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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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I write about my experience working with and leading remote teams since 2010.

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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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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.

Make a winning video presentation with Biteable

Creating a winning presentation doesn’t need to be difficult or expensive. Modern slide decks and video software make it easy for you to give compelling presentations that sell, explain, and educate without sending your audience to snooze town.

For the best online video presentation software around, check out Biteable. The intuitive platform does all the heavy lifting for you, so making a video presentation is as easy as making a PowerPoint.

Use Biteable’s brand builder to automatically fetch your company colors and logo from your website and apply them to your entire video with the click of a button. Even add a  clickable call-to-action  button to your video.

Share your business presentation anywhere with a single, trackable URL and watch your message turn into gold.

Make stunning videos with ease.

Take the struggle out of team communication.

Try Biteable now.

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• No experience necessary

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 .

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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.

Understand Yourself Better:

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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.

6 presentation skills and how to improve them

Tell a story they can't ignore these 10 tips will teach you how, how to make a presentation interactive and exciting, 3 stand-out professional bio examples to inspire your own, how to write a speech that your audience remembers, reading the room gives you an edge — no matter who you're talking to, your guide to what storytelling is and how to be a good storyteller, 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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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!

Pin for later reading:

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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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?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

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

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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120 Presentation Topic Ideas Help You Hook Your Audience

Updated: August 15, 2024

Published: August 09, 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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How to Choose a Great Presentation Topic in 5 Steps

120 presentation topic ideas, 5 presentation tips.

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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Everything you need to become a strong public speaker, including a guide on crafting compelling presentations.

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More From Forbes

15 presentation tips for captivating your audience and commanding the room.

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Person speaking in front of audience

Public speaking can be a daunting task, especially when addressing a large audience. Whether you're giving a presentation in the boardroom or delivering a keynote speech at a conference, holding your audience's attention and maintaining command of the room is paramount. The ability to captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression not only enhances your message's impact but also builds your reputation as a confident and effective speaker.

Here, Forbes Coaches Council members share invaluable tips and strategies to help you conquer your fear of public speaking and ensure that your next presentation or speech is a resounding success.

1. Be Confident

Be grounded and confident to be yourself and then tell great stories. Use your voice and the stage to bring the stories alive. Your audience will connect to the emotion of the story but make sure that it is relevant for your audience and related to the topic. - Cath Daley , Cath Daley Ltd

2. Find A Way To Actively Engage The Audience

Be prepared with ways to get your audience engaged and keep their focus. Whether that's relating to your audience, telling a joke or asking questions, actively driving engagement will make for a more effective presentation or speech. - Luke Feldmeier , Online Leadership Training - Career and Leadership Accelerator for Engineers

3. Create An Emotional Connection

Creating an emotional connection with the audience and involving them in your session fosters active participation, and ensures your audience stays engaged throughout. This also serves to enhance your presence and to create memories that stay with them long after your presentation ends. - Kristin Andree , Andree Group

4. Put Your Unique Take Front And Center

Do you have something unexpected to say about your topic? Something that goes against the mainstream opinion in your industry or is maybe even slightly provocative? If so, putting your unique take front and center in the title and the beginning of your talk and explaining or resolving it later keeps your audience engaged and interested. - Micha Goebig , Go Big Coaching & Communications, LLC

5. Remember That The Audience Doesn't Know Your Planned Speech

No one wants to see you fail as a speaker. Remember that the focus shouldn't be on whether or not you can recall verbatim every word of your planned speech. The focus should be on how to connect to your audience with a few key points using a combination of storytelling and facts. - Sheri Nasim , Center for Executive Excellence

6. Adapt Your Language To The Audience

Talk about something they are interested in or include elements that will keep them interested. Start by asking why your topic matters to each and every one of them. Use language adapted to the audience. Keep the key messages to two or three maximum. Show them what you think and why you care about the topic. - Isabelle Claus Teixeira , Business and Human Development Consulting Pte Ltd

7. Try To Incorporate An Element Of Surprise

Engagement is the key to keeping the audience's attention. Invite participation, tell stories, walk around, have visuals, include humor, raise your voice and ask questions. Think of a comedian who points at someone in the audience: "Hey, you with the red shirt?" Everyone pays attention. What element of surprise can you present? - Susan Jordan, MBA, MSODL, PCC , Sphereshift Coaching and Consulting

8. Know Your Audience

Doing research ahead of time to ensure you're providing the subject matter in a personalized manner will keep their attention. The topic will dictate the necessary vibe. Based on that, providing opportunities for the group to engage, such as shouting out a word, raising a hand, etc., will also help maintain their interest. - Lindsay Miller , Reverie Organizational Development Specialists

9. Use The Problem-Agitation-Solution Approach

Don't just give a presentation — share a story. It must be a story-audience fit though. Use the P.A.S. — problem-agitation-solution — approach. Start with introducing a problem, follow by agitating the problem via telling a relevant anecdote and conclude by offering a solution by giving an audience a clear, direct way to avoid the pain and learn the lesson. - Alla Adam , Alla Adam Coaching

10. Tell The Audience What They Need To Hear

Instead of trying to figure out what to say, figure out what the audience wants and needs to hear. This shift in perspective allows you to tailor your speech in a way that keeps audiences actively engaged because it's good content that they want to hear. - Robin Pou , The Confident Leader

11. Go All In

To command your audience's attention you have to get into the spirit of what you're teaching and go all in without second-guessing yourself. People want to be led, but they'll be unwilling to follow someone who isn't confident in what they are communicating. - Arash Vossoughi , Voss Coaching Co.

12. Use A Compelling Opening

Start your speech/presentation with a compelling opening that grabs the audience's attention. This could be a surprising fact, a relevant story or a thought-provoking question. This initial engagement can help you establish a strong connection with the audience and set the stage for a captivating presentation. - Moza-Bella Tram , Moza-Bella LLC

Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?

13. Be Authentic

Connect deeply with your essence and purpose. Radiate authenticity. When you're centered in genuine passion and truth others feel it, creating an unspoken bond. It's not about performing; it's about being present and real and offering value from the heart. That's magnetic. - Anna Yusim, MD , Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching

14. Let Your Audience Talk

There is nothing worse than stealing everyone's craving for autonomy and speaking the whole time. The person who does the talking does the learning. So, give some autonomy to the audience. Let them talk. Even if it's thinking time and talking to themselves, or to their neighbor or table group. This gains trust and they will lean into what you have to say even more. - Alex Draper , DX Learning Solutions

15. Leverage Non-Verbal Cues

My top tip is to engage your audience through storytelling. A compelling narrative captures attention, evokes emotion and makes complex ideas more relatable. Additionally, use body language and eye contact effectively. These non-verbal cues can significantly enhance your connection with the audience. - Peter Boolkah , The Transition Guy

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Make a Splash With Presentations on Your Resume

A quick but detailed guide on how and when to include presentations on a resume, including resume templates and examples.

2 years ago   •   8 min read

Public speaking isn’t for everyone — which is why, if you have experience presenting in front of a crowd, you should definitely include it in your resume.

You can list presentations in your work experience section, resume summary, or in a separate ‘Presentations’ section, depending on how relevant they are to the job you’re applying for.

In this article, we’ll discuss what presentation skills to include on your resume, how and where to list presentations, and how to tailor your presentation skills to your desired industry.

How to add presentations to your resume

Let’s start with a few quick steps for adding presentations to your resume:

• Choose where you’re going to list presentations. This could be in your work experience , resume summary , or in their own section (more on this later).
• List the name or topic of the presentation.
• Specify where you presented or who you presented to.
• If it was an external presentation, include the name and date of the event.
• Add any relevant awards or publications .
• Use a clear action verb like “presented” so your presentation skills stand out to anyone quickly scanning your resume.
• Upload your resume to a free resume checker for personalized suggestions on making your presentations stand out to a hiring manager.

Now let’s take a look at some concrete examples of what presentations should look like on your resume.

What presentations to include on your resume

The types of presentations you can include on your resume include traditional styles like PowerPoint presentations, client briefings, and conference speaking, as well as digital and remote presentations, such as Zoom conferencing and Google Slide presentations. Both conventional and digital methods demonstrate your ability to convey information through the desired format and showcase both soft and hard skills.

The recent transition towards more remote work has brought digital presentation styles like webinars, online talks, virtual events, and social media live sessions to the forefront. These modern formats highlight both adaptability and remote/technical experience.

Whatever presentations you choose to include, ensure the skills you’re showcasing are targeted and relevant to your application.

Examples of how to put presentations on your resume

There are a couple of different ways of listing presentations on a resume:

• In your work experience bullet points
• In a ‘Presentations’ section of your resume
• (Optional) In your resume summary

Not sure which choice is best for you? Here’s a brief overview of the pros and cons of each option, including examples for you to follow.

Including presentations in your work experience bullet points

Include presentations in your work experience bullet points if you regularly presented to colleagues, clients, or external stakeholders as part of your job.

Include at least one bullet point detailing what you presented, who you presented it to, and, crucially, any quantifiable metrics . Emphasize the size of the audience, feedback scores, number of presentations, or tangible impact on the business to clearly demonstrate the scope and effectiveness of your presentations. Start your statements with powerful action verbs to make your bullet points memorable and impactful.

• Presented strategic changes in portfolio and marketing plan to C-suite executives, influencing key business decisions, as evidenced by a 15% increase in operational efficiency, and an expedited promotion within 12 months.
• Designed and delivered 10+ training workshops, presentations, and learning modules using a range of training aids and computer software.
• Presented keynote speech at a 200+ person conference on new and emerging technology.

Here is an example of a resume work experience section that highlights presentation skills:

Listing presentations in a separate resume section

You can create a separate resume presentations section if official presentations are a major part of the job you’re applying for and you have significant presentation experience.

Create a ‘Presentations’ subheading underneath your work experience and education . For each listed presentation, include not only the name, conference, and date, but also any measurable outcomes, such as audience size or notable feedback received, as shown in the resume screenshot below. If you have any related awards or publications, you can also list those.

• “The Evolution of Supply Chain Management,” Supply Chain Conference, Feb 2022.
• "Extended Structure in Globular Clusters with Gaia,” Astronomical Society Meeting, June 2022.
• “Community Management in Social Media Marketing,” B2B Marketing Expo, March 2021.
• Awards: Content Marketing Institute Award for Outstanding Community Engagement.

Here is an example of a resume that includes specific presentations in a separate Presentations section:

Highlighting presentations in a resume summary

Mention your experience with presenting in your resume summary if you’re applying for a role that involves regular public speaking and want to draw attention to a key accomplishment involving presentations.

At the top of your resume (beneath your contact information but above your work experience), include 3-5 lines briefly outlining your key presentation skills and experience.

Learning and Development Manager with more than 10 years of experience in creating and leading work-related training and development programs to help employees enhance their skills or the company's performance. Key accomplishment: Delivered lectures to over 70 employees on best practices, how to engage with the media in a crisis, and how to promote brands effectively to communications officers.

Here is an example of a resume summary that highlights presentation skills:

If you're not sure whether your presentation skills and experience should be included in your work experience section, summary, or a separate presentations section, upload your resume to the tool below . It'll evaluate your resume and give you feedback on how to improve each section.

Tailoring your presentation skills to different industries

When listing presentations on your resume, it's crucial to tailor them to the specific position or industry you're applying for. List the name, date, and location of the presentation, followed by a tailored explanation of the presentation's focus, so a recuiter can easily see why it’s relevant to your application. For example:

• Tech and engineering: Focus on technical expertise and innovation. For example: "Presented 'Emerging Trends in AI and Machine Learning' at the Tech Innovators Conference 2022, emphasizing practical applications in software development."
• Finance and business: highlight strategic insights and financial results. For example: "Delivered a presentation on 'Global Market Trends and Investment Strategies' to key stakeholders, resulting in a 15% increase in investor engagement."
• Education and training: Showcase your ability to educate and engage diverse audiences. For example: "Facilitated a series of educational workshops titled 'Innovative Teaching Methods in Digital Age' at the National Education Conference 2021."
• Marketing and communications: Focus on creativity, audience engagement, and brand development. For example: "Hosted a webinar on 'Effective Social Media Marketing Strategies' that attracted over 500 participants, enhancing brand visibility."
• Arts and culture: Emphasize creativity, industry knowledge, or critical analysis. For example: "Presented 'Modern Art Movements and Their Social Impact' at the City Art Museum Lecture Series, drawing a record number of attendees."

Keywords and phrases to use when discussing presentations

Incorporating specific keywords and phrases can significantly boost your resume’s impact and help you make it past ATS.

Here’s a list of keywords and phrases to use when discussing your presentation experience:

• Public speaking: Highlights your comfort and skill in addressing audiences.
• Audience engagement: Demonstrates your ability to connect with listeners and maintain their interest.
• Presentation design: Showcases your proficiency in creating visually appealing and informative presentation materials.
• Data presentation: Indicates your ability to present complex data in an understandable manner.
• Interactive workshops: Suggest an active, hands-on approach to presenting and training.
• Webinar hosting: Reflects skills in managing and delivering online presentations.
• Technical demonstrations: For those in technical fields, it highlights your ability to explain complex technical concepts.
• Conference speaking: Indicates experience with large, formal presentation settings.
• Training and development: Shows your role in educating and developing others through presentations.

When presentations do (and don’t) belong on your resume

Now that you know how and where to include presentation skills on your resume, only one question remains — should you?

The short answer is: It depends. Presentations are purely optional — no recruiter is going to pass you over if you don’t include them. Which means that, like anything else on your resume, you should include them if they’re relevant to the job you’re applying for and leave them off if not.

Not sure which category you belong to? Here are some considerations to keep in mind when deciding whether to list presentations on your resume.

You should list presentations on your resume if …

• The job you’re applying for involves giving a lot of presentations, training others , or public speaking.
• You want to showcase expertise in your field or specific subject matter.
• You presented at a well-known or prestigious event.
• You were a keynote speaker.
• You have significant publications or awards relating to a presentation.
• The content of your presentations is relevant to the job you’re applying for.
• You’re in an industry like academia where listing presentations is a common practice.

You shouldn’t list presentations on your resume if …

• You’re entry-level and don’t have significant professional presentations to list.
• Your presentations were in a completely different field.
• You attended a conference but didn’t speak at it.
• You have too many presentations to list — even if they’re all relevant, limit yourself to a few of the most recent or impressive examples.

Should I include presentation skills in my resume skills section?

Yes, including resume presentation skills in your skills section is highly beneficial, especially if the job role you're applying for involves communication or public speaking. This is particularly important if you're in fields such as sales, marketing, education, or leadership roles where presenting is a key part of the job.

How should I list presentations that may contain sensitive or confidential information?

When listing presentations that involve sensitive information, focus on the skills and context rather than specific details. Use phrases like "Presented on proprietary industry techniques to a select group of stakeholders" or "Led a confidential briefing on business strategy improvements." This approach showcases your experience while respecting confidentiality agreements and maintaining professionalism.

Should I list presentations on my LinkedIn profile as well as my resume?

Absolutely! Listing presentations on LinkedIn showcases your communication and expertise to a broader network, including recruiters and industry peers. On LinkedIn, you can add more details or even include links to presentation materials or videos. However, make sure you maintain consistency in how you present this information on your resume and LinkedIn profile.

How can I effectively demonstrate the impact of my presentations?

To effectively demonstrate the impact of your presentations, include quantifiable metrics. For instance, "Presented on market trends to an audience of 200+, leading to a 20% increase in post-event engagement" . This approach highlights your presentation skills and provides concrete evidence of your impact and effectiveness.

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The Best AI Tools for Students & Researchers in 2024 (Top Recommendations)

There is no doubt that AI tools have not only made writing easier but have also helped many students and researchers improve the quality of their work. However, finding a good tool might be difficult, especially with the recent increase in AI tools online.

In this blog, we have mentioned a few incredible AI writing tools that have proven to be helpful not only with writing and research but also with other factors. These factors include citation generation, grammar checking, image generation, etc.

Let's have a look!

Interesting Topic Selection to Get Started

Choosing a good topic is important for writing engaging academic work. Many students struggle with finding ideas that match their interests or assignment requirements.

AI tools use advanced technology to suggest topics and refine ideas based on what students need. Here are some suggested tools to help you generate ideas:

ChatGPT - Get Ideas for Your Research

ChatGPT uses smart technology to have conversations and suggest interesting topics. It helps students overcome writer's block by offering different perspectives and ideas that fit their assignments.

EssayService.ai - Generate Research Specific Topics

EssayService.ai helps students by generating essay topics based on what students need. It analyzes prompts and suggests topics that are relevant and interesting, helping students start their essays with clarity.

Generate Content to Overcome Writer's Block

It is not uncommon for students to face writer's block from time to time. AI can boost creativity by suggesting new ideas and ways to write. This can make writing more interesting and help explore new ideas.

Take a look at these AI tools that can help students write creatively:

MyEssayWriter.ai - Helps You Write Clear Essays Since 2021

MyEssayWriter.ai assists students in writing essays by generating ideas and improving the clarity of their writing. It helps structure essays so they are easier to read and understand. This essay writer also helps with organizing thoughts and making sure the writing flows well.

CollegeEssay.org's AI Essay Writer - Expert College-Level Essays

CollegeEssay.org's AI Essay Writer specializes in writing college-level essays on various subjects. This essay maker helps students create well-written essays that follow academic guidelines. This tool also ensures sources are cited correctly and helps students develop their ideas effectively.

MyPerfectWord.com's EssayBot - Comprehensive Essay Assistance

MyPerfectWord.com's EssayBot covers a wide range of essay topics and assists with essay structure and originality. This essay writer tool helps students brainstorm ideas, organize their writing logically, and ensure their essays are unique and well-structured. This tool is useful for improving writing skills across different subjects.

MyPerfectPaper.net's AI Essay Writer - Original, Plagiarism-Free Essays

MyPerfectPaper.net's AI Essay Writer generates essays that are original and free from plagiarism. It conducts thorough research and ensures the essays meet academic rigor. This paper writer helps students produce high-quality essays that meet specific academic requirements.

Citation Generation: Keeping Your References in Order

When working on any academic assignment, it is important to cite the information. Using the right citations is important in academic writing to give credit to sources and avoid plagiarism.

However, with so many rules to follow, citing accurately might be a problem.

AI citation tools make this easier by automatically formatting references in different styles, saving time and ensuring accuracy.

Here are some of the suggested tools that might be helpful:

MyBib - Generate Citations Fast

MyBib is easy to use to generate citations in APA, MLA, Chicago, and other formats. Students can input details about their sources, and MyBib formats the citations correctly for their research papers.

PerfectEssayWriter.ai - Get Accurate Citations in 20+ Styles

PerfectEssayWriter.ai handles citations in over 20 styles, including APA and MLA. It helps students accurately cite sources from books, journals, and websites. This tool makes citing sources easier, so students can focus more on their writing and ensure their papers meet academic standards.

Writing and Editing Tools: Enhancing Clarity and Coherence

Clear and well-structured writing is important in academic work. Many students face challenges with grammar, style, and making their writing flow smoothly.

AI writing tools provide helpful support by checking grammar, suggesting improvements, and even rewriting sentences to make them clearer. Take a look at these tools to help you:

Grammarly - Improve the Content

Grammarly is a popular tool for checking grammar and improving writing style. It helps students correct mistakes in punctuation, spelling, and word choice, making their writing more polished and professional.

PerfectEssayWriter.ai - Enhancing Clarity and Quality

PerfectEssayWriter.ai offers advanced grammar checking and rewriting suggestions. It helps students improve sentence structure and clarity in their essays and research papers, ensuring their writing meets high academic standards. Moreover, its style and tone suggestion can also help students understand whether the tone is suitable or not.

Image Generation: Enhance Visuals & Presentations

Visuals play a key role in presenting complex ideas in academic work. AI tools for image generation empower students to create compelling visuals without needing design skills, enhancing the impact of their presentations.

Here are some of the best tools for image generation:

Leonardo - High Quality Images

Leonardo uses AI to create high-quality images from descriptions. It's useful for illustrating concepts and data trends in academic presentations, making ideas clearer and more engaging.

Canva - Let Your Creativity Flow

Canva is an easy-to-use tool with AI-powered design features. It offers templates for creating presentations, infographics, and posters, helping students create professional-looking visuals that enhance their academic projects.

Free to Use AI Tool for Students

The tools mentioned above all offer something great. However, they might not be a good fit for students on a budget. Though their prices are low, they still might not be feasible for students. Here is a free AI tool that can help with all of the functions mentioned above and perhaps more:

5StarEssays.com - AI Essay Writer - Budget-Friendly Option

5StarEssays.com - AI Essay Writer tool is free to use and helps with writing well-written drafts. This free AI essay writer is good for students who need help with their work but don't want to pay money. This tool helps students improve their writing and do well in school without needing to worry about money.

To Wrap it Up!

AI tools are changing how essays are written by making them faster, more creative, and better for students' needs. AI makes writing easier and helps students learn more about different things.

Using these AI tools can greatly improve productivity, research quality, and the overall presentation of academic work. Whether you're a student working on assignments or a researcher advancing in your field, these tools help with various tasks and ensure your work meets high academic standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best ai text writer.

PerfectEssayWriter.ai is considered one of the best AI text writers. It creates customized drafts, generates citations, and checks grammar, ensuring your writing is clear and accurate. It's especially useful for students and professionals who need to produce high-quality drafts quickly and efficiently.

Which AI tool is the most advanced for writers?

MyEssayWriter.ai is one of the most advanced AI tools for writers. It offers a range of features such as idea generation, paraphrasing, summarizing, and the Humanizer tool, which makes writing sound more natural and human-like. This tool is ideal for those looking to enhance their writing quality and creativity.

Can AI writing tools help with all types of writing?

Yes, AI writing tools can help with many types of writing, including essays, research papers, creative writing, and more. Different tools have different strengths, so it's good to choose one that fits your needs.

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How To Make the Most of Your Work Day (from Working It)

Why different people work better at different times of the day – and how we can harness these differences to do our best work.

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Have you ever wondered why different people work better at different times of the day? Maybe you love to do your most challenging work first thing in the morning or perhaps you’re at your best in the middle of the night. We all experience peaks and troughs over the course of a working day, but knowing how to manage them can make us more productive – and happier.

This episode is a special introduction to Working It, an award-winning podcast from the Financial Times, hosted by Isabel Berwick .

Working It offers expert analysis and key takeaways to help leaders and managers make sense of the big news stories and trends shaping the world of work.

In this episode, bestselling author Daniel Pink explains why we work best at specific times of the day, how to talk about those differences with your manager or your team, and how we can harness these differences to do our best work.

You can listen to Working It at https://www.ft.com/working-it or wherever you get your podcasts.

MURIEL WILKINS: Hi everyone. it’s Muriel. We’re hard at work on our new season of Coaching Real Leaders , and I’m excited to share that we’ll begin dropping new episodes on October 7th. While we get these new episodes together, I have something special to share with you, it’s an episode from an award-winning podcast at the Financial Times that I think you’ll like, it’s called Working It . Every Wednesday, the FT’s Isabel Berwick speaks to experts on how to become a better manager and leader, helps people make sense of the trends shaping the world of work, and sources advice on how to improve productivity. There’s one particular episode of Working It that I really love and I want to share it with you here. It’s about why different people work better at different times of the day.

We all experience peaks and troughs over the course of a working day, and knowing how to manage them can make us much more productive. In this episode, bestselling author Daniel Pink explains why people work best at different times of the day and how we can harness those differences to do our best work. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Here it is.

DANIEL PINK: I think the key is to give people greater sovereignty over the when of their work, measure people by the results, and allow them to configure their schedules in a way that works for them. Most people actually want to do a decent job and care about their work, so give them the freedom to do that.

ISABEL BERWICK: Hello and welcome to Working It from the Financial Times. I’m Isabel Berwick. If you’re anything like me, your energy levels vary drastically throughout the day. I start strong, fuel myself with caffeine, then slump after lunch. Daily ups and downs are a fact of life, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work around them. In fact, learning how to manage changes in your energy levels could help you get more out of your day. So, how can we use our natural rhythms to do better work? What should you do if you are a night owl in a company that favors early birds? And if you’re managing people, how can you give them the flexibility to get the most out of their days? To find out, I spoke to Daniel Pink. Daniel’s the author of several books, including When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing . I started by asking him whether most people’s daily energy levels follow a similar pattern to mine.

DANIEL PINK: In general, what we see, there’s some variation based on chronotypes, whether you go to sleep early and wake up early, or whether you go to sleep late and wake up late, but in general, people seem to move through the day in three stages. There’s a peak typically early in the day. There’s a trough, typically in the middle of the day, and there’s a recovery later in the day. And that pattern seems to hold very strongly for mood. Performance is a little bit more complicated, but performance, particularly on heads down analytic tasks seems to follow that pattern too. What we’re trying to do here, in general, is we’re trying to line up three things. We’re trying to line up our type, our time, and our task. Some tasks require heads down, analytic firepower and focus, others require you to be slightly looser, things like iterating new ideas or brainstorming. What we want to try to do is line up those three things, our type, the time, and our task.

ISABEL BERWICK: Is there a kind of aggregate for humanity? I think these types are sometimes called larks and owls, are there?

DANIEL PINK: Yeah, yeah.

ISABEL BERWICK: Is there a split down the middle or are there more larks than owls or do we not know?

DANIEL PINK: Some of us, about 15% are very, very strong larks. Some of us, about 20% are very, very strong owls, and most of us, about two-thirds of us are in the middle, but we lean toward larkiness. And so, what you have is you have about 80% of the population moving through the day in those three patterns, peak, early, trough in the middle, recovery later in the day. About 80% of us go that way. For owls, they hit their peak, that is their peak of vigilance, their peak of focus, their peak of analytic firepower, much, much, much, much, much later in the day. Sometimes at 6:00 PM or 7:00 PM or 8:00 PM or midnight, the times that people like me are dead asleep.

ISABEL BERWICK: So, do you think the pandemic and flexible work has helped the owls? Are they being more vocal and explicit about their late blooming?

DANIEL PINK: I do think that one of the things we’re discovering about remote work is the where of the work might be less important than giving people some control over the when of the work, so that people can configure their schedules that are best for them, both for things like taking care of kids or doing household chores, but also it allows the owls to be themselves. If you’re being measured mostly on results, not on whether you’re physically present in an office, you can configure your schedule to get the work done when you’re best at getting that work done. So, I think that at some level, remote work can be an owl liberation movement.

ISABEL BERWICK: So, let’s say you’re in a workplace where your chronotype doesn’t match those of your colleagues, should you fight it or can you lean into it somewhat?

DANIEL PINK: Fighting your chronotype is generally not a good idea, only because it’s an attribute of your physiology. There’s a limited malleability to it, but to me, fighting your chronotype is like fighting your height. What you should be doing is, especially if you’re a night owl working in a larky environment, talk to your manager, talk to your boss and explain when you do your best work and offer to do some pilot or some kind of experiment that gives you a little bit more control over that. If you’re a manager and you have people who are night owls, do not make them go to an 8:00 in the morning meeting. Do not require them to show up at the same time that everybody else shows up. Give people challenging assignments, a lot of support, and measure them based on their results. Measure them on output rather than on input.

ISABEL BERWICK: So, for most of us, we have to struggle through the troughs in our day, or do you think we should just get up, leave our desks entirely and take a break? What’s the best way to go or eat a chocolate bar in my case?

DANIEL PINK: So, what can you do? I think there are a couple of things, the two main strategies for addressing that trough, one of them is putting the right work in the right time of day. The trough to me is the ideal time for administrative work, work that doesn’t require massive analytic ability, nor does it require massive creativity, things like filling out your expense reports, answering routine email. If you can push those into the trough period, you’re going to be better off. The trouble is that we often do not do that. There are people, including me, who get seduced into answering routine email first thing in the morning because it gives us the slight dopamine hit of getting something done. That is an enormous mistake. What we should be doing is we should be doing our analytic work, heads down focus work, crunching numbers, writing reports during our peak, and we should be pushing as much of our administrative work to that trough period. That’s one thing.

The second thing that we can do is we should be taking more breaks and we should be taking certain kinds of breaks. There’s some very good research on breaks, and what it tells us at a top level is that breaks are not a sign of weakness. Breaks are not a deviation from our performance. Breaks are part of our performance, and so taking regular breaks, especially during that trough period is essential. We know a lot about the principles of effective breaks. We know that something is better than nothing, so even a one minute break is better than simply powering through. We know that outside is better than inside. We know massively that moving is better than stationary.

We know, this is interesting I thought, that breaks with other people are more restorative than breaks on your own, that social beats solo, and this is true even for introverts. And finally, we know that the best breaks are fully detached, that is you’re not taking a walk outside looking at your phone. What this suggests for white collar workers, really, around the world is a platonic ideal of the perfect break, which is go out on a 15 minute walk break outside with someone you like, leaving your phone behind, talking about something other than work.

ISABEL BERWICK: I think that’s brilliant and actually quite easy to implement.

DANIEL PINK: It is. What I have found is that especially hard chargers might nod their head at that, but never actually do it. What I’ve done for myself is to put it in my calendar. I want people to have their calendars pop up a 15 minute afternoon walk break, and then abide by it. And I think we’ll see much greater happiness and much greater productivity in the workplace.

ISABEL BERWICK: Have you come across any managers who actually do that, who insist on breaks for their workers?

DANIEL PINK: No, but I haven’t unfortunately. But I think your underlying analysis is spot on, that this is really about managers. To my mind, the best thing managers can do is model it. So, what I think would be a victory for workers everywhere would be in some company somewhere, somebody in the afternoon going around looking for the CEO and not being able to find her because she was out on a 15 minute walk break, and the reaction to that is, “Oh man, I want to be just like Maria. She’s such a badass, she takes a break every day.”

ISABEL BERWICK: I love that. So, just to wrap up, for slightly more, I don’t know, forward looking managers or companies, are there any more slightly out there things they could do to help workers match work to their chronotypes?

DANIEL PINK: I think the key is to give people greater sovereignty over the when of their work. Measure people by the results and allow them to configure their schedules in a way that works for them, both biologically the chronotype, and also socially, what their family situation is.

ISABEL BERWICK: Oh, as so often in the world of work, there is a simple solution out there that people often ignore it.

DANIEL PINK: I think that’s right. Most people actually want to do a decent job and care about their work, so give them the freedom to do that.

ISABEL BERWICK: Daniel, thank you so much. It’s been absolutely illuminating.

DANIEL PINK: It’s a total pleasure. Thanks for having me on the show.

ISABEL BERWICK: Dan’s wisdom is dead simple. If people work best at a certain time, give them the freedom to work at that time. What people do not when they do it is what matters. The next guest on today’s show shares that philosophy. Aaron Levie is the CEO and Co-founder of Box a content management and file sharing company based in California. But unlike some Silicon Valley CEOs, Aaron is more likely to be dozing at 6:00 AM than meditating or going for an ice bath. He is what DANIEL PINK would call a night owl. How does Aaron run a multi-billion dollar company when he hates getting up early? Our producer, Mischa Frankl-Duval spoke to him to find out.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: Aaron Levie, welcome to Working It .

AARON LEVIE: Thanks. Yeah, good to be here.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: Could you please start off by telling us a little bit about who you are and what you do?

AARON LEVIE: Sure. So, I’m the CEO and co-founder of Box, and we’re an enterprise software company that helps companies manage their most important data.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: What do you do in your day-to-day? What does it look like both from a personal perspective and a business perspective?

AARON LEVIE: So, most days are a little bit different, so there’s never exactly a typical week, but ideally if I can see the kids in the morning and then right out of the gate, I’m just in basically meetings throughout the day with customers, building products, designing software. And then the typical workday ends around 5:00 or 6:00-ish. If I’m in town, go home, have dinner with the kids, put them down, try and spend a little bit time with my wife, and then it’s back to work again from 7:30, 8:00 PM onward, and that takes me into about midnight, 1:00 AM and then just rinse and repeat that.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: So, what time do you get started if you were working until 12:00, 1:00?

AARON LEVIE: On the work side, I probably don’t totally kick off until about 9:30, 10:00 AM.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: Fair to say you’re not a 5:00 AM kind of guy then?

AARON LEVIE: Correct.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: Is this something that marks you out or do people leave you alone about it?

AARON LEVIE: I think that there’s an even divide probably in the tech community. I have many friends who can get up at 5:00 AM and go on a run, and probably before I’ve even woken up, they’ve done about 35 more things than myself answered every email and gone on a 60 minute run. That is not me. I not only wouldn’t be able to do the run in the first place, but just for some reason my brain cannot turn on before 9:00 or 10:00 in the morning. It’s just not possible. So, at night time is when I really get most of my energy. So, when I’m at my best, it’s usually the evening time, thinking about problems to solve, responding to issues in the business. So, definitely I’m a bit more nocturnal in that sense.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: I’d be really interested to know, we’re speaking about flex in schedules and how people work best at different times of the day. How has your view of that changed as a manager and as a leader? Are you quite permissive of very flexible schedules? Where’s the line? How do you balance knowing that people need to do things at different times with common good and collaborative hours?

AARON LEVIE: Yeah, it’s definitely a never ending tension to figure out what’s the shared agreement of how we all work versus what is the most optimal way that any one individual can be productive and have their impact. If everybody had the same commute, had the exact same level of in-person experience of working, I would argue that everybody working five days a week in an office would be optimal. But that’s not reality, people are different, they live in different places, they have different schedules, they have different family dynamics. So, then you have to find what is that equilibrium where you’re getting the most amount of productivity with the most amount of employee satisfaction. It’s a little bit of this push-pull on every dimension. That could be hybrid work, that could be hours of day working, that could be how distributed our teams, all that kind of stuff. We’re always seeking what is that optimal equilibrium, how do we kind of make the most of everybody’s newfound flexibility, but also make sure that there’s a clarity to how we’re going to execute as a collective. That’s always this balance we’re trying to find.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: Are you conscious of other people’s circadian rhythms to an extent? Do you know that if I speak to person X at this hour, I’m going to get less out of them than at this hour?

AARON LEVIE: Yes. I’d say of the 20 to 30 people that I most actively work with, I generally know their sleep patterns in as least of a creepy way as possible.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL:

Sure. How does that manifest itself with when you plan their meetings or how does it work from a managerial perspective?

AARON LEVIE:Yeah, there are absolutely some people where … and this will probably make some people pass out listening to this … but our CTO – who’s the chief technology officer – and I spent a lot of time brainstorming. It’s not uncommon that we’re doing a brainstorm at 12:30 AM on Sunday. So, think about that as Saturday night bleeding over into Sunday morning. That’s actually what he wants to do and that’s what I want to do. We’re both deeply interested in the topic and both of our sleep patterns are wired to being able to do that. And then there are people where on a weekday at 10:00 PM, I just know that they really are going to go to bed because they’re one of these 6:00 AM going to go work out people.

And so, I’m pushing the limits on either how much productivity I’m going to get from them and/or just now encroaching into health on their side. I try and be somewhat responsive to that. There’s always exceptions because of something demanding in the business, but I wouldn’t get the sense that there’s hundreds of people doing 10:00 PM meetings every single day across the company as a result of my sleep pattern. This is small clusters when there’s really important work that just has to be complete.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: I’m interested in the origin story, which I know you’ve talked about before. You started this with friends from middle school and high school, and I’ve read that you did these rotational shifts at points to make sure your site stayed up in early days of working together. Do you think there’s any element of that that was either an early sign of how you work best or has somehow had an impact on the way you work now, in terms of hours in the day and the get the job done at the hours that suit you best mentality?

AARON LEVIE: Yeah, so certainly the origin story is correlated with how the company has developed on this dimension. We were working out of one garage sleeping in the other garage, and it was just literally 24/7. Our breaks were food breaks and somebody was always on call watching the site. Three of us had extreme nocturnal patterns, we could all be up till 4:00 AM working on something. One of our co-founders, my CFO and still CFO, he’s the go to bed at 10:00 PM, going to go on a run in the morning type personality. What would be funny is, he’d go to bed at 10:00 PM, we’d all be up until 2:00, 3:00 AM, he might wake up and literally, our business model might have actually evolved. It’s sort of a funny concept, you go to bed and you wake up and your company has meaningfully changed in direction. That was just the early days of how we operated. That is not fully sustained, but the kind of people that we work with, and certainly I haven’t changed that much from that standpoint.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: So, do people wake up to big changes in strategy now or is that a thing of the past?

AARON LEVIE: I’m a little bit more thoughtful about the thrash that that can create, but the past two chief operating officers and our current chief operating officer, we’ll be jamming on strategy at 11:00 PM and so it’s not totally impossible that somebody wakes up to a different strategy the next morning. But now with 2,700 employees or so, it’s much more important to make these decisions with the right level of research and thinking and judgment applied to it, as opposed to when we were just starting out working and sleeping in the same place, we would literally pivot the business in the middle of the night and we don’t do that anymore.

MISCHA FRANKL-DUVAL: Aaron, thank you so much.

AARON LEVIE: Thank you.

ISABEL BERWICK: Aaron sussed out a schedule that works for him. What he said about his work and sleep pattern brought me back to something Daniel said earlier, “You can’t fight your chronotype.” As far as possible you should lean into it, match the type of task you’re doing to the time you are doing it. Don’t schedule your hardest task for a time of day when you know your energy levels will be low. It sounds simple, but it could make a big difference. If you manage people, try to be conscious of when they do their best work too. Don’t call a 9:00 AM with someone who doesn’t start firing until mid-morning, you won’t get the best out of them.

MURIEL WILKINS: I hope you enjoyed that episode of Working It from The Financial Times. You can listen to more episodes for free wherever you get your podcasts. Coaching Real Leaders will be back on October 7th with our next season. We’ve been working hard on our new episodes and I’m so excited to share them with you. Thanks to my producer, Mary Dew, sound editor Nate Crnko, music composer Brian Campbell, my assistant Emily Sofa, and the entire team at HBR. From HBR Presents, I’m Muriel Wilkins, until next time, may you be well.

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