Presenting is Teaching! Participants must be able to experience the solutions you are offering. So, don’t just talk about your solution. Don’t just show them your solution. Instead, allow participants to learn about your solution while they are experiencing it.

If you treat participants like your students you will be able to make better connections with your audience. If there is someone you know in the room, use their name, or even better if you are familiar with their practice reference what they are doing. Don’t forget to look people into the their eyes across the entire room to make that extra connection. I know it’s scary having 30, 50, or even 200 pairs of eyes looking at you, but if you want them to listen, you have to see them first.

You have so much to say during your presentation and the clock is ticking.  All too often presenter will forget to pause and allow the audience to process all the of the new information that was just shared. There are simple ways to help participants: build in wait time at key moments, repeat your most important points to ensure that everyone heard them, and once again implement activities that model processing input. Bonus points for providing the audience with some kind of note taking or processing tool that helps them capture what you are saying in their own words so that they can immediately process the new learning.

We have all become to dependent on presentation software. Most of the information should be coming out of your mouth and not described in the slides. The slides are just a summary (the key message) of what you are presenting. When you do design your slides, consider how to organize them thoughtfully. Think about what your slides will look like in a big room. Could you give the presentation without any words? Can you get rid of 75% the words and still get your message across. Images (and especially images from your own practice) can make some true POWER points.

Throughout your presentation don’t forget to acknowledge audiences realities instead of just sharing yours. Sure it might work in your classroom, but it might not work in anyone else because of so many factors. Allow yourself to be real with the audience. There is a real world outside of your presentation that cannot be ignored. “Hey, those elevators really made it hard for you all to get here on time.”

Consider the set-up of your presentation room and be prepared for a variety of scenarios. Will you be able to change how people are sitting in the room? Will you be able to easily create small groups for discussions or experiencing activities you are sharing? Consider where you are able to and will stand for your presentation. Are you able to see and hear and be seen and heard by everyone in the room? Have you ever seen yourself present? You might want to bring a friend with you who can help direct you to make sure that you are talking to all sides of the room. It’s so easy to get frozen next to the screen, behind the podium, or one one side of the room.

Getting participants to think about their own practice is a great measure of a successful presentation. Help them by including thought-provoking questions at key transition points in your presentation. These questions will allow participants to challenge or affirm their beliefs and practices.

Just like there is no perfect lesson, there is no perfect presentation. Just by going through the process of submitting a proposal, preparing your session, and delivering it, you have done more than many of your colleagues. As you finish, be open to being wrong and re-evaluating what you are presenting. Your audience might challenge you and that might just be the thing that will make you and even more effective practitioner.

This is probably the hardest part for me, even as an experienced presenter. You don’t have to share EVERYTHING. It is much more important to share a few things in detail than many ideas without time to experience them, process them, and reflect on them. You can always come back next year and present again!