You’ve decided/been asked to prepare a presentation for a specific occasion. This may be to present a project, or to convince decision makers of your latest idea. The very first thing you need to do is find out who the audience is and what you want these people to feel. Put yourself in their shoes: You’re attending a presentation and want something to take away with you. This requires the presentation content to be of interest to you, i.e. be relevant to you.

Ideally, it will answer a question you have never had answered. If you as a presenter can achieve precisely this, you’ll leave a lasting impression. Before creating the presentation, you should therefore focus intensively on the audience and your message. The following guidelines will help you with this groundwork.

• Who will be attending the presentation?
• What do I want these people to feel?
• What can I assume of my audience?
• How does my audience think? How do they best grasp facts?
• How do I need to design my presentation so that my audience will thank me for it?