As the organiser of the event, it can be really easy to forget how important finishing on time is. Everything is running a bit over, but you have one last thing you want for your attendees. But if you have 100 attendees and finish 30 minutes late, you have just wasted 3000 minutes of your attendee’s time! How do you keep things on time so you can fit everything in?

1. Let Your Speakers Know

It sounds obvious, but your speakers are the people that will be delivering the content for your event. Let them know that your timings are strict timings, and that you will stop them if they run over! Not only is it unfair on the other speakers and the audience if they run over, it also harms your reputation. It’s your responsibility to make sure things run on time, and letting your speakers know how much time they have and how serious you are will help prevent any embarrassing interruptions.

2. Have A Public Agenda

Some events have a detailed agenda that the people behind the scenes know, but it isn’t shared with the attendees. There is something psychological around public information – it seems to hold more weight. Your backstage team and speakers may know when things should move on, but because the audience doesn’t know it won’t really matter if one thing is 5 minutes over. But it really does matter. Do this a few times over a day and your event is half an hour late to finish. To combat this, and you don’t already give your agenda out to your attendees, then give it a go. Not only will people know what to expect, your backstage team and speakers will be more likely to keep things in time because everyone will know when they are late.

3. Put More Detail In The Agenda

Imagine two agendas. The first one states “Some speakers speaking about global warming – 3 hours”. The second one states “10:00 – Simon Burgess – The affect of global warming on woodland wildlife, 10:50 – Elizabeth Green – What we can do now to save the woodland wildlife, 11:35 – Clare Duffield – How we can reduce our carbon footprint…” etc. Which event is more likely to finish on time? Of course the second one is. Everyone knows exactly when they will be starting, when they are finishing, and what is coming next. If you tell 3 speakers to speak for 3 hours, maybe they will each take 40 minutes, or maybe they will each take 80 minutes. Telling 3 speakers to speak for 1 hour each is much better. Better still is to make their time to speak an odd number, especially if it ends in a 5. This gives the illusion of having a much more precise agenda and they will be more likely to stick to it.

4. Use A Timer

We have to include this, given that it’s what we’re best at here at Presentation Timer. Giving all your speakers and backstage team a common, definitive timer probably has the biggest impact on whether things will run on time or not. You could put a tablet on the stand or a visual monitor at the front of the stage so all your speakers can see the timer and know how long they have left. Flash cards kind of work, but they can be distracting for the audience, and are only any good for the end of someone’s talk. Speakers can’t use flash cards to make sure their content is spread out throughout their talk. Obviously we are biased, but we’re surprised more people don’t use a global timer for their event. Your backstage crew need to know what’s happening. The host needs to know whats happening. Whether you use Presentation Timer or not, invest in a decent timer that everyone can use.

There are a few tips for how to increase public speaking confidence. They fall into two categories: long term and short term. Long term boosters take time and patience, but have the greatest effect. Short term boosters can help us out when we’re getting started, or if we have a particularly nerve racking presentation to deliver.

Short Term

Visualisation

One of my favourite confidence boosting tools. Before the event, find a quiet place and visualise yourself speaking in front of your biggest audience ever. Imagine everything going better than you could ever imagine. Your audience is engaged, they laugh hysterically at your jokes, and some of them personally congratulate you afterwards. Whatever results would make your speech exceptional, imagine them.

Psyching

any people psyche themselves up in one way or another, and it works for public speaking. I find this to be much more effective than attempting to calm myself. It channels all that nervous adrenaline into positive energy. Not all of these methods will work for everyone, but give some of these a go for a quick confidence booster:

• Find a room to yourself and jump around like you’re a kangaroo.
• Beat up an imaginary punch bag.
• Listen to some upbeat, feel-good music. Think “We Will Rock You” by Queen, or anything really that makes you feel great.
• Power posing – position your body in a confident manner. Standing confidently tricks our brains into thinking we are confident.

Hear Confidence

This one requires a trusted friend to speak positive words over you, but it’s important to hear what they are saying. Let them tell you that you’re confident, that you can be the best (and so on). Perhaps a recording of their voice will be enough for you if they can’t always be there. It’s best not to record this yourself though, hearing the words from someone else often has a much more positive impact.

Long Term

Normal Practice

Practice is ultimately the greatest confidence booster. Speaking in front of an audience is the best way to practice, but this can be difficult if we need confidence before we start speaking. The trick is to make your mind think its in front of an audience. Put a picture or video of your audience in front of you. Now let yourself feel the emotion as if that audience was real. Perform your short term confidence boosters and practice your speech in front of your (completely real) audience.

Small Practice

As well as practicing your presentation, practice speaking to people on a one to one basis and in groups. When you buy something from the shop, imagine the cashier is your audience. Speak to them confidently. Speak to your colleagues confidently at lunch time.

Big Practice

Practice just existing in front of large groups of people. This can be difficult to achieve and takes a little creativity. I like to stand confidently at the front of the cinema before the film starts facing the audience. Perhaps you have another way to get in front of a large group of people. Imagine they are your audience and you are about to deliver your presentation. You will feel like an idiot, but this is a good thing. Embrace it and your confidence will grow.

Alternative Practice

Practice being confident in all areas of life, from brushing your teeth to riding a roller coaster. Even if you don’t feel confident, pretend that you are and keep doing it until you feel it. Our actions influence our emotions more than one might expect. Building confidence in one area of life can have a domino effect and flow into other areas. Doing this along with the other types of practice is sure to have a lasting impact on your presentation confidence.

Conclusion

Confidence can take years to develop, and for most people is a constant process. Ultimately, practicing confidence in all areas of life gives the greatest gains, but doesn’t offer much help if your first ever presentation is tomorrow morning. If you need a quick confidence booster, some of the short term tips can give you the edge that you need.

Do you have any helpful ideas? Leave a comment below.

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Agenda

This is possibly the most obvious one, but it has to be mentioned. Never have a meeting without an agenda. Your agenda might even just be a single item. If you can’t think of an appropriate agenda, or if your agenda is one item that starts with something like “Discuss”, then your meeting will probably be a waste of time. Plan your agenda around what results you want from the meeting, not what you want to do while in the meeting. This will result in more purposeful meetings, better results and less waffling.

Timing

Timing is critical for efficient meetings. Lets start by recalling Parkinson’s Law:

Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.

We need just enough time in order to complete the work. If we allow any more time, it just gets filled with waffling. If you’re used to your meetings lasting 1 hour, try 50 minutes, then try 40 minutes. See how short you can make it. If you’re not yet in a routine, you’re in the perfect position to start short and only extend if absolutely necessary.

Try using a timer as a hard limit, not a recommended duration. If it runs short, great! If it runs over, cut it off – you’re probably just procrastinating. Let everyone know the agenda and see the timer. This gamifies the meeting, making everyone want to keep it short. People can still voice their opinions, but it reminds us to keep it short and on topic. If you’re struggling, you could even try offering rewards for staying under time if its appropriate.

Discipline

If your meeting is with your own team, then you can inspire your team to be more efficient in your meetings. Those jokes and off-topic tangents may seem fun to whoever cracks them, but there’s nearly always people in the room that don’t find it interesting and could be doing more productive things. Their time is being wasted. Ultimately as the leader you need to discipline yourself to not go off topic, inspire your team to not go off topic, and if anyone still does (they will), quickly bring it back on topic. This will save everyone’s time, and more importantly, their focus on the important subject.

Scrap the Meeting

What? But our company revolves around meetings! Your company should revolve around creating great products or services, not meetings! Sure a few are inevitable, and the previous tips should help keep them efficient, but if you’re having 2-3 meetings a day, how are you finding time to focus on getting real work done? Work out which meetings can be replaced with someone just making a decision, work out which meetings just aren’t needed at all.

When you do need a meeting, only invite who is absolutely necessary. It seems counter-intuitive to get fewer opinions, and even offensive to anyone that isn’t invited. If you have a culture of efficiency and producing good work, nobody wil be offended that they weren’t invited. They will understand that they can achieve more by not being there, and your meeting can run smoother with fewer people adding their slant to the topic.

Conclusion

So, scrap the meetings that you can. For the rest, work on your agenda, timing and discipline and you will start to see an improvement in efficiency.

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Its too easy to accomplish – it gives us a nice structured way to design our presentations, and something to focus on that isn’t what we have to say. But wait – why are we spending so much time focusing on getting all our content into some slides and not out of our mouths? Perhaps its an insecurity thing – what if I don’t say everything I need to? What if people can’t take in everything I have to say? These are the wrong questions to ask, and therefor lead to wrong answers.

The “Right” Question

We shouldn’t be asking how to fit everything in, we should be asking “how can I make sure I only say the minimum amount that my listeners need”. We shouldn’t be asking “what if people can’t take everything I have to say in”, we should be asking “how can I make sure I only say the minimum amount that my listeners need”. You see the pattern? Suddenly a hour long boring presentation can become a powerful 5 minute presentation. A 2 hour lecture can become a half hour lecture leaving time for an hour and a half practical work (many people learn better this way by the way). Or a full day meeting can become a 2 hour meeting, then everyone can get on with some real work!

The ONE Thing

There is an ancient idea that a good speech should have a maximum of 3 points. This is a lie. If you have ever read “The ONE Thing”, you will understand that focusing on 1 single point is far more powerful than attempting to hit 3. Make your presentation about 1 single point. You can elaborate on that point, but if you go over to 2 points, that can wait for another time.

Take Note

The next step to avoiding Information Overload is to start with some notes. Try making your notes with the minimum number of distractions. All you probably need is a pen, paper and a quiet space. On the other hand, if you attempt to take notes on an internet-connected laptop, with a phone in your pocket and people asking you questions every 10 seconds, your own notes will be distracted. If you can’t focus on preparing your presentation, your audience won’t be able to focus on you. Write down everything you want at this point. Its often easier to do a brain dump first, then fine-tune it later.

Dissect

The next step is to dissect your notes. Perhaps you’re really efficient and barely have any notes. This is a good sign! You’re well on track to avoiding Information Overload. Most people, however, will have too much. This is your best opportunity to avoid Information Overload. Here are some simple steps to reduce the information:

Dissection Process

1. For every sentence in your notes, try to split it into smaller sentences, with only 1 piece of information in each.
2. Repeat step 1 until no more sentences can be split.
3. For every sentence, ask yourself “Is this information completely necessary for listeners needs”?
4. Remove all sentences that are not completely necessary.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until no more sentences can be removed.

Now use these refined notes to write your presentation notes. At this point, don’t make any slides. You might want an internet connection for any additional research at this point, but try without it if you can. Once you have your presentation notes, follow the Dissection Process again to refine them further, until you have the minimum possible set of notes for your presentation. These notes will help prepare you for a powerful presentation.

PowerPants

Now you have your notes, what do you do with them? You can make a few slides if absolutely necessary, but do that bit last. Slides are great for pictures, illustrations and other visual aids, but are rubbish for conveying any amount of textual information – that’s where you end up with PowerPants. Use an email for that. People like to read in their own time, not your time.

Instead, if you really must use slides, make it to the point. The clue is in the name (PowerPOINT, but this is also applicable for any other slide software). Don’t write your notes into them though. Keep your notes to yourself on paper, you can always send an electronic copy around afterwards to anyone that wants them. Instead, just use it as a visual aid where it will actually add value.

Most presentations could do away with the slides altogether though. Try a flipchart, chalkboard or other interactive physical medium. If you really need your audience to have large amounts of information available to them whilst you speak, try giving a handout. The only exception to this is if your audience is far too big for it to be environmentally friendly. If you just have too much information for it to be environmentally friendly, go back to the Dissection Process, or replace large blocks of text with a single image.

Be careful not to duplicate your (small number of) slides though. I’ve sat through too many presentations where the presenter has too much information on their slides for the audience to take in. Their remedy: print out the slides so their audience can add more notes?!?!?!?!? The handout shouldn’t just be a copy of what is on the screen – that’s just a waste of paper.

Potato Waffle

It goes without saying, the presenter that waffles loses their audience in a matter of seconds. This is typically found when corporate leaders decide they want to give a presentation to their employees, usually when there is a company change in process. They rarely have any notes, don’t know exactly what they are going to say and haven’t thought about how their nothingness will add value to their employees. The result: a long stream of buzzwords and time-filling management-jargon that sounds impressive but switches everybody off, and the time of everyone present is wasted.

Stop waffling. Stick to your notes. If you go off track, come back. If you’ve said everything you need to say then instead of waffling, Finish High.

Finish High

Now you have delivered your short, sharp presentation, its time to stop! Practice finishing as much as you practice anything else. Some people seem to like finishing all fluffy: “well, so, I guess thats about it, unless anyone else can think of something? No? You’re a quiet bunch”. Sound familiar? Makes you cringe? Instead, get a short, concise finishing that doesn’t make anyone feel embarrassed for you. Practice saying it confidently. Some ideas for finishing high to get you started:

Informative

• A quick 30 second fly-by summary of everything covered.
• “And that covers my research on …”
• “To conclude, …”

Inspirational

• “Why don’t you …”
• “Lets all … so that …”
• “I don’t know about you, but I’m going to …”

So why don’t you try reducing your next presentation. After all, you’ve probably got so much to lose.

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We each did our presentations, and the judges went off to discuss the winners. The judges came back, and announced the winner. I did not win. I didn’t even get runner up. The prize went to someone with what I thought was a far less interesting topic. I went away in a sulk feeling hurt and unfairly judged.

In actual fact, I was fairly judged. The winning presentation was far bettezr. It was exciting, interesting, inspiring, but I didn’t understand why. What was wrong with my presentation? How do we move from the mundane into the extraordinary? What makes a successful presentation? Here are 4 steps to successful presentations:

1. Definition

What are you actually trying to achieve with your presentation? To talk over some PowerPoint slides for 2 hours? Probably not, but that seems to be the purpose of most presentations I’ve seen. Know your purpose, and make it something that your audience actually wants or needs – to learn, be inspired, be encouraged, to understand.

Once you know and fully understand what you actually want to achieve, you will be better equipped to fulfill it. Your focus will no longer be to prepare a presentation, but will move to the results that you want from the presentation. Once you know your goal, stick to it! With each new idea you introduce, each new word, each new slide, ask yourself “will this get me closer to my goal, or take me further away”. You might be surprised.

2. Understanding

You have to be the expert in the room. Why? Because you are there to add value to your audience. If your audience knows more than you do about your own presentation topic, how can you teach them? If your audience is already more motivated than you are, how can you inspire them?

That doesn’t mean you need to know the most though. For example, you may just have some new ideas to bring to a subject. In this case, you need to be the expert your new ideas. Until you are confident that you are, keep learning.

Now there might be one or two people in the room that know more than you – this can’t always be helped. Respect their time. Show that you have done your research. Show that you have done as much as you can to add value to them.

3. Delivery

Delivery – some people will argue that delivery is more important than the content – this is a lie. If you went to a restaurant and the service was incredible, but instead of serving the dish you were expecting, you received a immaculately presented pile of horse manure, would you eat your meal? Of course not! The content represents the purpose of the presentation, and is thus the most important aspect. What about if you went to a restaurant, ordered a dish, the waiter brings it out and it’s exactly as ordered, but he slops it into your lap? Would you eat it then? Great content with a poor delivery is almost as bad as poor content with great delivery, but at least the presentation has a purpose. Get both right and you’ll have a powerful presentation. What does a great delivery look like?

• Confidence – if you don’t sound confident, how can you expect your audience to have confidence in what you’re saying?
• Energy. Dynamics in voice – monotony is a sin and is the fastest way to disengage your audience. refer to public speaking post
• Audience participation – got to be careful here. If the audience isn’t interested then you will just be embarrassed

4. Practice

That phrase that was drummed into us when we were growing up. Practice makes perfect. Practice makes perfect. Practice makes perfect. Our parents knew that in order to improve, we have to practice. So why do so few people actually do it?

Try running through your next presentation from start to finish, preferably recording yourself or getting someone you trust to watch and give you feedback. At first it feels ridiculous to be giving a presentation to a wall, but it will pay off.

Yes of course its hard work. Yes of course everything else appears to be more important. However, without practice, you will never move from the mundane to the extraordinary. And the more experienced you get, the less practice you will need for each presentation.

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