On poor presentations and some solutions

(specifics are intentionally withheld)

I went to a presentation not too long ago on campus that was quite bad. I was sitting near the back and I was very tempted to leave by about twenty minutes in. At that point we were still in the introduction and hadn't gotten to the body of the presentation.

I decided that it would be rude to leave early and that I should set a good example (several students did choose to leave early). I stayed for the entire hour and a half presentation, which turned out to be quite the feat. I had to fight myself to stay attentive and to stay in my seat. I contented myself by deciding to blog about it later and hopefully offer some constructive ideas to avoid some of these presentation mistakes.

The introduction did in fact take longer than twenty minutes. Someone was there to introduce the presenter, and that lasted approximately fifteen seconds. The presenter then took the time to tell us all about himself, his credentials in the field of his presentation, the people he was dedicating his presentation to, and the sources of his presentation. Let me just reiterate that he had not made a point until more than twenty minutes into the presentation.

So, some constructive things: keep it short and to the point! That applies to the actual content as well, but an introduction should be very short. In fact, a lot of presentations don't even need an introduction! Going straight into the content tends to hold people's attention much better.

That brings up another point: holding people's attention is essential. You can have a fantastic presentation content-wise that will have absolutely not impact on those listening if you do not hold their attention. Length is a key aspect of this, people lose interest quickly. In fact, in a presentation to college students it is ideal to keep it to under half an hour. It's not always possible to do so, but it is something to strive for. As for this particular talk, the presentation lasted for about eighty minutes followed by five to ten minutes of Q & A.

Visuals are important in presentation. You don't always have to have visual aids, but you should have something for people to look at. You can be your own visual aid if you walk around and talk animatedly. It's fine if you are the kind of person who is nervous enough to need a podium to stand behind, but if so you should have some sort of electronic visual component. In this case the presenter had powerpoint slides of his outline projected during the talk. Powerpoint can work, but an outline is a lackluster visual aid. Putting up just key words and phrases is better. Another option is prezi, which is what the wifey uses when she gives a presentation. Even just a simple outline can be visually stimulating when using prezi.

The presenter did have a few videos to use as audio/visual aids, but the videos did not happen until after an hour of presentation. At that point it was a welcome addition, but there were some problems there as well. The videos were presented without the presenter telling us WHY we were watching the videos. They clearly did fit in the presentation, but more explanation was necessary as to what point was being made with the videos. Also, it would have been better to space the videos out rather than speaking for an hour and then watching some videos.

A final critique: presentations must have a point. This presentation had an interesting title that didn't make any claims or points (which is fine), so I was interested to find out what points the presenter was going to make. I left the presentation and still didn't know what points were trying to be made. It was very haphazard with bits and pieces of things but no main point. Because there was no main point there was very little for me to grab ahold of as a takeaway. When I'm running a meeting (or in one) I try to reiterate the takeaways I want my subordinates to have so that action can come from the meeting. In this case I did not retain much of anything due to a lack of things to grab onto.


It was a frustrating experience, hence the post. A few people occasionally mention to me that I should do more than complain about problems in my blogging. Point taken, but my counter-point is that problems are wonderful things. Problems show us the opportunities to do things better. If you are never shown the negative side of things you will never achieve excellence. I hope that in this post I was able to actually give you some takeaways or positive ideas as to how to present better. While I am no great presenter myself, I certainly have the critic's ability to see problems with presentation. I will endeavor in the future to point out the opportunities corresponding to the problems I blog about.