The Truth About Confident Presenting

Chapter 5. Establish Goals for Your Presentation

If you’re going to ask people to sit through a presentation (or if they are forced to do so by your employer), then you ought to give them one or more good reasons for doing so. Those reasons are almost always directly related to the second of Aristotle’s considerations: purpose. Ask yourself, “Why are you speaking, and what can the audience hope to gain from listening to you?”

Let’s begin with a review of your goals for the presentation. You don’t have any goals? Well, you should back up and think about that first. What do you want to achieve from this presentation? Remember, the answer to this question must be related to the needs and interests of your audience. Presumably, you want to help them ...