How Facilitators Can Screw Up Your Presentation...and how you can make sure they don't!

Everyone knows that, sometimes, speakers can meander this way and that way, sometimes taking this point, sometimes taking that point, until it stagnates, and the audience falls asleep. We also know that they can rush a presentation so that the words flood the message. That’s on us. That’s one of the perils of speaking and we have to know how to deal with the risk.

But, what if we have turned up to the event and just as it’s time for the speeches, the facilitator says: “Now that we’ve got so many in the group, I can only give you 45 seconds-or 30 minutes for a keynote.”

Now, some people might think “Phew!” But, they’ve written out their presentation, or they’ve put it on PowerPoint. They’ve done their preparation-they haven’t practised it much, but they know it lasts the exact amount of time needed. How often have we seen that happen?

So, now they walk to the front turn and face their audience to start their presentation, it’s going well until they notice the facilitator is giving them the wrap-up sign-but they’re still only halfway through, and they haven’t come to the call to action, yet! What do they do? Do they carry on regardless passed the red card and only stop when they’ve finished? I have seen that on occasions. Won’t look very professional. Or do they start to talk very, very quickly and try to fit so much information into the last 10 seconds or few minutes so that the people can’t understand a word they say, or they lose interest in what they say?

It becomes a flood, and their audience has fallen away, the speech has gone? What if, instead, they had prepared and then practised the presentation. So, if needed, they knew which part to drop if the circumstances required? What if they had turned up ready for the eventuality?

What if they had planned for sharks and how to overcome them?