Golden rules for a good presentation
Sven’s 10 Golden rules for a good presentation:
1. Never underestimate the ignorance of your audience! Always assume that your audience has less background than what you’d hope for, talk to the outsider rather than the expert, and avoid jargon!
2. Introduce your topic quite generally, don’t try to impress your audience with small details, concentrate on the big picture!
3. One message per slide!
4. Give an outline only for a longer talk (>20 minutes), but always summarize your “take-home messages”!
5. Always have your name, e-mail (and web-site if you have one) on your first and last slide!
6. Never say what you will not talk about, rather use your time to say what you want to convey!
7. Use as little text as possible, pictures speak more than a thousand words and are processed by most brains much faster! (If you really need some text to remind you what to say, don’t put it on the slide, use the comment function of powerpoint! But do not read out a ready text, always speak freely!)
8. For the absolutely necessary text you should use a big sans-serif font (like Helvetia, not Times) that is easy to read. Use high contrast colors! A white background has the advantage that you'll have more light in the room such that less people fall asleep. Always make sure that your slides can be easily viewed even from the last row!
9. Look at your audience frequently, try to make eye-contact, and do not talk to your slides!
10. Avoid hiding behind a reading stand, be visible and stand in the spotlight if there is any!
Also available as slides Media:GoodPresentation.pptx.
See also Golden rules for a good CV.
