Month after month we fill this blog with updated content, every bit of it designed to make you the most engaging, dynamic person to ever power-up a PowerPoint presentation. From technical tips to personal pointers, we are really dedicated to helping you make your presentation a memorable, charismatic event. That’s why I’m now going to suggest that you should just stand in front of the room and read your next presentation.
Huh?
Seriously?
Yes!
Of course, most of the time, reading one’s speech or presentation is clearly one of the worst ideas you can imagine. However, there are times when reading your presentation may be critical and – therefore – the only way to go.
Politics, Politics
Even though everyone agrees that Barack Obama is an amazing speaker, he was criticized after his inauguration for seeming to rely too much on his teleprompter. In fact, there is good reason for this. Most politicians use notes or cue cards of some kind to read their speeches. Not only do most politicians need to be able to deliver lots of addresses in a given time frame – with little preparation – but the content of their messages is usually a bit more crucial than the kind of work most of us are involved in. When you are making some kind of political speech – where information, statistics or names are crucial – it’s a great idea to read your speech.
Legally Speaking
Another situation that requires straight-up reading of a speech or presentation is one with binding, legal restrictions. It’s not unusual to see a particular exec reading a speech on television. Many times, this is not because they haven’t spent enough time on this website. They are reading because they’ve been handed a document by their legal team and they have to recite it word for word for fear of some kind of litigious action. This kind of thing happens all the time after an accident or a product recall. Nearly every “apology” you’re likely to hear from a corporation is going to be a carefully crafted statement read directly from a labored-over document.
At some point, you may be in the unfortunate position of having to read a prepared statement of some kind. Although this can be the dramatic equivalent of watching the grass grow, there are a few techniques you can use to bring in all the jazz you can.
Check these out:
- Try to take some time to familiarize yourself with using a teleprompter. Here is a fun site where you can brush up on your skills.
- One technique politicians use requires that you only speak once you can look up from your text. However, this requires at least some familiarity with one’s material. If you find yourself having to read something cold, make up for your lack of eye-contact with a lot of dynamic variety in your rate of speech, inflections, volume, etc.
- In addition, incorporate as much movement as you can. Purposeful gestures can help make up for not looking your audience in the eye.
