Death by Memorization?

DYING ON STAGE IS ONE OF THE WORST FEELINGS. (I know. I’ve been there.) If you want to reduce your chances of that happening, don’t try to memorize every word of your presentation. You should know — thoroughly — your outline and the key points you want to cover. But don’t try to memorize more than the first two or three minutes.
        Appearing free-form in your presentation helps your audience relax and engage with you. It gives your presentation a more interactive, conversational feel. Conversely, rattling off a canned monolog (which is what most rote presentations resemble) has a limited appeal.
        You DO need to practice your presentation, not just review your notes. But don’t worry about precise words or phrasing unless those are critical to a particular message you want them to remember.
        This doesn’t mean you should load up your slides with text — that’s a death of another kind (the death of your audience’s spirit).
        If you need notes to help you along, that’s okay. If you can, put them in the Notes section of your slides, then use PowerPoint’s or Keynote’s Presenter view to reference them during your presentation. Or you can use small note cards, but don’t write out your script in fine detail.
        And if you’re going to use notes, don’t look at them for the first several minutes. The beginning of your presentation is not the time to break your audience’s gaze. That just kills the flow. For an example, watch this otherwise great presentation by Richard St. John. Great content, very engaging presenter, but — ohhh — that incessant turning away from the audience . . .

Comments

[Frank Roche]

John, just wanted to come by and say what a really powerful post this is. You boiled down a lot of information into this one. Nicely done, as always!

[John Windsor]

Thanks, Frank! I'm glad you found it valuable, and I really appreciate your feedback.

John