Transform Technical Presentations from Boring to Soaring
Did you inadvertently nod-off when you got to the phrase “technical presentations” in the title?
Most audiences do too!
Most people think this type of presentation is reserved for scientists, researchers and engineers. Actually, you most likely give this kind of presentation and don't even know it. Anytime you explain what your business does and how it does it – that's a technical presentation. Have you ever given a demonstration on how to do something? Explained an abstract concept like faith? Both technical presentations!
Presenting a technical speech is one of the biggest challenges for speakers. Here are 3 tips to make your next technical presentation transform from boring to soaring!
Tip #1 – Better Know the Audience
Before giving any type of presentation, you have to know WHO you are presenting to. What is their level of expertise in your topic? Do they understand the specialized language? Why are they listening to your speech? Try to find out as much as you can about the audience so you can meet their needs in the presentation.
During the presentation observe the audience and assess their understanding. For more tips on connecting with an audience, check out this post on how to Keep the Audience NEAR.
Tip #2 – Stories are the Best Way to Connect
People respond to stories. It draws them in and makes them want to know more. Every time I give a research presentation, I start with a story. It can be about how I relate to the topic, an interesting a-ha moment I had while conducting research or even someone else's story that relates to the speech.
Even the MOST technical of presentation can incorporate stories. You just have to be creative in finding the narrative that fits.
Tip #3 – Relate Numbers to the Audience
There are only 56 days of sun in Seattle, WA.
I'm not trying to get your pity. That is a paltry number of sunny days, but there is a better way to relate that number in a more engaging way to the audience.
Numbers are abstract. The bigger the number the harder it is for the audience to relate to. Instead of saying 56 – try in a typical month there are less than 5 days of sun in Seattle – that's just a bit more than one sunny day per week. Makes that dismal 56 downright abysmal in the eyes your audience.
Here are more great tips for visualizing numbers from Ethos3 – The Value of Numbers
Technical presentations do not have to be a snore fest! The challenge is to make them understandable so they connect with your audience.
What do you think is the most difficult part of giving a technical presentation? How did you overcome it? I'd love to hear what you think in the comments section.
One of the biggest problems with technical presentations is that presenters create slides before they plan content, and they depend on slides as speaker cheat-sheets. And then they fall into the terrible convention of never smiling or expression any actual engagement with the information, as if the info stands alone somehow, which is especially sad given how incredibly interesting many tech presentations are! I say this as someone who’s been teaching Technical Presentations for 7 years, after a long career in I.T. management and a background in English and theatre. (Unusual combination, I admit.)
Anyway, good to see your comments here for technical presenters, an under-served group when it comes to the subject of presentation skills!
Thank you for your comment Susan. First, I do agree about the slides. I was going to mention that, but then I thought it could be a whole blog post on its own. I’m reading all these great books like Slideology and Presentation Zen. I agree with the design principles but think that it is hard to do a technical presentation with very simple slides. I’m going to noodle on that a bit more before I write anything about it. What are your thoughts?
Technical presenters are under served. Really those presentations are vital to business, industry and research fields, but they are typically not executed well. Glad I could give some helpful advice.
Absolutely right. Simple slides are not the answer for technical presentations. Have you read Edward Tufte? He has four books, and I use two in my class: The Visual Display of Quantitative Information and Visual Explanations. His design principles support rich, complex content. They’re not a slam-dunk to implement, though, but his recommendations are spot-on for tech and engineering.
I am more familiar with Stephen Few. I work in consumer insights as my day job, so Few’s work tends to be more in line with what we do. However, Tufte is pretty awesome. Technical presentations are just a different beast all together.
I wrote a short article for my clients, distilling some recommendations for slides. Here’s the link, in case you or others who read your blog, want some more help with this: http://www.aux-training.com/Graphical-Excellence-in-the-Real-World.pdf
Good stuff! Thank you for sharing the link!
I fully understand why technical presenters have trouble with audiences from time to time. They find what they do or what they’re talking about fascinating so it’s easy to give technical details without realizing how bored the audience is.
This is why point #1 Knowing Your Audience is so important. In a room full of fellow tech people all the details will be incredibly rewarding. To someone who knows nothing about it, they’re boring.
Yes! These presenters are frequently in love with their topic and are the BIGGEST experts in the room. The challenge is to make it understandable for others. I also think that realizing that you are giving a technical presentation is something most speakers don’t understand either.
this is a great blog, thank you!