Preparing presentations is strategic business planning
The holidays are over and we are now preparing presentations for the upcoming season of conferences and working group meetings. We welcomed 30 people from a range of Brussels based trade associations, networks, NGOs and foundations.
We train numerous people from Brussels based associations (see clients) and the common challenge is that we all have to make presentations to members, partners and networks.
How often are we asked to “give an update” on our committee or project? We think to ourselves, ‘I’ve got the materials and I can summarise a report and copy and paste onto some PowerPoint slides and read it the morning of. It’ll be ok.” We don’t give ourselves the time to prepare for our presentations. We’ve got too many other things on our to-do list. We spend lots of time planning our work activities so why don’t we prepare our presentations?
What we are saying to our stakeholders is just as important a business activity as planning a project or a campaign. How we structure our presentations is a strategic business decision and it should be planned and purposeful, not by “the seat of our pants.”
We have devised a series of questions to guide the planning process.
Our audience
- What do they care about?
- What barriers are there?
Ourselves
- How do we show our added value?
- What proof do I have?
Our messages
- What messages will they (our audience) pass on?
- What will they take away?
Practical training activity
Participants were then asked to plan in groups for a typical presentation. They discussed what the audience cares about, possible barriers, proof points that could be used, and what the audience would take away. After twenty minutes, a representative from each group shared the ideas of each group and received our feedback.
This hands-on approach provided participants with the opportunity to ask questions, address problems, and formulate solutions using their new skills. By the end of the session, we walked away knowing the value of presentation planning, the steps necessary to plan effectively, and a better chance of ensuring their content resonates.
Here are the materials for this session. We hope that these will help you to prepare your own presentations.
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