Lesson 1 Criteria for Success

Make sure visual aids are large enough to be seen by someone at the back of the room.

To use visual aids in a presentation effectively, keep these main points in mind:

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  Use simple visual aids, such as standard types of bar graphs and pie charts, rather than complicated diagrams with unnecessary information.
  
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  Make visual aids large enough to be seen by the audience from any point in the room.
  
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  Use visual aids that are attractive, such as graphs with color, uncluttered diagrams, and clear images that are not pixilated.
  
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  Keep visual aids appropriate to both the topic and the audience.
  
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  Practice with the visual aids before the presentation, including setting up and operating any technology used to display the visual aids.
  
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  Note background information about the visual aid, such as where the data in a chart came from or where a photograph was taken.
  
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  Point out important parts of the visual aid when speaking.
  

The appropriateness of visual aids can have a significant effect on the audience's attention and how much credibility they place in a speaker. Visual aids that are off topic will confuse listeners. Listeners will shift their attention to try to understand the relationship between the visual aid and what the speaker is saying. Visuals that are disturbing or offensive to the audience will similarly take their attention away from the main points in the presentation. They will also cause the speaker to lose credibility in eyes of the audience.

Lesson 9

11 Fun Ways to Engage an Audience at Your Next Presentation

Becoming a TED Talk speaker with millions of views on YouTube may not be one of your end goals, but keeping audiences interested throughout your conference presentation can help you build your career, get more recognition, and connect with influencers in your industry. 
And, of course, when you see your audiences gain insight from your knowledge and experiences, or learn more about your products or achievements from your conference speech, you will be proud of yourself. 
To keep audiences engaged, it’s not enough to have interesting talking points. You need to use every resource available to you. These days you can leverage audience engagement tools to set yourself apart from those traditional speakers who just go through presentation slides they prepared. With that in mind, here are 11 fun ways to engage an audience before, during, and after an event.