much you prepare, run through the technicalities, and account for missed time due to glitches, something inevitably comes up. Whether it’s a technological glitch or user error, be flexible. Don’t let it throw you off your game. In some cases, maybe bring a co-worker or co-presenter who can be another set of hands to help when things go “slide”ways — pardon the pun. Or, if you’re flying solo, have your contact at the alternate location be your wingperson. Notify them in advance if you’d like them to help with technical issues.

Last, but not least, relax. If something goes awry, know that everyone’s been there at one time or another. If worse comes to worst, ditch technology and charm ’em. You’ll do great!

Christina Berger is the marketing and communications manager of the Foundation for the Young Women’s Leadership Academy of Fort Worth (YWLA). The nonprofit fundraising partner of the first and only all-girls public school in Fort Worth ISD, the Foundation secures resources to support academic and leadership excellence at YWLA. Learn more at ywlafortworth.foundation.