Brushing Up On Presenting: 5 Key Tips

Tips for presenting to a captive audience make for topical matter in event management blogs. Having organised hundreds of functions over the years I know why!  Having also been an attendee to a few corporate events recently, I’m reminded that some really simple things can make the difference between flawless and a flop.

Not everyone can be as accomplished a presenter as 2014 Oscars host, Ellen DeGeneres. That said, a few back-to-basic presenter tips, along with a couple of clever things we’ve seen in recent times, are sure to get your audiences raving about your presentation techniques and your event planning.

1. Text. Clear. Large.

Make any text in presentations large enough to be easily read, even by the old folk in the room. Choose a sans-serif font; something stylish, crisp and clear. Just last week Event Manager Blog contributor, Kelvin Newman clued us into the widely available font “Blue Highway” - something that can be read from a distance. If this font’s good enough to be used in road signage across the USA, then I think it’s safe to endorse as the ‘poster-boy-font’ for slide presentations. Even if you choose trusty Arial, Tahoma, or Verdana, never go smaller than 30pt.

2. A picture tells a thousand words

Use imagery to make a point.
















3. ‘Put your hands in the air and back away from the lectern’

I often reference organisational storytelling expert Gabrielle Dolan in our posts (read ‘Get them at hello’.) Here I come again, with a link to Dolan’s clever reminder about lapel microphones, ‘So what are you wearing?’.  I’m a fan of speakers moving away from the lectern (where possible), and being unencumbered to move more theatrically about the stage (within reason). Here’s where the use of clip-on, battery-powered lapel mics comes into play.

Note “clip-on”. Ladies and Ladies, choose your clothing wisely. Wear sturdy, non-shifting attire with appropriate waist-band, belt and neck-line/collar to avoid a whole range of amplification, and wardrobe malfunction, issues.

4. Eliminate “Awesome” and “Cool” from your vocabulary

 Is your audience an average age of 14? I didn’t think so. Then, unless your subject matter is recounting having reached Everest Base Camp, or the venue’s air-conditioning has prompted the formation of icicles in the drinking glasses then it is entirely defendable to opine that there is no place for the following two juvenile, over-used terms: “awesome”, “cool”.

I recently had the misfortune to suffer a day-long program’s Master of Ceremonies whom I forgave for his first two uses of said words as nerves or roadshow-fatigue. However, his stage moments became increasingly peppered with language that just didn’t resonate with my corporate presence (or the promoter’s brand, for that matter). It completely turned me off.

5. Projection: does the screen have to be a rectangle?

Think outside the 4:3 or 16:9 geometric shape when preparing your AV content. Is angular the best match for your subject matter? Fancy a circle or a triangular sail? Suppliers of bespoke projection screens are only too happy to design and build a custom screen size or framing that packs a punch. Budget dependent and where relevant, work with the event planner on projection look and feel. Use your imagination with shape, size—even dimensional texture.

For a corporate presentation function held at the Waldorf Astoria, Global science company DuPont (best known for bestowing neoprene, Teflon and Lycra upon the human race) once commissioned a projection screen made of their own Lycra Spandex on a rolled aluminium frame. Supplied by tensioned fabric structure experts, Reid Dalland, see for yourself the resulting effect and projection effectiveness of such a screen idea that plays to a wide audience seating arrangement.


There’s no time like this week for our own office to brush up and implement some of these presenting tips. When j2 hosts a full house next week at our workshop program I’m Responsible for WHAT?! the essentials of good presenting are going to be more important than ever.

Happy speaking!

Jo Jordan

Australian event management company | j2 ideas & events

Follow the j2 team on Facebook & Twitter to keep up-to-date with industry news and event planning trends, tips and technologies.

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