From pitching to investors to addressing staff, there鈥檚 an art to the perfect presentation.
After watching 10 pitches back-to-back at VentureFest Manchester 2016, 老九品茶Cloud asked former BBC News journalist Steve Rawling for his tips on giving聽the perfect presentation.
Get straight to the point, then elaborate
Tell us what you do and why you鈥檙e special in one or two sentences. Do it in simple language that鈥檚 clear to almost anyone. Then you can expand.
Bad pitchers waste precious minutes going into detail only they care about or meaningless buzzwords. Five minutes later, we still don鈥檛 know what they鈥檙e on about.
Twitter鈥檚 initial 140-character limit forces you to practise clear writing. If you can鈥檛 tweet it, you probably shouldn鈥檛 pitch it.
Don鈥檛 fight your visuals
If you put hundreds of words up on a screen or in a handout, we will try to read them and listen to you at the same time.
We read faster than you speak, so whatever you鈥檙e saying becomes a distraction.
If you want our undivided attention, keep slideshows to a minimum 10 -15 words per slide and offer to handout or email detailed notes later.
If you want to be memorable, get emotional
Don鈥檛 worry, I don鈥檛 mean you have to cry real or fake tears. But emotions will connect you to people in the audience.
We鈥檙e likely to remember how you made us feel, which helps us remember what you said. I asked delegates at VentureFest which pitches they remembered.
The designer who was inspired by her mum鈥檚 dementia and the boss who was deeply proud of his workforce both stuck in their minds.
Don鈥檛 fake emotion, there鈥檚 nothing worse. But if you feel it, let a little bit show.