Is your audience really listening to you? If you are making any of the mistakes in this slideshow, they probably aren't. Find out how to avoid these mistakes and keep your audience listening to your presentation!

1. SIX REASONS
YOUR AUDIENCE
IS IGNORING YOU
(and how to avoid it)
Jeanne Trojan
@jmtcz

2. #1
READING
YOUR SLIDES

3. What are all those words doing on your slides
anyway?
Your audience wants to listen to you – not be
read to!
If the words are really important, take them off
your slides and put them on a document for
your audience to take home afterwards.
* I would eliminate this slide in a live presentation – these are the words I
would say!

4. #2
THINKING
THIS IS ALL
ABOUT YOU

5. Instead of talking about what is important to you,
focus on your audience’s needs.
Ask yourself:
What does my audience expect to learn
from me?
Why are they here?
What information do they need to know in order
to make a decision?

6. #3
NO CORE
MESSAGE

7. One of your first steps needs to be core message
definition.
Ask yourself:
If my audience can remember only one thing
about my presentation, what should it be?
Make your message simple, concrete and easy to
remember.

8. #4
TOO MUCH
INFORMATION

9. Less is definitely more in presentations.
Decide what information is absolutely necessary
to support your core message and eliminate
everything else.
If your audience gets overloaded with useless
information, you lose them.

10. #5
QUESTIONS ONLY
AT THE END

11. Yes, allowing the audience to ask questions
throughout your presentation can be risky.
But making them wait until the end is even more
dangerous. What if you don’t know the answer to
the last question? What if it’s hostile? That’s a
bad final impression.
Plus, asking and encouraging questions keeps
them awake!

12. #6
NOT
PREPARED

13. If you don’t know your material well enough, you
will be forced to constantly look at your notes.
This causes people to lose interest in what you’re
saying and you to lose credibility.
Know your stuff and rehearse it until you don’t
need notes (but, never memorize it).

14. WHAT ARE THE
LESSONS HERE?

15. #1
EYE-CATCHING
SLIDES WITH
FEW WORDS

16. #2
FOCUS ON
AUDIENCE
NEEDS

17. #3
DEFINE YOUR
CORE MESSAGE

18. #4
ELIMINATE
UNNECESSARY
INFORMATION

19. #5
ENCOURAGE
AUDIENCE
INTERACTION

20. #6
REHEARSE UNTIL
YOU’RE CONFIDENT

21. DON’T BE IGNORED!

22. BE OUTSTANDING!
@jmtcz
www.jmtcz.cz

23. PHOTO CREDITS
• Flickr/Audience/Erik Starck
• Flickr/OF Conference/Samuel Huron
• Flickr/Jeff Clavier’s Boring Speech/Christiano Betta
• Flickr/42-16057839/Melanieheartsgreens
• Flickr/ASUG Missouri/MS & T Center
• Flickr/Any questions?/Yodel Anecdotal
• Flickr/ DSC_0070.JPG /Andrew Feinberg
• Flickr/Robotic Procedures/Erik Charlton
• Flickr/Monday Keynote Warren Spector/Official GDC
• Flickr/DSC 0081/ashley adcox
• Flickr/Collective IQ Brainstorming/Jeanbaptisteparis
• Flickr/Gordon Cain Conference/Chemical Heritage
Foundation
• Flickr/Perkins Miller/D. Begley