Try to engage the audience

A central purpose of a presentation is to get comments from the audience. This benefits the speaker in two ways: 1) it may help in your research, and 2) it may help you in future presentations.

A great outcome is when audience members can make comments that get you thinking, bring in facts from new disciplines, etc. Audience participation can enhance your future research. Additionally, audience comments will give you insight about what they are following, what they've learned from the presentation, and where they are confused. This is valuable input for the next time you give the presentation. Every presentation should get better each time you give it.

The problem is that most audiences have gotten accustomed to sitting by silently and deferring questions until the very end of the talk (by which time most questions are forgotten or are no longer relevant). As a speaker you need to shake them out of this stupor early in the talk. Pose questions, ask them about their familiarity with the subject at the beginning of the talk, find out about the distribution of expertise in the audience, etc. Another thing you can do is conspire with a friend or two and have them pose a question or two during your talk. Once someone breaks the ice, a lively discussion is possible. David Stern of the Howard Hughes Institute has even suggested mixing in a few blank slides just to shake up the audience and tell them this is a time for interaction. I've never done it, but it is worth a try!

When you think you're done, use the index card method.

You’ve followed all my instructions, worked really hard, and finished creating your presentation. So you think you are done, right? Wrong! Every time you give the presentation you will uncover ways to relate the same content with fewer words, fewer slides, and less overall detail. You will become more aware of the essential and non essential material and find better words and visuals. A slide presentation better and more concise with time and repetition. Less will be more! In the words of Mark Twain, "I didn't have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead."

One way to short circuit that “learning” process is to us the index card method when you first think your presentation is ready to go. Write out a card for each slide and write (only) the takeaway message on each slide. Try rehearsing the presentation with only the cards. You can experiment with changing the order to see if that improves the flow of the narrative. You may find that you can remove a card or two or maybe you need to change the takeaway message for some of the cards.

Talk about what you show, show what you talk about

Too often the speaker creates a narrative that differs from that portrayed on the slide. The speaker's role is to explain the slide. The speaker needs to create a synergy between the oral and visual presentation.

If you portray something on a slide and don't discuss it, you need to ask yourself, "Why it is on the slide?" Remember every unnecessary detail on a slide makes it more difficult for the audience. If you don't discuss it, it probably shouldn't be on the slide. Conversely, if you are going to discuss a point, it should normally be reinforced by a visual on the slide.