presentation space meaning

9 ways to use space in your presentation

by Olivia Mitchell | 9 comments

There are many benefits to movement in a presentation:

• It adds energy and variety to your presentation.
• It makes you look more confident – because people who are nervous are generally frozen in one spot.
• And as an added bonus, if you move, you may start to feel more confident. That’s partly because movement will help dissipate the extra adrenalin in your system.

Movement got a bad name because of university lecturers pacing up and down. Audiences are distracted by mindless, repetitive movement. Movement should be interspersed with stillness. That way, they both have more impact.

Incorporate movement in your presentation by planning different positions on the stage (or front of the room) that you’ll present from. In the theatre, this is called “ blocking “. Blocking is deciding on the position and movement of the characters as they move through the play. You can block your presentation too. Here are some ideas:

1. State your Key Message from the Power Position

Your Key Message is the core of your talk. Choose one spot where you will stand and state your Key Message. It should be dead centre, and close to the audience.

2. Map your structure on the stage

Using your physical space on the stage to map out your structure. It will help your audience anchor the different parts of your talk. Use these areas when you do a preview near the beginning of your presentation. Then return to that area of the stage for that part of the presentation.

3. Use a stage timeline

Where a story or explanation involves the passage of time, imagine a timeline across the stage and move along it to show the progression of time. Remember to make the past to the audience’s left – not your left.

4. Argue the pros and cons as if you were in a debate

In a debate, the people arguing for each side will stand at different sides of the stage. Although there’s only one of you, you can adopt this strategy. Stand on one side for the pros – and the other side for the cons.

5. Physically reflect the continuum of points of view

Points of view on a topic often exist along a continuum – from one extreme – to middle of the road – and out to the other extreme. Reflect this with where you stand on the stage as you describe each point of view.

6. Give each option it’s own spot

If you’re discussing a range of options, stand in a specific spot for each option as you describe it. When you refer back to an option later in your presentation, go back to that spot.

7. Story time

Have a general area of the stage for story-telling. When you’re telling a light-hearted story, it can be effective to move around as you’re talking. You’ll come across as chatty and conversational.

Where a story involves two or more characters in dialogue, have a specific spot where you deliver the lines of each character. Stay within the storytelling area.

8. Move close for emphasis

If you normally stay a couple of paces back from your audience, you can then exploit closeness for empashis. Moving close to people is powerful. Even intimidating. But you can stand really close to someone, and look elsewhere. You get the powerful effect without intimidation.

9. Dance with your Slides

Adding the display of slides is a complicating factor. To keep as much flexibility as possible, I recommend placing the datashow screen slightly off to the side. If the screen is in the middle, it’s easy to turn into a projectionist instead of a presenter. If it’s to the side, then you can still claim the power position. To avoid stepping into the beam of the datashow, stick some duct tape on the floor as a reminder. (Note: I generally have the screen to my right because I also use a flipchart which I like to have to my left, so that when I turn around to write on the flipchart, I don’t have to move to the other side of it. I’m right-handed – if you’re left-handed, you’d flip this arrangement around).

You’ll also need to be aware of blocking the view of some parts of the audience. With this arrangement if you move slightly back and to the side, it will allow everyone in the audience to see. When they’ve seen the slide, move back closer to the audience, as you’ll lose impact standing further back for a long period of time.

When you want to draw attention to a slide, move back to your datashow screen.

Explain your slides physically. Get in the beam. For a great example of explaining slides physically have a watch of Hans Rosling explaining statistics like you’ve never seen before. You’ll never use a wimpy laser pointer again!

Choose one or two of these ideas to implement to begin with. If possible, rehearse in the room that you’re presenting in, so that you can integrate the movements you want to make. Generally, it’s more natural and conversational to keep talking as you’re moving. But occasionally use the power of silence for more impact.

Using your space will add a new dimension to your presentations.

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Hello Olivia,

I really enjoyed your text about space and movement in presentations. In fact, I made a summary in Spanish in my blog and linked to your post.

I wonder if I also could use and insert your images in my post or create another ones with spanish text.

Thanks! Carles.

Thanks for the tips! I will try and remember these when I am next up front speaking.

Good piece of information 🙂

Great hints! I’ll try them next time I teach a class!

wonderful tips for trainers and teachers thank you

Thanks for the stage time line explanation. I had to explain this to my Gavel Club kids for story telling and needed to get it right!

Great job. Very well said and explained. Really helpful and reliable indeed.Thanks for sharing this and keep up the good work, very much appreciated

hi good day

A good read

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Speaking Environment Part 1: The Room, Setup, and Other Considerations

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As a presenter, it’s crucial that you give your speaking environment the same kind of attention you give to the content of your talk . Presentation logistics – including the room, the seating layout, the temperature, your audio and video tools, and more – play a critical role in the success of your presentation.

In most cases, you’ll have at least some influence over those considerations, and you should exert it to ensure the audience is as comfortable and receptive to your ideas as possible.

This post begins a four-part series that focuses on how to best prepare for and approach your speaking environment – from the room setup to your timing, as well as other considerations – so that your presentation is heard and experienced exactly as you intended.

We begin with some space-related elements that can affect the way your audience experiences your talk.

4 Ways to Improve Your Speaking Environment

1. choose the right room.

I once saw a band play at New York City’s 21,000-seat Madison Square Garden. The group was past their peak popularity and, unfortunately for them, they performed in an arena that was more than half empty. It was sad to see the one-time radio staple reduced to playing for thousands of empty plastic chairs.

Imagine if they had booked a smaller venue instead? The concert hall would have been sold out, the audience would have felt electrified, and the fans would have left feeling good that their favorite musicians could still pack a room.

That example highlights the decisive factor when selecting a room – you want one that places people as closely together as possible , but with just enough space between each person to ensure their comfort. (We look forward to being able to do that again post-pandemic!) It’s difficult to build an intimate rapport in a vast room with hundreds of square feet of unused space. (If you don’t have any say regarding the room selection, you may be able to influence the seating arrangement, which can help. We’ll say more about that in the next post.)

2. Be Wary of Environmental Factors

You’re probably familiar with the dreaded “war of the thermostat.” You like it cold; your co-worker likes it warm. You crank the heater in the autumn; your roommate throws open the windows to bring in crisp outside air.

While you may not be able to create the ideal room temperature for everyone, your goal is to create a space as conducive to the audience’s ability to receive your message as possible. High temperatures can negatively impact people’s moods, even triggering anger and hostile thoughts . Low temperatures, which multiple studies find are more uncomfortable for women than men, can come at the cost of productivity.

Rooms set to between 71- and 76-degrees Fahrenheit (about 22- to 24-degrees Celsius) are usually right on the money.

3. Head off Distractions

I once gave a talk in a hotel conference room. One room over, the guests were being led in a drum circle (long story). With only a thin wall separating us, it was virtually impossible to stick to my original plan – so we called for a break, migrated into the hallway, and finished our session there.

Hopefully, you won’t face such a massive distraction. But anticipating what could go wrong allows you to help mitigate risks, as the examples below demonstrate:

• If loud sounds such as construction work or hallway music pose a threat to audience attention, ask the building manager or hotel staff to help halt the noises.
• If the room in which you’re speaking has a beverage station, ask the catering manager not to refresh or clean it during your talk (I’ve had audiences distracted by banging glasses and poured ice).
• If you’re speaking in a room that has large glass walls or windows, stand on the opposite side so audience attention remains on you, not the passersby on the other side of the pane.

Finally, avoid standing near the exit or entryway. It’s like being near the kitchen or bathroom in a restaurant. Every time someone arrives late or leaves to take a break, you must reengage your audience’s attention.

4. Adjust the Lighting

In general, avoid putting the audience in the dark or semi-darkness. Doing so makes it easy for them to zone out and makes it difficult for you to encourage interaction or elicit questions.

The lighting should allow the audience to see you clearly and, if appropriate for your event, have enough illumination to take notes or read handouts. If you’re displaying visuals, test your slides before the audience arrives to make sure the lighting isn’t washing out the screen. If necessary, dim the lights near the screen to create a sharper image.

Finally, technology allows most presentations to be displayed without the need for a projector. But if you do need one, ask that it be placed toward the front of the room. If it is too far back, you run the risk of being awash in light, blocking the screen, and having light beaming into your eyes.

Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash

Presentation Preparation is Key

You may have a greater influence in the way your public speaking environment is organized if you think about the setup you want to create as far in advance as possible.

Questions that will influence your decisions about such elements as seating arrangements, equipment, and timing include:

• What’s the audience size?
• Is this a short presentation or an hours-long training?
• Are you providing a one-way flow of information or seeking regular participation and feedback?
• Are you a keynote speaker, presenting to a small group, or moderating a discussion?
• Do you want audience members to interact with one another?
• Are you doing small-group exercises or breakout sessions?
• Do you plan on using slides or other visuals?
• Will your audience need or want to take notes?
• Do they have space to comfortably rest their notepads, laptops, refreshments, etc.?

We’ll go into more depth on your answers to those preparation questions during this four-part series. But, for now, here are a few high-level pointers:

• Arrive early on the day of your talk. Doing so gives you time to organize and prepare (and if necessary, clean) the room before you speak. You’ll often find me kneeling on the floor to tape down wires, clearing a conference room table of unnecessary wires, and moving chairs closer to the front of the room.
• Coordinate with the audiovisual technician. A/V pros, if available to you on site, are crucial allies in getting your presentation up and running. However, their go-to best practices may not match your best practices for your specific talk. You are the person in the front of the room. Consider their ideas – they’re often right – but don’t automatically yield to their expertise.

Ultimately, audience members won’t notice when the setup is just right. They’re unlikely to comment on the crisp sound of a new microphone, for example – but you’ll hear about it if your words are incomprehensible due to reverberating echoes bouncing off the walls of a cavernous ballroom.

Here’s what we’ll cover in this series:

Part Two: Presentation Timing

Part Three: Microphones and Other Tech Considerations

Part Four: The Seating Arrangement

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How to Structure your Presentation, with Examples

August 3, 2018 - Dom Barnard

For many people the thought of delivering a presentation is a daunting task and brings about a  great deal of nerves . However, if you take some time to understand how effective presentations are structured and then apply this structure to your own presentation, you’ll appear much more confident and relaxed.

Here is our complete guide for structuring your presentation, with examples at the end of the article to demonstrate these points.

Why is structuring a presentation so important?

If you’ve ever sat through a great presentation, you’ll have left feeling either inspired or informed on a given topic. This isn’t because the speaker was the most knowledgeable or motivating person in the world. Instead, it’s because they know how to structure presentations – they have crafted their message in a logical and simple way that has allowed the audience can keep up with them and take away key messages.

Research has supported this, with studies showing that audiences retain structured information  40% more accurately  than unstructured information.

In fact, not only is structuring a presentation important for the benefit of the audience’s understanding, it’s also important for you as the speaker. A good structure helps you remain calm, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences.

What will affect your presentation structure?

Generally speaking, there is a natural flow that any decent presentation will follow which we will go into shortly. However, you should be aware that all presentation structures will be different in their own unique way and this will be due to a number of factors, including:

• Whether you need to deliver any demonstrations
• How  knowledgeable the audience  already is on the given subject
• How much interaction you want from the audience
• Any time constraints there are for your talk
• What setting you are in
• Your ability to use any kinds of visual assistance

Before choosing the presentation’s structure answer these questions first:

• What is your presentation’s aim?
• Who are the audience?
• What are the main points your audience should remember afterwards?

When reading the points below, think critically about what things may cause your presentation structure to be slightly different. You can add in certain elements and add more focus to certain moments if that works better for your speech.

What is the typical presentation structure?

This is the usual flow of a presentation, which covers all the vital sections and is a good starting point for yours. It allows your audience to easily follow along and sets out a solid structure you can add your content to.

1. Greet the audience and introduce yourself

Before you start delivering your talk, introduce yourself to the audience and clarify who you are and your relevant expertise. This does not need to be long or incredibly detailed, but will help build an immediate relationship between you and the audience. It gives you the chance to briefly clarify your expertise and why you are worth listening to. This will help establish your ethos so the audience will trust you more and think you’re credible.

Read our tips on  How to Start a Presentation Effectively

2. Introduction

In the introduction you need to explain the subject and purpose of your presentation whilst gaining the audience’s interest and confidence. It’s sometimes helpful to think of your introduction as funnel-shaped to help filter down your topic:

• Introduce your general topic
• Explain your topic area
• State the issues/challenges in this area you will be exploring
• State your presentation’s purpose – this is the basis of your presentation so ensure that you provide a statement explaining how the topic will be treated, for example, “I will argue that…” or maybe you will “compare”, “analyse”, “evaluate”, “describe” etc.
• Provide a statement of what you’re hoping the outcome of the presentation will be, for example, “I’m hoping this will be provide you with…”
• Show a preview of the organisation of your presentation

In this section also explain:

• The length of the talk.
• Signal whether you want audience interaction – some presenters prefer the audience to ask questions throughout whereas others allocate a specific section for this.
• If it applies, inform the audience whether to take notes or whether you will be providing handouts.

The way you structure your introduction can depend on the amount of time you have been given to present: a  sales pitch  may consist of a quick presentation so you may begin with your conclusion and then provide the evidence. Conversely, a speaker presenting their idea for change in the world would be better suited to start with the evidence and then conclude what this means for the audience.

Keep in mind that the main aim of the introduction is to grab the audience’s attention and connect with them.

3. The main body of your talk

The main body of your talk needs to meet the promises you made in the introduction. Depending on the nature of your presentation, clearly segment the different topics you will be discussing, and then work your way through them one at a time – it’s important for everything to be organised logically for the audience to fully understand. There are many different ways to organise your main points, such as, by priority, theme, chronologically etc.

• Main points should be addressed one by one with supporting evidence and examples.
• Before moving on to the next point you should provide a mini-summary.
• Links should be clearly stated between ideas and you must make it clear when you’re moving onto the next point.
• Allow time for people to take relevant notes and stick to the topics you have prepared beforehand rather than straying too far off topic.

When planning your presentation write a list of main points you want to make and ask yourself “What I am telling the audience? What should they understand from this?” refining your answers this way will help you produce clear messages.

4. Conclusion

In presentations the conclusion is frequently underdeveloped and lacks purpose which is a shame as it’s the best place to reinforce your messages. Typically, your presentation has a specific goal – that could be to convert a number of the audience members into customers, lead to a certain number of enquiries to make people knowledgeable on specific key points, or to motivate them towards a shared goal.

Regardless of what that goal is, be sure to summarise your main points and their implications. This clarifies the overall purpose of your talk and reinforces your reason for being there.

Follow these steps:

• Signal that it’s nearly the end of your presentation, for example, “As we wrap up/as we wind down the talk…”
• Restate the topic and purpose of your presentation – “In this speech I wanted to compare…”
• Summarise the main points, including their implications and conclusions
• Indicate what is next/a call to action/a thought-provoking takeaway
• Move on to the last section

5. Thank the audience and invite questions

Conclude your talk by thanking the audience for their time and invite them to  ask any questions  they may have. As mentioned earlier, personal circumstances will affect the structure of your presentation.

Many presenters prefer to make the Q&A session the key part of their talk and try to speed through the main body of the presentation. This is totally fine, but it is still best to focus on delivering some sort of initial presentation to set the tone and topics for discussion in the Q&A.

Other common presentation structures

The above was a description of a basic presentation, here are some more specific presentation layouts:

Demonstration

Use the demonstration structure when you have something useful to show. This is usually used when you want to show how a product works. Steve Jobs frequently used this technique in his presentations.

• Explain why the product is valuable.
• Describe why the product is necessary.
• Explain what problems it can solve for the audience.
• Demonstrate the product  to support what you’ve been saying.
• Make suggestions of other things it can do to make the audience curious.

Problem-solution

This structure is particularly useful in persuading the audience.

• Briefly frame the issue.
• Go into the issue in detail showing why it ‘s such a problem. Use logos and pathos for this – the logical and emotional appeals.
• Provide the solution and explain why this would also help the audience.
• Call to action – something you want the audience to do which is straightforward and pertinent to the solution.

Storytelling

As well as incorporating  stories in your presentation , you can organise your whole presentation as a story. There are lots of different type of story structures you can use – a popular choice is the monomyth – the hero’s journey. In a monomyth, a hero goes on a difficult journey or takes on a challenge – they move from the familiar into the unknown. After facing obstacles and ultimately succeeding the hero returns home, transformed and with newfound wisdom.

Storytelling for Business Success  webinar , where well-know storyteller Javier Bernad shares strategies for crafting compelling narratives.

Another popular choice for using a story to structure your presentation is in media ras (in the middle of thing). In this type of story you launch right into the action by providing a snippet/teaser of what’s happening and then you start explaining the events that led to that event. This is engaging because you’re starting your story at the most exciting part which will make the audience curious – they’ll want to know how you got there.

• Great storytelling: Examples from Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

Remaining method

The remaining method structure is good for situations where you’re presenting your perspective on a controversial topic which has split people’s opinions.

• Go into the issue in detail showing why it’s such a problem – use logos and pathos.
• Rebut your opponents’ solutions  – explain why their solutions could be useful because the audience will see this as fair and will therefore think you’re trustworthy, and then explain why you think these solutions are not valid.
• After you’ve presented all the alternatives provide your solution, the remaining solution. This is very persuasive because it looks like the winning idea, especially with the audience believing that you’re fair and trustworthy.

Transitions

When delivering presentations it’s important for your words and ideas to flow so your audience can understand how everything links together and why it’s all relevant. This can be done  using speech transitions  which are words and phrases that allow you to smoothly move from one point to another so that your speech flows and your presentation is unified.

Transitions can be one word, a phrase or a full sentence – there are many different forms, here are some examples:

Moving from the introduction to the first point

Signify to the audience that you will now begin discussing the first main point:

• Now that you’re aware of the overview, let’s begin with…
• First, let’s begin with…
• I will first cover…
• My first point covers…
• To get started, let’s look at…

Shifting between similar points

Move from one point to a similar one:

• In the same way…
• Likewise…
• Equally…
• This is similar to…
• Similarly…

Internal summaries

Internal summarising consists of summarising before moving on to the next point. You must inform the audience:

• What part of the presentation you covered – “In the first part of this speech we’ve covered…”
• What the key points were – “Precisely how…”
• How this links in with the overall presentation – “So that’s the context…”
• What you’re moving on to – “Now I’d like to move on to the second part of presentation which looks at…”

Physical movement

You can move your body and your standing location when you transition to another point. The audience find it easier to follow your presentation and movement will increase their interest.

A common technique for incorporating movement into your presentation is to:

• Start your introduction by standing in the centre of the stage.
• For your first point you stand on the left side of the stage.
• You discuss your second point from the centre again.
• You stand on the right side of the stage for your third point.
• The conclusion occurs in the centre.

Key slides for your presentation

Slides are a useful tool for most presentations: they can greatly assist in the delivery of your message and help the audience follow along with what you are saying. Key slides include:

• An intro slide outlining your ideas
• A  summary slide  with core points to remember
• High quality image slides to supplement what you are saying

There are some presenters who choose not to use slides at all, though this is more of a rarity. Slides can be a powerful tool if used properly, but the problem is that many fail to do just that. Here are some golden rules to follow when using slides in a presentation:

• Don’t over fill them  – your slides are there to assist your speech, rather than be the focal point. They should have as little information as possible, to avoid distracting people from your talk.
• A picture says a thousand words  – instead of filling a slide with text, instead, focus on one or two images or diagrams to help support and explain the point you are discussing at that time.
• Make them readable  – depending on the size of your audience, some may not be able to see small text or images, so make everything large enough to fill the space.
• Don’t rush through slides  – give the audience enough time to digest each slide.

Guy Kawasaki, an entrepreneur and author, suggests that slideshows should follow a  10-20-30 rule :

• There should be a maximum of 10 slides – people rarely remember more than one concept afterwards so there’s no point overwhelming them with unnecessary information.
• The presentation should last no longer than 20 minutes as this will leave time for questions and discussion.
• The font size should be a minimum of 30pt because the audience reads faster than you talk so less information on the slides means that there is less chance of the audience being distracted.

Here are some additional resources for slide design:

• 7 design tips for effective, beautiful PowerPoint presentations
• 11 design tips for beautiful presentations
• 10 tips on how to make slides that communicate your idea

Group Presentations

Group presentations are structured in the same way as presentations with one speaker but usually require more rehearsal and practices.  Clean transitioning between speakers  is very important in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this consists of:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what health anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Elnaz will talk about the prevalence of health anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Elnaz”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Joe.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Example of great presentation structure and delivery

Having examples of great presentations will help inspire your own structures, here are a few such examples, each unique and inspiring in their own way.

How Google Works – by Eric Schmidt

This presentation by ex-Google CEO  Eric Schmidt  demonstrates some of the most important lessons he and his team have learnt with regards to working with some of the most talented individuals they hired. The simplistic yet cohesive style of all of the slides is something to be appreciated. They are relatively straightforward, yet add power and clarity to the narrative of the presentation.

Start with why – by Simon Sinek

Since being released in 2009, this presentation has been viewed almost four million times all around the world. The message itself is very powerful, however, it’s not an idea that hasn’t been heard before. What makes this presentation so powerful is the simple message he is getting across, and the straightforward and understandable manner in which he delivers it. Also note that he doesn’t use any slides, just a whiteboard where he creates a simple diagram of his opinion.

The Wisdom of a Third Grade Dropout – by Rick Rigsby

Here’s an example of a presentation given by a relatively unknown individual looking to inspire the next generation of graduates. Rick’s presentation is unique in many ways compared to the two above. Notably, he uses no visual prompts and includes a great deal of humour.

However, what is similar is the structure he uses. He first introduces his message that the wisest man he knew was a third-grade dropout. He then proceeds to deliver his main body of argument, and in the end, concludes with his message. This powerful speech keeps the viewer engaged throughout, through a mixture of heart-warming sentiment, powerful life advice and engaging humour.

As you can see from the examples above, and as it has been expressed throughout, a great presentation structure means analysing the core message of your presentation. Decide on a key message you want to impart the audience with, and then craft an engaging way of delivering it.

By preparing a solid structure, and  practising your talk  beforehand, you can walk into the presentation with confidence and deliver a meaningful message to an interested audience.

It’s important for a presentation to be well-structured so it can have the most impact on your audience. An unstructured presentation can be difficult to follow and even frustrating to listen to. The heart of your speech are your main points supported by evidence and your transitions should assist the movement between points and clarify how everything is linked.

Research suggests that the audience remember the first and last things you say so your introduction and conclusion are vital for reinforcing your points. Essentially, ensure you spend the time structuring your presentation and addressing all of the sections.

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What Are Effective Presentation Skills (and How to Improve Them)

Presentation skills are essential for your personal and professional life. Learn about effective presentations and how to boost your presenting techniques.

At least seven out of 10 Americans agree that presentation skills are essential for a successful career [ 1 ]. Although it might be tempting to think that these are skills reserved for people interested in public speaking roles, they're critical in a diverse range of jobs. For example, you might need to brief your supervisor on research results.

Presentation skills are also essential in other scenarios, including working with a team and explaining your thought process, walking clients through project ideas and timelines, and highlighting your strengths and achievements to your manager during performance reviews.

Whatever the scenario, you have very little time to capture your audience’s attention and get your point across when presenting information—about three seconds, according to research [ 2 ]. Effective presentation skills help you get your point across and connect with the people you’re communicating with, which is why nearly every employer requires them.

Understanding what presentation skills are is only half the battle. Honing your presenting techniques is essential for mastering presentations of all kinds and in all settings.

What are presentation skills?

Presentation skills are the abilities and qualities necessary for creating and delivering a compelling presentation that effectively communicates information and ideas. They encompass what you say, how you structure it, and the materials you include to support what you say, such as slides, videos, or images.

You'll make presentations at various times in your life. Examples include:

Making speeches at a wedding, conference, or another event

Making a toast at a dinner or event

Explaining projects to a team 

Delivering results and findings to management teams

Teaching people specific methods or information

Proposing a vote at community group meetings

Pitching a new idea or business to potential partners or investors

Why are presentation skills important? 

Delivering effective presentations is critical in your professional and personal life. You’ll need to hone your presentation skills in various areas, such as when giving a speech, convincing your partner to make a substantial purchase, and talking to friends and family about an important situation.

No matter if you’re using them in a personal or professional setting, these are the skills that make it easier and more effective to convey your ideas, convince or persuade others, and experience success. A few of the benefits that often accompany improving your presentation skills include:

Enriched written and verbal communication skills

Enhanced confidence and self-image

Boosted critical thinking and problem-solving capabilities

Better motivational techniques

Increased leadership skills

Expanded time management, negotiation, and creativity

The better your presenting techniques, the more engaging your presentations will be. You could also have greater opportunities to make positive impacts in business and other areas of your life.

Effective presentation skills

Imagine yourself in the audience at a TED Talk or sitting with your coworkers at a big meeting held by your employer. What would you be looking for in how they deliver their message? What would make you feel engaged?

These are a few questions to ask yourself as you review this list of some of the most effective presentation skills.

Verbal communication

How you use language and deliver messages play essential roles in how your audience will receive your presentation. Speak clearly and confidently, projecting your voice enough to ensure everyone can hear. Think before you speak, pausing when necessary and tailoring the way you talk to resonate with your particular audience.

Body language

Body language combines various critical elements, including posture, gestures, eye contact, expressions, and position in front of the audience. Body language is one of the elements that can instantly transform a presentation that would otherwise be dull into one that's dynamic and interesting.

Voice projection

The ability to project your voice improves your presentation by allowing your audience to hear what you're saying. It also increases your confidence to help settle any lingering nerves while also making your message more engaging. To project your voice, stand comfortably with your shoulders back. Take deep breaths to power your speaking voice and ensure you enunciate every syllable you speak.

How you present yourself plays a role in your body language and ability to project your voice. It also sets the tone for the presentation. Avoid slouching or looking overly tense. Instead, remain open, upright, and adaptable while taking the formality of the occasion into account.

Storytelling

Incorporating storytelling into a presentation is an effective strategy used by many powerful public speakers. It has the power to bring your subject to life and pique the audience’s curiosity. Don’t be afraid to tell a personal story, slowly building up suspense or adding a dramatic moment. And, of course, be sure to end with a positive takeaway to drive your point home.

Active listening

Active listening is a valuable skill all on its own. When you understand and thoughtfully respond to what you hear—whether it's in a conversation or during a presentation—you’ll likely deepen your personal relationships and actively engage audiences during a presentation. As part of your presentation skill set, it helps catch and maintain the audience’s attention, helping them remain focused while minimizing passive response, ensuring the message is delivered correctly, and encouraging a call to action.

Stage presence

During a presentation, projecting confidence can help keep your audience engaged. Stage presence can help you connect with your audience and encourage them to want to watch you. To improve your presence, try amping up your normal demeanor by infusing it with a bit of enthusiasm. Project confidence and keep your information interesting.

Watch your audience as you’re presenting. If you’re holding their attention, it likely means you’re connecting well with them.

Self-awareness

Monitoring your own emotions and reactions will allow you to react well in various situations. It helps you remain personable throughout your presentation and handle feedback well. Self-awareness can help soothe nervousness during presentations, allowing you to perform more effectively.

Writing skills

Writing is a form of presentation. Sharp writing skills can help you master your presentation’s outline to ensure you stay on message and remain clear about your objectives from the beginning until the end. It’s also helpful to have strong writing abilities for creating compelling slides and other visual aids.

Understanding an audience

When you understand your audience's needs and interests, you can design your presentation around them. In turn, you'll deliver maximum value to them and enhance your ability to make your message easy to understand.

Learn more about presentation skills from industry experts at SAP:

How to improve presentation skills

There’s an art to public speaking. Just like any other type of art, this is one that requires practice. Improving your presentation skills will help reduce miscommunications, enhance your time management capabilities, and boost your leadership skills. Here are some ways you can improve these skills:

Work on self-confidence.

When you’re confident, you naturally speak more clearly and with more authority. Taking the time to prepare your presentation with a strong opening and compelling visual aids can help you feel more confident. Other ways to improve your self-confidence include practicing positive self-talk, surrounding yourself with positive people, and avoiding comparing yourself (or your presentation) to others.

Develop strategies for overcoming fear.

Many people are nervous or fearful before giving a presentation. A bad memory of a past performance or insufficient self-confidence can contribute to fear and anxiety. Having a few go-to strategies like deep breathing, practicing your presentation, and grounding can help you transform that fear into extra energy to put into your stage presence.

Learn grounding techniques.

Grounding is any type of technique that helps you steer your focus away from distressing thoughts and keeps you connected with your present self. To ground yourself, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and imagine you’re a large, mature tree with roots extending deep into the earth—like the tree, you can become unshakable.

Learn how to use presentation tools.

Visual aids and other technical support can transform an otherwise good presentation into a wow-worthy one. A few popular presentation tools include:

Canva: Provides easy-to-design templates you can customize

Powtoon: Animation software that makes video creation fast and easy

PowerPoint: Microsoft's iconic program popular for dynamic marketing and sales presentations

Practice breathing techniques.

Breathing techniques can help quell anxiety, making it easier to shake off pre-presentation jitters and nerves. It also helps relax your muscles and get more oxygen to your brain.  For some pre-presentation calmness, you can take deep breaths, slowly inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

While presenting, breathe in through your mouth with the back of your tongue relaxed so your audience doesn't hear a gasping sound. Speak on your exhalation, maintaining a smooth voice.

Gain experience.

The more you practice, the better you’ll become. The more you doanything, the more comfortable you’ll feel engaging in that activity. Presentations are no different. Repeatedly practicing your own presentation also offers the opportunity to get feedback from other people and tweak your style and content as needed.

Tips to help you ace your presentation

Your presentation isn’t about you; it’s about the material you’re presenting. Sometimes, reminding yourself of this ahead of taking center stage can help take you out of your head, allowing you to connect effectively with your audience. The following are some of the many actions you can take on the day of your presentation.

Arrive early.

Since you may have a bit of presentation-related anxiety, it’s important to avoid adding travel stress. Give yourself an abundance of time to arrive at your destination, and take into account heavy traffic and other unforeseen events. By arriving early, you also give yourself time to meet with any on-site technicians, test your equipment, and connect with people ahead of the presentation.

Become familiar with the layout of the room.

Arriving early also gives you time to assess the room and figure out where you want to stand. Experiment with the acoustics to determine how loudly you need to project your voice, and test your equipment to make sure everything connects and appears properly with the available setup. This is an excellent opportunity to work out any last-minute concerns and move around to familiarize yourself with the setting for improved stage presence.

Listen to presenters ahead of you.

When you watch others present, you'll get a feel for the room's acoustics and lighting. You can also listen for any data that’s relevant to your presentation and revisit it during your presentation—this can make the presentation more interactive and engaging.

Use note cards.

Writing yourself a script could provide you with more comfort. To prevent sounding too robotic or disengaged, only include talking points in your note cards in case you get off track. Using note cards can help keep your presentation organized while sounding more authentic to your audience.

Learn to deliver clear and confident presentations with Dynamic Public Speaking from the University of Washington. Build confidence, develop new delivery techniques, and practice strategies for crafting compelling presentations for different purposes, occasions, and audiences.

Article sources

Forbes. “ New Survey: 70% Say Presentation Skills are Critical for Career Success , https://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2014/09/25/new-survey-70-percent-say-presentation-skills-critical-for-career-success/?sh=619f3ff78890.” Accessed December 7, 2022.

Beautiful.ai. “ 15 Presentation and Public Speaking Stats You Need to Know , https://www.beautiful.ai/blog/15-presentation-and-public-speaking-stats-you-need-to-know. Accessed December 7, 2022.

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Proxemics: How We Use Space to Communicate

• By: Scott Schwertly

Have you ever backed away when someone was talking too close to you? Have you ever felt uncomfortable speaking on a raised stage where your audience was several feet below you? Have you ever struggled to focus during a presentation when your seat wasn’t directly aimed at the speaker? That, my friends, is proxemics at work. Proxemics is, quite simply, how we use space in communication. Anthropologist Edward Hall introduced his theory in the latter part of the 20 th Century with his book, The Silent Language.

Proxemics reminds us that the world of communication is so much larger than the words we have written on our notecards or the slideshow we’ve created to share with our audience. Every time that we speak and move and look and interact, we are communicating. Therefore, it’s important to understand the role that space plays in creating meaning.

Understanding Space Zones Hall posited that there are four distance categories people generally keep: intimate (0-18 inches), personal (19 inches to 3 feet), social (4 to 11 feet), and public (12 feet or more). Depending on the size of the room, most speakers will usually fall into the social and public categories. This is the proxemics norm for public speaking in America. In other words, the audience generally assumes that the speaker will stay on the “stage.” Movement side to side on the stage is fine, but if the speaker moves into the audience’s “territory,” reducing space to less than 4 feet, the norm is broken and new things are communicated.

One of my students intentionally used proxemics to establish intimacy and urgency with her classmates. Having been recently diagnosed with lung cancer, she wanted to persuade her classmates to see the true danger in cigarettes and to avoid them at all costs. As a visual, she brought a picture of her most recent chest x-ray. It would have been fine to upload the image into a PowerPoint presentation, put it up on the big screen, and tell her audience about it. But instead, she chose to hold the x-ray in her hands and walk out and among the audience while she talked about her diagnosis and disease. She moved into the personal space category, and because she decreased the space between herself and her audience, she increased the power of her persuasion.

Identifying Cultural Differences Beyond the zones of space Hall identified, it’s important to understand that each culture uses proxemics differently. Because proxemics is most often learned through observation, people adapt to the proxemics used in their culture. Researchers studied groups of students from different countries conversing with strangers of their same nationality. The study found that, on average, Japanese students stood 3.31 feet apart, Americans stood 2.92 feet apart, and Venezuelans stood 2.66 feet apart. If you speak to culturally diverse audiences, it would benefit you to do some quick research on the proxemics of different cultures. You might wonder why it would matter for your presentation. Well, imagine you are an American speaker meeting some of your audience members prior to your presentation. If you stand too close to a Japanese audience member, you may come off as rude or aggressive. If you stand too far away from a Venezuelan audience member, you may seem cold or aloof. Those audience members then carry their first impressions of you into your presentation. And you can bet they filter everything you say through their perceptions of that initial meeting.

Remember, however, that culture doesn’t just mean country. A family has its own culture, and a business office has its own culture. Arrangement of offices and office furniture sends messages. (Is anyone else picturing Toby from The Office in the annex as far away from Michael as the office set up allows?) So, when you come into a new culture as a speaker, you should spend a few moments observing the proxemics. How are the people in the room using space? How are the chairs in the audience arranged? What is the distance between the speaking area and the audience? What is the arrangement of the furniture in this environment? What type of space is provided for the presentation? And then ask the two most important questions: What does all this mean ? and How can I adapt both my style of communication and my presentation to the proxemics of this culture?

Space communicates things—from how much distance is between communicators, to the shape of table we sit at during a meeting. Proxemics is one small part of a large communication system. Giving thoughtful attention to proxemics will increase your ability to be an effective communicator.

To dive more deeply into the great, wide world of communication, register for our online presentation skills course and take your presentations to the next level.

Scott Schwertly

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Home / 5 Tips For Working With White Space In Your Presentation Slides

5 Tips For Working With White Space In Your Presentation Slides

We all need some moments of silence in our day to escape the hustle and bustle. It brings calm, helps to re-centre our focus and makes us ready for what’s to come. 

That’s no different when it comes to presentation design. 

While the visible elements of a slide receive the most focus, the space you leave open — often referred to as whitespace, negative space, or empty space — is equally as important.

As world-famous designer Jan Tschichold once said, “Whitespace is to be regarded as an active element, not a passive background.”

• What is white space?

What is the purpose of white space?

• Five techniques to improve your use of white space

Tip #1: Increase the margin

Tip #2: use images with “empty” areas.

• Tip #3:Leave empty space over a colored background

Tip #4: Use single words instead of sentences

Tip #5: split your content across multiple slides, the takeaway, what is white space .

Despite its name, white space isn’t necessarily white . 

Instead, ‘white space’ refers to the areas of the slide left unused; any area within a design that is free from text, photos or illustrations and won’t attract the attention of the audience.

It can be any color, texture, pattern or even a background image. 

White space is a simple concept, yet many designers — both beginners and pros — find it difficult to apply. The urge to fill a slide’s empty areas is just too great. 

One of the biggest mistakes that people make with presentation design is going out of their way to use every millimeter of space on a page — filling the slide with text, boxes, clip art, charts and footers. 

But if every element in your slide “yells” for your audience’s attention, nothing gets heard.

The music is not in the notes, but in the silence between. Claude Debussy

You might be reading this and thinking: what’s the point of white space ? If nothing is there, how can it mean anything or add any value? 

However, just because it’s empty doesn’t mean it’s wasted — quite the opposite, in fact. 

Design theory promotes the use of white space for not only creating a visually appealing product, but for encouraging cognitive engagement within audiences. 

Here are a few benefits using white space can bring to your presentation:

• Improved comprehension. Using white space evenly makes the content easily scannable and significantly improves legibility. Studies have shown that this increases reader comprehension by almost 20%. 
• Focus and attention. White space funnels the reader’s eye towards the content and allows your message to stand out. 
• Helps build hierarchy. White space can signify which parts of the content are most important, making it easier to understand.
• Separates and groups elements. It provides the brain with visual cues as to which elements belong together and which are separate.
• Implies elegance and sophistication. Upscale brands often use ad layouts with little text and a lot of white space. Empty space can convey a feeling of high quality — just think of Apple’s branding. 

So, how much white space should you use? 

The most important thing to consider should be your content. What message are you trying to put across? How much text and imagery do you need on the page? 

If the answer to that question is lots , then using white space to separate this content into small chunks will ensure readers can digest the information. In turn, your overall message will be clearer. 

5 techniques to improve your use of white space

Books and magazines are a great example of this. The margin — the blank area between the text and the edge of the page — makes reading dense copy much easier. 

For your presentation, consider making the space between the edge of the screen and the content bigger. 

Even when text is densely laid out, larger margins act as an eye-break for the reader, meaning information can be read and processed more easily. 

But they’re not just visual, margins can be practical, too. If you plan on providing your audience with a print out of the presentation, leaving space for the reader at the bottom of the page to hold the publication will ensure their fingers don’t cover any of the important stuff.

What’s more, the margin can provide that extra space for audiences to make notes on your presentation if necessary (all good ones, we hope). 

Images are important for any type of presentation . 

They help your audience quickly understand the content and are known to have a faster, longer-lasting impact than words alone. 

But don’t just choose any old image to throw in there. Be selective with your choice and use background images that have ample white space within them.

These empty areas can be filled or overlaid with text, shapes or simply left alone, depending on how much copy you already have on the slide.

Tip #3: Leave empty space over a colored background

When used correctly, color can be the difference between a captivating presentation and an underwhelming one. 

But with so many to choose from, people tend to choose over-the-top background colors and forget about the clarity of their message. 

To ensure your presentation is both visually appealing and informative, choose a solid background color that allows your text to be read easily. 

Once you’ve set your background color, use only half of the slide to place your content . This will create lots of empty space around the text and simplify the slide, while still adding an element to capture attention. 

The human voice is more powerful than the written word. 

Don’t tax audiences with the job of listening to you and looking at the same words (which, let’s face it, are never in sync with each other). Rather than acting as your script, each slide should present just a handful of key words to echo what you’re saying.

If you can, use one word (or 2 or 3, but not a whole sentence), in a large, bold text that summarizes the topic you are talking about. 

By minimizing the content on the slide, you’ll create lots of empty space while also encouraging audiences to listen to you , meaning you can get the message across and improvise if you need to — after all, who sticks to the script anyway? 

If you’re really struggling to reduce the content, try separating it into several slides.

Both content and design have their own challenges which should be dealt with individually. 

Why worry about where an image will be placed if the message is not correct? Equally, why worry about the way a sentence is phrased if the slide’s design is too cluttered and distracting? 

Keep each slide as simple as possible and don’t worry about having too many. Flicking through slides keeps the presentation fluent and structured, so — really — the more the merrier!

A cluttered design is like a cluttered desk: you can never find what you need. 

White space not only organizes and simplifies your design, but it allows audiences to easily digest information and understand your message. 

Despite essentially being ‘nothing’, white space is the design element that enables the objects on the slide to exist, and without it, you cannot deliver a clear presentation.

So before you start filling your presentation with words and images, consider the importance of simplicity.

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At SlidesCarnival, we have a huge library of  free presentation templates  that are professionally designed with layouts that make a good use of white space. All of them are completely free to download, edit, and customize. Take a look!

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30 Presentation Terms & What They Mean

Delivering a captivating presentation is an art that requires more than just confidence and oratory skills. From the design of your slides to the way you carry yourself on stage, every little detail contributes to the overall effectiveness of your presentation. For those who wish to master this art, getting familiar with the associated terminology is a great place to start.

In this article, we’ll explore “30 Presentation Terms & What They Mean,” shedding light on the key terms and concepts in the world of presentations. Whether you’re a professional looking to refine your skills, a student aiming to ace your next presentation, or just someone curious about the subject, this guide is sure to provide you with valuable insights.

Dive in as we explore everything from slide decks and speaker notes to body language and Q&A sessions.

Each term is elaborated in depth, giving you a comprehensive understanding of their meanings and applications. This knowledge will not only make you more comfortable with presentations but will also empower you to deliver them more effectively.

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Table of Contents

• Speaker Notes
• White Space
• Aspect Ratio
• Grid System
• Master Slide
• Infographic
• Data Visualization
• Call-to-Action (CTA)
• Color Palette
• Negative Space
• Storyboarding
• Bullet Points
• Eye Contact
• Body Language
• Q&A Session

1. Slide Deck

A slide deck, in its most basic sense, is a collection of slides that are presented in sequence to support a speech or presentation. The slides typically contain key points, graphics, and other visual aids that make the presentation more engaging and easier to understand.

Beyond merely displaying information, a well-crafted slide deck can tell a story, create an emotional connection, or illustrate complex concepts in a digestible way. Its design elements, including the choice of colors, fonts, and images, play a significant role in how the presentation is received by the audience.

2. Speaker Notes

Speaker notes are a feature in presentation software that allows presenters to add notes or cues to their slides. These notes are only visible to the presenter during the presentation. They can include additional information, reminders, prompts, or even the full script of the speech.

While the audience sees the slide deck, the speaker can use these notes as a guide to ensure they cover all necessary points without memorizing the entire speech. It’s essential to use speaker notes strategically – they should aid the presentation, not become a script that hinders natural delivery.

A template is a pre-designed layout for a slide deck. It typically includes a set design, color scheme, typefaces, and placeholders for content like text, images, and graphs. Templates can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create a professional-looking presentation.

While templates can be incredibly helpful, it’s important to choose one that aligns with the theme, purpose, and audience of the presentation. Customizing the template to match your brand or topic can further enhance its effectiveness.

4. Transition

In the realm of presentations, a transition refers to the visual effect that occurs when you move from one slide to the next. Simple transitions include fade-ins and fade-outs, while more complex ones might involve 3D effects, wipes, or spins.

Transitions can add a touch of professionalism and dynamism to a presentation when used correctly. However, overuse or choosing flashy transitions can be distracting and detract from the content. The key is to use transitions that complement the presentation’s tone and pace without overshadowing the message.

5. Animation

Animation is the process of making objects or text in your slide deck appear to move. This can involve anything from making bullet points appear one by one, to having graphics fly in or out, to creating a simulation of a complex process. Animation can add interest, emphasize points, and guide the audience’s attention throughout the presentation.

While animations can make a presentation more engaging, they must be used judiciously. Excessive or overly complex animations can distract the audience, complicate the message, and look unprofessional. As with transitions, animations should support the content, not detract from it.

6. Multimedia

Multimedia refers to the combination of different types of media — such as text, images, audio, video, and animation — within a single presentation. Incorporating multimedia elements can make a presentation more engaging, cater to different learning styles, and aid in explaining complex ideas.

However, it’s important to ensure that multimedia elements are relevant, high-quality, and appropriately scaled for the presentation. Additionally, depending on the presentation venue, technical considerations such as file sizes, internet speed, and audio quality need to be taken into account when using multimedia.

7. White Space

In the context of presentation design, white space (or negative space) refers to the unmarked portions of a slide, which are free of text, images, or other visual elements. Despite its name, white space doesn’t necessarily have to be white — it’s any area of a slide not filled with content.

White space can give a slide a clean, balanced look and can help draw attention to the most important elements. It can also reduce cognitive load, making it easier for the audience to process information. Good use of white space is often a key difference between professional and amateur designs.

8. Aspect Ratio

Aspect ratio is the proportional relationship between a slide’s width and height. It’s typically expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, such as 4:3 or 16:9. The first number represents the width, and the second represents the height.

The choice of aspect ratio can affect how content fits on the screen and how the presentation appears on different displays. For instance, a 16:9 aspect ratio is often used for widescreen displays, while a 4:3 ratio may be more suitable for traditional computer monitors and projectors.

9. Grid System

The grid system is a framework used to align and layout design elements in a slide. It’s comprised of horizontal and vertical lines that divide the slide into equal sections or grids.

The grid system aids in creating visual harmony, balance, and consistency across slides. It can guide the placement of text, images, and other elements, ensuring that they’re evenly spaced and aligned. It’s an important tool for maintaining a professional and organized appearance in a presentation.

10. Readability

Readability refers to how easy it is for an audience to read and understand the text on your slides. It involves factors such as font size, typeface, line length, spacing, and contrast with the background.

Ensuring good readability is crucial in presentations. If your audience can’t easily read and understand your text, they’ll be more likely to disengage. Large fonts, simple language, high-contrast color schemes, and ample white space can enhance readability.

11. Infographic

An infographic is a visual representation of information, data, or knowledge. They’re used in presentations to communicate complex data in a clear, concise, and engaging way. Infographics can include charts, graphs, icons, pictures, and text.

While infographics can effectively communicate complex ideas, they must be designed carefully. Too much information, confusing visuals, or a lack of a clear hierarchy can make an infographic difficult to understand. It’s important to keep the design simple and focus on the key message.

To embed in a presentation context means to incorporate external content, such as a video, a document, or a website, directly into a slide. When an object is embedded, it becomes part of the presentation file and can be viewed or played without leaving the presentation.

Embedding can be a useful tool to incorporate interactive or supplementary content into a presentation. However, it’s important to remember that it can increase the file size of the presentation and may require an internet connection or specific software to function correctly.

13. Palette

A palette, in terms of presentations, refers to the set of colors chosen to be used throughout the slide deck. This can include primary colors for backgrounds and text, as well as secondary colors for accents and highlights.

The right color palette can help convey the mood of a presentation, reinforce branding, and increase visual interest. It’s important to choose colors that work well together and provide enough contrast for readability. Tools like color wheel or color scheme generators can be helpful in choosing a harmonious palette.

14. Vector Graphics

Vector graphics are digital images created using mathematical formulas rather than pixels. This means they can be scaled up or down without losing quality, making them ideal for presentations that may be viewed on different screen sizes.

Vector graphics often have smaller file sizes than their pixel-based counterparts (raster graphics), which can help keep your presentation file manageable. Common types of vector graphics include logos, icons, and illustrations.

15. Mood Board

A mood board is a collection of images, text, colors, and other design elements that serve as visual inspiration for a presentation. It helps establish the aesthetic, mood, or theme of the presentation before the design process begins.

Creating a mood board can be a valuable step in the presentation design process. It can help you visualize how different elements will work together, communicate your design ideas to others, and maintain consistency across your slides.

16. Hierarchy

In design, hierarchy refers to the arrangement of elements in a way that implies importance. In presentations, visual hierarchy helps guide the viewer’s eye to the most important elements first.

Hierarchy can be created through the use of size, color, contrast, alignment, and whitespace. Effective use of hierarchy can make your slides easier to understand and keep your audience focused on the key points.

17. Stock Photos

Stock photos are professionally taken photographs that are bought and sold on a royalty-free basis. They can be used in presentations to add visual interest, convey emotions, or illustrate specific concepts.

While stock photos can enhance a presentation, it’s important to use them judiciously and choose images that align with your presentation’s tone and content. Overuse of generic or irrelevant stock photos can make a presentation feel impersonal or unprofessional.

18. Sans Serif

Sans serif refers to a category of typefaces that do not have small lines or strokes attached to the ends of larger strokes. Sans serif fonts are often used in presentations because they’re typically easier to read on screens than serif fonts, which have these small lines.

Some popular sans serif fonts for presentations include Helvetica, Arial, and Calibri. When choosing a font for your slides, readability should be a primary consideration.

19. Hyperlink

A hyperlink, or link, is a clickable element in a slide that directs the viewer to another slide in the deck, a different document, or a web page. Hyperlinks can be used in presentations to provide additional information or to navigate to specific slides.

While hyperlinks can be useful, they should be used sparingly and appropriately. Links that direct the viewer away from the presentation can be distracting and disrupt the flow of your talk.

PDF stands for Portable Document Format. It’s a file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics, and layout of any source document, regardless of the computer or software used to create it. Presentations are often saved and shared as PDFs to ensure they look the same on any device.

While a PDF version of your presentation will maintain its appearance, it won’t include interactive elements like animations, transitions, and hyperlinks. Therefore, it’s best used for distributing slide handouts or when the presentation software used to create the deck isn’t available.

21. Raster Graphics

Raster graphics are digital images composed of individual pixels. These pixels, each a single point with its own color, come together to form the full image. Photographs are the most common type of raster graphics.

While raster graphics can provide detailed and vibrant images, they don’t scale well. Enlarging a raster image can lead to pixelation, where the individual pixels become visible and the image appears blurry. For this reason, raster images in presentations should be used at their original size or smaller.

22. Typeface

A typeface, often referred to as a font, is a set of characters with the same design. This includes letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and sometimes symbols. Typefaces can have different styles and weights, such as bold or italic.

The choice of typeface can significantly impact the readability and mood of a presentation. For example, serif typefaces can convey tradition and authority, while sans serif typefaces can appear modern and clean. The key is to choose a typeface that aligns with the purpose and audience of your presentation.

23. Visual Content

Visual content refers to the graphics, images, charts, infographics, animations, and other non-text elements in a presentation. These elements can help capture the audience’s attention, enhance understanding, and make the presentation more memorable.

While visual content can enhance a presentation, it’s important not to overload slides with too many visual elements, as this can confuse or overwhelm the audience. All visual content should be relevant, clear, and support the overall message of the presentation.

24. Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) in a presentation is a prompt that encourages the audience to take a specific action. This could be anything from visiting a website, signing up for a newsletter, participating in a discussion, or implementing a suggested strategy.

A strong CTA aligns with the goals of the presentation and is clear and compelling. It often comes at the end of the presentation, providing the audience with a next step or a way to apply what they’ve learned.

25. Thumbnails

In presentations, thumbnails are small versions of the slides that are used to navigate through the deck during the design process. They provide an overview of the presentation’s flow and can help identify inconsistencies in design.

Thumbnails are typically displayed in the sidebar of presentation software. They allow you to easily move, delete, or duplicate slides, and can provide a visual check for overall consistency and flow.

26. Aspect Ratio

27. interactive elements.

Interactive elements are components in a presentation that the audience can interact with. These could include hyperlinks, embedded quizzes, interactive infographics, or multimedia elements like audio and video.

Interactive elements can make a presentation more engaging and memorable. However, they require careful planning and should always be tested before the presentation to ensure they work as intended.

28. Placeholders

In the context of presentations, placeholders are boxes that are included in a slide layout to hold specific types of content, such as text, images, or charts. They guide the placement of content and can help ensure consistency across slides.

Placeholders can be especially useful when working with templates, as they provide a predefined layout to follow. However, they should be used flexibly – not every placeholder needs to be used, and additional elements can be added if necessary.

29. Master Slide

The master slide is the top slide in a hierarchy of slides that stores information about the theme and slide layouts of a presentation. Changes made to the master slide, such as modifying the background, fonts, or color scheme, are applied to all other slides in the presentation.

Master slides can help ensure consistency across a presentation and save time when making global changes. However, it’s important to note that individual slides can still be modified independently if necessary.

In presentations, a layout refers to the arrangement of elements on a slide. This includes the placement of text, images, shapes, and other elements, as well as the use of space and alignment.

Choosing the right layout can make your slides look organized and professional, guide the viewer’s eye, and enhance your message. Most presentation software offers a variety of pre-defined layouts, but these can usually be modified to better suit your content and design preferences.

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Article • 10 min read

How to Deliver Great Presentations

Presenting like a pro.

By the Mind Tools Content Team

Key takeaways:

• Connect with and understand your audience . Who is attending and why? What are their needs and expectaions?
• Prepare your content . How to start and finish strong. Tips to keep your audience engaged.
• Deliver confidently . Get comfortable with your visual aids. How to use body language effectively.
• Control the environment . Practice, practice, practice! Handling equipment failures. Have a back up plan.

Ever been to a really bad presentation? You know, the kind where the speaker stands behind the podium, uses slides that mirror what he is saying directly, and includes lots of data tables to validate his position.

But. "What's so bad about that?" you ask. "Isn't that how most presentations are given?" Yes. That is how most presentations are delivered, but that doesn't mean that's the most effective way to deliver them. This kind of presentation risks boring your audience to the point where they start wishing for a fire alarm to go off so they can escape. And once you lose someone, it is next to impossible to bring her attention back.

If the information you are presenting is important enough for you to deliver orally, then it demands an appropriate amount of planning and preparation so that the information you present is memorable – for the right reasons. Give a bad presentation and you'll be remembered all right: it just won't be the type of impression you want to leave in anyone's mind.

When someone presents well, it sends the message that the person is capable, confident, intelligent, and competent. These people get noticed and that type of attention bodes well for your career. Even if you don't make formal presentations in your current position, think about the future and keep in mind that you do have to present your ideas and opinions on a daily basis. The same basic principles of effective delivery apply.

Four Principles of Great Presentations

• Connect With and Understand Your Audience.
• Prepare Your Content.
• Deliver Confidently.
• Control the Environment.

1. Connect With and Understand Your Audience

To deliver a great presentation you have to consider the following audience characteristics:

• Profile – Who are they? What is the common element that brings them together?
• Needs – Why are they attending the presentation? What do they need to know after you've finished?
• Wants – What do they want from the presentation? Do they want to increase knowledge, learn something or be entertained? How can you connect their interests with your message?
• Expectations – What do they expect in terms of content and length?
• Current Knowledge – How much explanation do you need to provide? What assumptions can you make?

When you know your audience, you can prepare content that appeals to them specifically. If you pass over this first crucial step you risk delivering a presentation that is content rich and relevance poor.

2. Prepare Your Content

Now that you know who you are presenting to and why they are there, you can determine what to present. Here are some tips for content preparation:

• Don't try to cover everything. As Voltaire said, "The secret of being a bore is to tell all." Great presentations stimulate thoughts, questions, and discussion. Develop your content so that it covers the main points but leaves room for the audience to apply the information to their own circumstances.
• Start off well with a great hook – you only have a few minutes right at the start to fully engage the audience. Don't use this time to present background information. Get your audience charged up and eager to listen. Make the relevance immediately obvious.
• Also, start by telling your audience where you are heading. Don't make them wait for your conclusion, tell them up front what your premise or purpose is. This helps your audience stay focused. They may or may not agree with you at the start, but they will be able to quickly spot all of your supporting arguments.
• Your presentation should have five to seven take-away points. This follows the chunking principle , which you can learn more about here .
• Tell a story, make comparisons, and use lots of examples. Be sure to mix up the type of content to stimulate audience interest.
• Present your ideas logically using supporting evidence as necessary.
• Provide only as much background information as needed.
• Outline actions or next steps that are required.
• Develop a strong close, including a summary. Bring your conclusions back around to audience need and the hook you created. Consider ending with a question designed to stimulate further discussion.

For a similar but a subtly different approach, see our article on the Rhetorical Triangle .

3. Deliver Confidently

There are two main aspects of your delivery: your visual aids and your style. We'll look at them separately.

Unless your presentation is very short, you will need some sort of visual aid to keep the attention of your audience. There is a fine line, though, between drawing attention to your points, and distracting the audience from what you are saying. Here are some key factors to consider when designing slides:

• Keep slides simple and easy to understand.
• When explaining, start with the overall concept and then move to the details.
• The information on the slide should add value to your presentation or summarize it – it is not meant to be your presentation.
• Ensure that any charts, graphs or tables you include are very simple and easy to read. Use them sparingly.
• Use images (clip art and photos) sparingly and make sure the image means something and isn't just there to fill up space.
• Use pleasant color schemes, high contrast, simple fonts, and bold and italic to add meaning to words.
• Don't use fly-ins, fade-ins or outs or other animations unless absolutely necessary to really emphasize a point. How many times have you been put into a hypnotic state watching words or lines fly into a presentation?

Delivery Style

The way you deliver the content is often what makes or breaks a presentation. Here are some pointers to remember:

• Use gestures for meaning, not for comfort. Try not to talk with your hands or move about carelessly. Everything you do should have purpose i.e. gesture to the visual aid to draw the audience's attention.
• Pause for effect after main points or after you present a visual aid.
• Step out from behind the podium and connect with your audience – make sure you have a remote control device to change slides or cue other types of visuals.
• Talk loudly enough for people at the back to hear, or use a microphone.
• Make eye contact and hold it for three to five seconds. Any less and it looks like you are merely scanning the crowd.
• Be passionate – show your audience that you care about what you are saying.
• Consider putting up a blank or low-content screen between slides – this puts the attention where it should be: on you!
• Change your pace and style from time to time.
• Be natural – don't try to be a comedian if you're not.
• Finish early rather than late.

When you present with confidence and authority, your audience will pay attention and react to you as someone who is worth listening to. Fake it if you need to, by turning your nervousness into creative and enthusiastic energy.

4. Control the Environment

You won't ever eliminate all sources of problems, but through diligent planning and preparation, you can mitigate your risks.

• Practice, practice, practice: The ultimate goal is to deliver your presentation note-free. Short of that, you want to be sure you are comfortable with the material and that nothing comes as a surprise. Consider practicing in front of a video camera and reviewing your delivery. Don't take short-cuts here because it shows! The point is for the presentation to look effortless – when you struggle, the audience focuses on you, and not on what you are saying.
• Keep the lights on: when you darken the room, the screen stands out, not you. And it also encourages sleep, which you want to avoid at all costs!
• Always have back-ups and a backup plan. What if you forget your material? What will you do if the CD won't load? What if the equipment doesn't arrive on time? Plan for as many contingencies as possible.
• Dress appropriately for the situation – find out in advance what the dress code will be.
• Have a policy for answering questions – let your audience know when they can ask questions so you aren't inappropriately interrupted.
• Finish on time, every time. Last impressions are just as important as first ones.

Presenting is not a natural activity and to do it well requires careful thought and lots of practice.

You can choose to be average, or even below average, by simply emulating what most other presenters do. Or, you can take your presentations to the next level and leave your audiences with a powerful message that they remember, while keeping them interested and connected from start to finish.

To do this you need to pay strict attention to your audience analysis, content preparation, delivery style, and the external environment. When you control these for optimum audience relevance, interest, and engagement you are ready to deliver a great presentation.

The final element you must add is lots and lots of practice. Make your next presentation great by planning and preparing well in advance and making it look like it does come naturally to you.

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Dealing with Negative Space in Presentation Design 

August 10, 2021 / Blog negative space, presentation design

An often overlooked aspect  in presentation design is the use of negative/white space. Anyone can admit to sitting through a presentation with slides filled to the brim with text or images.  

Think back to the many slides you’ve seen that look more like pages of a book. No rhyme or reason behind the slide design. They are merely used as a repository of information that will be talked over during the presentation.  

Slides like that come off as extremely cluttered and unintelligible. But more importantly, they are prime examples of why the proper use of negative space is so important. 

What is Negative Space?   

Negative space refers to areas that are devoid of any sort of design element.  

While, by definition, the word “empty” may sound like it’s a bad thing, there’s purpose behind these spaces. Negative space is what literally defines and organizes the content featured on any given slide. Properly using negative space can greatly improve the visual impact of slides and  further elevate the core message .  

Creating Balance in Design   

As mentioned earlier, a common mistake that many people make is to just fill slides to the brim with content. Just blocks of text or a mishmash of images thrown into a single slide.  

Not only do these kinds of slides look visually sloppy, but they can also make things harder for audiences to understand what is being presented. Information overload is a very real concern that presenters should always consider. When there is just too much going on within a single slide, people will be left confused and unsure of what information they should be focusing on.  

By applying the use of more negative space, it forces you to  rethink and rebalance the content  of your slides. When a slide looks too busy or loaded, consider trimming down the copy further or creating a new slide altogether to move information into.  

This “less is more” approach gives you more breathing room to balance the content of your slides with its overall design. It will come down to a matter of what you are saying, not how much you have to say.  

Guide the Eyes of Your Audience   

If you find yourself staring at a crowded slide, remember this: When everything is being spoken loudly, nothing will be heard.  

Negative space allows you to partition information and guide audiences to your desired message. There’s a greater sense of importance when content is singled out and given the space it needs to shine. When done right, negative space is  a great tool for effectively developing a narrative  within your presentation.  

Imagine flipping from slide to slide in a quick pace with no speech to guide the presentation. By structuring content using negative space, audiences can identify key information from any given slide.  

Negative space helps you establish a visual roadmap that guides audiences across your presentation. When audiences can keep track of what’s being talked about, it’s easier for presenters to effectively get their point across.  

Engaging Minimalism   

Despite being an “overused” term, minimalism remains a very effective design practice. From both design and copy standpoints, crafting a concise and minimalist presentation has greater potential to be memorable than one that seems to say too much.  

The use of negative space is synonymous with minimalism because it provides structure and emphasis to the featured content. As naturally visual beings, humans are more likely to appreciate imagery that’s elegant and pleasing to look at.  

While it is always tempting to pack slides with as much information as possible, taking a more measured approach is more effective in engaging people’s attention.  

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

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Blog Graphic Design

Using White Space in Design: A Complete Guide

By Joan Ang , May 03, 2022

Space is one of the most important elements of design. It covers everything from the small spaces between text to the big empty areas on a webpage.

The effective use of space can greatly contribute to an attractive, harmonious, and successful design. Using white space can help you balance elements and layout your designs effectively.

In this guide, we will discuss the importance of white space and how to apply it in your designs. We will also explore different examples and design tips using  Venngage templates .

Click to jump ahead:

What is white space in design, what is the importance of white space in design, how to apply white space in your designs, faqs about white space.

White space is one of the 13 basic design principles and refers to any blank or empty space surrounding all the other elements in a design composition. It is the space between text, images, buttons and other objects that a user can see on a page or a screen.

In this example, all the areas without any text or image are considered white space:

Also called negative space , white space can be classified according to its size and use in a particular design.

When space is intentionally added to highlight certain elements, it is called  active white space . For example, in this poster, the text is purposely put at the bottom right of the page to allot the entire space in the center for the graphic illustrations:

On the other hand, for space that is naturally created like those between words and around fixed objects such as logos, it is called  passive white space .

There is also  micro  and  macro white space . Micro white space refers to small spaces between elements like the spaces between lines and paragraphs or the spaces between options in a menu.

Meanwhile, the entire space around and between major layout elements like the spaces between content blocks on a website is called macro white space. It acts as a canvas for all the elements included in your design.

Return to Table of Contents

White space is an essential element in any design and provides many advantages when used well. Here are some of its benefits:

It structures and organizes content

White space both separates and groups elements in a design, which shows how elements are related to one another and helps viewers organize visual information better.

According to the proximity design principle , objects that are placed closer together tend to be seen as a single unit rather than individual, unrelated parts. Using white space implements this principle.

By increasing or decreasing space to divide and group elements, viewers will be able to process the information they see in a more logical way.

This infographic is a great example of how white space can be used to section and cluster content:

It improves text readability and legibility

Using white space to separate blocks of text makes content easier to read and digest.

This improves the readability and legibility of your content and contributes to increased comprehension.

Adding a lot of white space around text also makes it easier on the eyes and keeps the reader from getting overwhelmed with too much information. At the same time, you can use variety in colors, shapes and other elements to make sure a design is interesting, even when it’s minimal.

Notice how the content in this infographic has a smooth flow that makes it much more readable even though the text is actually quite long. This is because white space is used to break text into easily digestible chunks.

It increases user interaction

In website design, white space promotes visual hierarchy and helps users easily find the information they are looking for.

Putting a good amount of white space around headers, headlines, buttons and navigation menus can immediately prompt users to do an action.

Using white space properly can prevent distractions that can keep users from their goal, which is to consume content.

For example, this landing page has dedicated spaces for the logo, navigation bar, main content area and email opt-in bar in that exact order to easily let users interact with the site.

It draws focus on important elements

Usually, when we want to attract attention or make something stand out, we make it bigger and more eye-catching. The same thing applies to white space.

The bigger the white space around certain parts of your design, the more you can put emphasis on them.

In web design, using plenty of white space (combined with proper alignment ) can help you highlight CTAs and other areas you want users to place their focus on.

This homepage, for example, is designed with a lot of white space that makes the headlines and graphic elements more prominent:

It promotes balance and visual order

Applying white space ensures the correct proportion and equal distribution of design elements and empty spaces.

Creating balance and visual hierarchy or order not only produces a visually appealing design but also improves user experience. It also contributes the overall unity of a design.

Moreover, maximizing white space can help you create a clean and minimalist design, which is usually associated with luxury and sophistication and can enhance your branding design.

This newsletter shows how the use of white space not only promotes symmetry between elements and spaces but can also be an elegant aesthetic:

Here are some tips and best practices for applying white space in your designs:

Consider visual hierarchy when positioning elements

Aside from using white space to separate design elements and content, you can also use it to arrange and position elements.

Adding white space in the right places enables you to guide the viewer’s eyes and direct them to the most important parts of your design.

The Z-layout is often used in web design to match the scanning patterns of users, in which the eyes naturally start at the top-left and move to the top-right corner of the page, then down to the center and back to the bottom-left to the bottom-right.

This landing page design is a perfect example of the Z-layout, with the navigation bar positioned at the top, main content area in the middle, and CTA buttons at the bottom.

Using white space ‌with ideal design layouts like the Z-layout can help you achieve optimal design for your website, user interface, or graphic materials.

Implement proper text formatting

Applying correct margins and ample paragraph and line spacing is one way of using white space to improve the presentation of text.

Aside from using paragraphs for grouping ideas together, you can also draw attention to headlines and titles by increasing the spacing between letters.

Meanwhile, the ideal spacing between lines of text is between 130-150% of the size of your font.

In this example, the content area has just the right margins and the paragraph lines have at least 1.15 spacing for better readability:

Group objects and content logically

Logical grouping is when you group information into logical categories.

For example, you don’t compile product images together in one area and then list the product names in another section.

This is where the use of white space comes in to help you organize elements and content in a way that makes the most sense.

To illustrate, here’s an e-commerce website template that applies logical grouping by arranging product images alongside product reviews and above CTA buttons:

Keep the design clean and minimal

A cluttered design can result in cognitive overload, which occurs when the amount of information that the memory can hold becomes too much, making viewers lose interest.

Keep design elements to a minimum to avoid unnecessary clutter and promote clarity and cohesiveness in your design.

Make sure there is enough white space around text to balance out a content-heavy design and use repetition to reinforce visual hierarchy.

For example, in this poster, the elements are placed only around the edges to make the text the center of attention:

Remember that white space does not mean not using any color

Using white space does not necessarily mean using only white or no colors at all to define the space between design elements and content.

White space can be any color, pattern, texture, or even a background image as long as it functions to bring important elements and content to the forefront of your design.

Using a good image as white space can create contrast and make different elements of your design pop, like in this example:

What is the white space rule?

The white space rule in design recommends using enough blank spaces in a design layout. It means maintaining the spaces between lines of text, paragraphs, and different design elements.

How important is white space in design?

White space is extremely important in design as it acts as a glue that holds your entire design together. It promotes balance and harmony and guides viewers toward the focal points of your design.

What is the difference between white space and negative space?

In design, white space and negative space mean the same thing. However, when it comes to art, they may have slightly different connotations.

In art, negative space is the space you create around your subject, whereas white space is where you put content and design elements. Nevertheless, both white space and negative space are concerned with the effective use of space in any composition.

Using white space can improve your design and benefit your users

Applying the principles of using white space in design can help you create more effective and user-focused designs. Use  Venngage templates  to create well-designed graphic materials that maximize the use of white space.

The Role That Pace Of Speech Plays In Delivering A Presentation

Table of contents.

Have you ever put an audiobook or podcast on 2x speed and tried to keep up with the speaker’s pace? Or, have you ever watched an episode of Gilmore Girls and been shocked at how fast Rory and Lorelai talk to each other?

If so, you understand how much affect speech pace can have.

Whether in conversation or in a presentation, the pace of your speech can have a huge impact on how listeners engage and respond to what you say.

In this blog, we will take a look at speech pace, what a good public speaking pace is, why it’s important, and how to find your pace.

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When We Say 'Pace Of Speech', What Do We Mean?

When we refer to the pace of your speech, it usually means how fast you are speaking, or how many words per minute you are speaking.

A normal pace – often a conversational pace – usually sits between 120-150 words per minute . Some professions, like auctioneers, professional debaters, and sports commentators’ pace of speech typically ranges from 200-450 words per minute.

The Guinness book of World Records has Sean Shannon from Canada as the current record holder for the fastest talker , with a rate of 655 words per minute.

S peech rates vary from person to person and can often be too fast/too slow depending on the person and the situation.

For example, individuals may speak faster when they want to demonstrate urgency or when they are anxious. On the other hand, they might speak slower on more somber and serious occasions, to speak for dramatic effect, or to reiterate an important point.

Why Is The Pace In Which Your Speak Important?

The pace at which you speak is important when it comes to your audience’s ability to understand what is being said. Additionally, you should vary your pace throughout in order to emphasis key moments in your information in your presentation.

If you talk fast, your audience may have a hard time understanding what you are saying. On the other hand, if you speak at a slow pace, your listeners may lose interest or stop paying attention.

While you might vary your pace throughout your conversation or presentation, be sure to consider your audience as you set an engaging pace.

What Does Your Speech Pace Indicate?

Your speaking rate (and your body language!) can indicate different things to your audience. The art of pacing is an important skill that public speaking professionals will learn and refine over years of perfecting their craft.

Let’s look at the effects that speaking fast or slow might have.

Speaking Slowly

Speaking slowly can indicate a somber and serious tone. It can also indicate that the speaker is unsure of what they are saying and can be paired with filler words like um, uh, or like.

Additionally, a slower pace can also happen when the speaker takes pauses for dramatic effect or to give the audience time to digest new information.

Speaking Quickly

Alternatively, if the presenter is speaking quickly, this could indicate a sense of urgency, passion, excitement, and emotion. If you speak quickly, it might also mean that you are nervous and want to rush through your presentation.

How Can You Tell If You're Speaking Too Fast, Or Too Slow?

If you’re the one speaking, it might be difficult to figure out if you are speaking too fast, slow, or just right. As we’ve said above, your speaking rate can have an effect on how your audience perceives you and engaged with your presentation material.

Keeping an eye on your audience participants is key to determining if your speech rate is appropriate. If you’re audience looks disengaged, bored, or tired, you may be speaking too slow.

On the other side, if your audience looks confused or lost throughout your entire talk, you may be speaking faster than the average rate.

What Impact Does The Wrong Speed Have When Public Speaking?

While you might think that things like the speed of your talking voice might now matter, the wrong speed can actually have quite the impact.

Using a regular speaking rate is one of the best ways to talk to your audience. Talking too fast or slow can help make a point, but shouldn’t be used throughout the entire talk. In fact, this, along with other common presentation mistakes , can have an impact on the audience’s perception of your business.

A good speaker can leave a lasting impression on your audience and can lead to more sales, higher interest, and more connections.

You Need To Find Your Own Speech Rate

In order to become a better presenter , you will need to practice and find your speech rate.

How Can You Find Your Pace?

You can find out whether you are talking to fast, too slow, or just right by timing the speed of your talking rate.

T he speech rate is determined by adding up the total words you speak per minute.

For example, if you record your talking voice for one minute and count the number of words you speak, you can find your speech rates.

This process may need a few tries and different lengths of time to nail down. You might even practice going through your entire speech and then determining your speech rate when listening to it. Not only will this help you practice your presentation, but it can help with finding a good pace.

There are a few apps you can use that can help you track your speech pace as you prepare for your presentation. Some of these apps include Preply, Orai, and Ummo.

How Do You Perfect Your Pace?

Like any skill, it’s all about practice. The best public speakers are skilled with words and their voice. They know how to bring excitement, build suspense with a pause, capture an audience in one word, and can hear the differences between paces of speech.

A great public speaker will master the conversational range of speech, know when to use pauses, and can speed up or slow down their speech based on what they are saying in that moment.

Through regular practice and recording your presentations, you will be able to hone the craft of public speaking and regulating your pace. You’ll also be able to determine the perfect length of a presentation, including t he number of slides you should include to keep your audience engaged.

Here Are Our Final Thoughts On Pace Of Your Speech During A Presentation

A great presentation will use various speech paces to keep audiences engaged, highlight key pieces of information, and show excitement or passion. Understanding your pace will help you become a better presenter and public speaker.

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Creating Lasting Presentation Spaces

Ask the Professionals

Here is the one often-repeated recommendation among the field experts: Budget the money to consult professionals if the institution can afford the expense. Each expert strongly recommends hiring an architectural engineer (AE) or an integrator with extensive experience in all aspects of audio-visual (AV) and presentation design to plan the project. Spending the money up front means saving money that would likely be spent making changes once the project has started.

If contracting a professional to create the design is simply not an option and planners decide to design the space themselves, planners should at the very least pay an AE or integrator to review the design before moving forward with the project. These professionals will likely catch potentially costly mistakes or aspects that had not been considered, such as issues with accessibility. Consulting with a professional to review the design will save the institution time, resources, and headaches.

Know the Goal

Perhaps the most important thing to do when choosing technology for a new presentation space is to be certain what functions the equipment needs to perform, down to the details. Planners should consider questions such as these: Does the space need a particular panel to control a specific motorized screen and projector? What about controlling the instructor’s volume from the same panel? Establishing the space’s needs, control interface preferences, and how everything needs to interact is much less costly—and easier—when done before purchasing equipment and programming control functions.

“When you’re talking about a presentation space, whether it’s a lecture hall or a theater or a performing arts center, you have to assume at some point these spaces are going to be multi-use,” says Bobby Hendricks, senior project manager and senior audio engineer at Quantum Technologies, Inc., a parent company of Hear Technologies. “So, what you have to decide is, what is the use going to be 75% of the time? For example, if the space is going to be a performance space for orchestras, an open, reflective sound is considered a plus. You want the room to be a natural amplifier. And then you make acoustic design decisions based on what you think the primary use is going to be.”

After considering those decisions, planners should examine what the secondary use is likely to be. If that orchestra-centered space will occasionally serve as a lecture hall, then the space is going to need some absorption and acoustic treatment to control the sound and increase intelligibility. “But I can’t go too far with that,” Hendricks says. “If the room is too treated and you do have musical performances, it’s not going to be appropriate.” To balance those needs, a designer might include extra audio inputs, electrical infrastructure, and other technology that would allow for the less typical use but still serve the primary use.

A similar approach is ensuring that the space and the surrounding areas have the infrastructure required to do everything that may be desired, not just now, but also down the road. “The decisions that you make about your infrastructure are far-reaching and potentially the most expensive mistakes,” Hendricks says. Changing the design’s plan or functions halfway through or after a project is completed may necessitate changing infrastructure, which can be extraordinarily costly. For example, if planners decide to add a video screen in the lobby two years after completing the project, having existing conduit in place for wiring will be much cheaper than pulling out sheetrock to run wire. So, ensuring that the number and location of electrical circuits, conduit wire paths, and structural support for heavy objects—such as speakers and motorized screens—serves the current and future purposes of the space will go a long way toward ongoing success.

Think Outside the Lecture Hall

Recent pandemic restrictions have taught planners to be creative in all aspects of campus life, including presentation spaces. Any flexibility built into a design is an advantage, for now and for the future. Design engineers recommend ensuring that the plan includes more than enough bandwidth to account for future technologies. Adding cameras and microphones that could be useful for streaming is a good strategy, too, even if the current use does not rely on streaming. Again, extra electrical and support infrastructure will provide for future technologies and functions.

In Covid times and for the future, campuses need to think about how to make a classroom or performance space accessible to students and participants who can’t be there in person, says David Long, a QTI system design engineer who has worked as technology project manager at multiple colleges. Such design decisions mean thinking from the remote-attendee’s point of view: they will need to be able to see and hear not only the speaker, but also the audience’s questions and reactions. The goal is to replicate the environment as much as possible for remote attendees, which might include budgeting for video switchers for streaming events and adding camera and microphone considerations.

“How’s it going to look?” Long asks. “Are you dealing with ambient lighting? Are you going to have to color correct for florescent lighting? The whole point is to make it like the remote end is actually there, and the less distraction you have from a technology standpoint, the better.”

Be Future-Ready

In addition to preparing for the future by considering remote participation, accounting for generous infrastructure, and allowing for plenty of growth, planners should take a look at emerging technologies and where they might fit in the presentation or performance space. While no one has a crystal ball, examining trends in the AV and tech world can be a step toward future-proofing the space. For example, emerging technologies are increasingly network-based, so having an extensive network of Cat6 ethernet cable in place—even if those elements are not currently in use—is a safe bet.

Much of technology development today is being driven by gaming, says QTI’s Hendricks. Multichannel audio, full immersion video, and virtual reality are breaking out of the gaming sphere and into art spaces. A good chance exists that some of those capabilities will eventually be expected in presentation and performance spaces, too. The goal is not tech for tech’s sake but for audience participation. “The expectation is going to be they can participate in some manner,” Hendricks says. “The day of being just a spectator is nearly gone. The expectation of 19- to 22-year-olds is that nobody just watches. It’s ‘we’re part of this.’ So, if you’re building something, you’re building it for the future.”

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A Deep Dive Into Virtual Presentations

Head of Product at Gloww

• Published on November 1, 2023

Virtual presentations are becoming increasingly common. With more businesses now embracing remote work, they’re an unavoidable adaptation that is essential for onboarding , employee development , and more. However, it’s not as straightforward as transplanting in-person presentation scripts into the virtual world. If you want to host virtual presentations that strike the right note, you need to think carefully about readying your material for online audiences. 

What is a virtual presentation? How can you keep online audiences engaged? These are the questions you should be asking yourself if you want to make effective use of the virtual format. 

How Are Virtual Presentations Different From Regular Presentations?

While the ultimate goal of virtual presentations is the same as in-person presentations, there are a lot of differences between the two formats . For starters, there’s generally less performance involved. When delivering an in-person presentation, a lot of focus is placed on keeping an audience engaged . A good presenter needs to be comfortable with public speaking and a master when it comes to body language. 

When presenting online, there’s far less pressure when it comes to performance. This is despite the fact that a presenter may be broadcasting to dozens, if not hundreds of people. An effective virtual presentation is generally more informal and relaxed. 

However, there are some downsides to delivering a presentation online. One of the biggest issues that presenters face is that they’ll have to contend with more distractions than if they were presenting to an in-person audience. These same distractions are what can render a standard conference call a challenge, and presenters often have to work extra hard to maintain audience engagement. 

What’s more, while the usual presentation skills aren’t always necessary, different proficiencies come into play. Body language doesn’t read as well when presenting online, but a speaker will still need to project a message virtually. Tone of voice is crucial, and a speaker needs to consider pauses carefully. Additionally, it’s important to constantly engage the audience if you want to maintain their interest levels. Relying too heavily on slides or failing to interact with an audience is a surefire way of dooming a virtual presentation to failure. For some inspiration you can find our employee engagement calendar on our blog too.

Why Are Virtual Presentations Important?

If your business operates in the virtual space and your teams are working remotely, you need to be thinking seriously about virtual presentations . It’s simply not practical to bring remote teams together for in-person training and team-building exercises, especially if employees are dispersed across the globe. 

Virtual presentations can be used as a learning tool to develop your workforce and introduce them to new ideas and ways of working. Some businesses utilize digital training documents for this purpose, but there’s little scope for interactivity here. With virtual presentations, you’re giving yourself the chance to connect with remote teams . As well as being a powerful tool for communication and instilling a sense of company culture , a live virtual presentation provides you with the chance to gauge engagement and understanding levels. 

How Do You Create a Virtual Presentation?

Is this your first time staging a virtual presentation ? Adapting your in-person approach to the virtual world might seem like a good idea, but you won’t achieve good results this way. To make your next virtual presentation a success , we’ve put together some handy tips. 

Start with Your Content 

This is the most important thing to consider when readying your presentation material for an online audience . While the bare bones of your in-person presentations can be used, they’ll need to be refined for the virtual space. Are you delivering training content to an online audience? All the key information can be captured here, but make sure it’s accessible and not overbaked. Is your presentation more client-facing? Make sure you’re capturing key selling points and considering what can be shared in other formats. 

Think About Your Slides 

Cramming too many slides into your presentation is a guaranteed way of sending your audience to sleep. If you want to maintain high engagement levels, keep slides sparse . During an in-person presentation, it’s easy to read the room and elaborate on complex slides if you feel the need to. When presenting online, this isn’t always possible. If your presentation has to be slide-heavy, try and stick to a single slide for every minute of speech. Ensure the slides you are using are concise and capture key information. 

Focus On Your Audience 

When presenting to an audience, you need to constantly reaffirm the fact that the information you’re discussing is relevant to them. Reading body language and audience responses can be a little tricky when presenting online, but keeping the focus on participants is crucial if you want to achieve good results. Regular interaction is a good way of keeping presentation material focused on your audience. Make a point of underlining how what you’re talking about applies to them and how it can help them achieve their everyday goals. 

Even if the material you’re covering in a presentation is pretty dense, you need to remain lively and dynamic to capture audience attention. Avoid leaning on your slides too heavily and make sure you’re not bound to a script. A little deviation can work wonders for audience engagement. 

Involve Your Audience to Avoid the Ringelmann Effect 

The Ringelmann Effect is something you might encounter if you’re presenting to a large audience. The bigger an audience gets, the less likely it is that individual participants are going to engage. By constantly involving your audience, you can overcome this. If you need to bring a hypothetical scenario into play , put someone on the spot. This way, everyone’s kept on their toes and constantly braced to interact. 

Remove External Distractions

While there’s not much you can do to ensure participants aren’t dealing with their own distractions, you can eliminate distractions from your presenting environment . Make sure your schedule is completely cleared to avoid any unwanted phone calls or interruptions. Are you presenting from an office location? Let anyone who is sharing your space know you need complete quiet so you can concentrate on delivering the best virtual presentation possible. 

Be Enthusiastic 

Even if the content of your presentation is on the dry side, you need to be able to sell it to your audience . If you’re not animated and engaged with the material, you can’t expect your audience to show an interest. Familiarizing yourself with presentation content will go a long way in ensuring you can deliver a lively and passionate event for participants. 

Professional Surroundings and Backgrounds 

No matter how animated you are during a presentation, you’ll still need to keep things professional . A low-key background will not only eliminate distractions but set the right tone for learning and development. Here’s our list of best backgrounds .

Best Virtual Presentation Tips

Now you’ve created a compelling outline for your virtual presentation , you’ll need to work on your presentation skills and deliver a memorable event. Below are some handy tips to get you started. 

Proper Webcam and Lighting 

Production values count when it comes to virtual presentations. A standard laptop webcam probably isn’t going to cut it if you want to make the right impression. An external webcam is therefore a must. You’ll also want to play around with lighting to make your presentation as effective as possible. 

Check Your Internet Connection 

Technical issues are sometimes unavoidable. However, even the slightest lag can render a virtual presentation pointless. Check your internet connection ahead of time to ensure you’re not going to have to contend with this issue. 

Talk to the Camera

It’s tempting to check the reactions of your online audience, but this isn’t really practical if you’re delivering a presentation to a large number of people. Rather than work overtime in an attempt to make a personal connection, talk to the camera instead. This gives you the best chance of making a connection with everyone who’s watching.  

Use Body Language 

Body language is very important when presenting online. While you won’t be able to make eye contact with individual audience members and use the space around you, you can make use of hand gestures and facial expressions to strengthen your message. However, remember to keep things simple.  

Engage Your Audience Members 

If you’re planning a longer virtual presentation or covering a lot of key topics, you need to make sure your audience is engaged . Constantly reach out to participants to hammer out specifics with examples or use quick-fire quizzes to keep everyone engaged. You can even use one of the 49 icebreakers to spice things up .

Be Yourself 

Authenticity matters when presenting online. It’s particularly important if you’re an employer presenting to remote teams. Make sure the persona you’re projecting is true to the one you’ve already established. The more authentic you are, the more credible your message will seem. 

What is the Optimum Amount of Time You Can Keep People Engaged Online? 

Most people will struggle to remain engaged with a single topic beyond five minutes. Your presentation is going to be longer than this, so avoid dwelling on specific topics for too long. For best results, try and keep your overall presentation no within 45 minutes . 

How Often Should Your Audience Share Their Thoughts?

Reach out to participants once every five minutes or so. You can ask individual participants to reflect on topics you’ve just covered, or break things up with more interactive elements like quizzes and polls. 

How Many Presenters Should There Be in a Virtual Presentation? 

With shorter presentations, it makes sense to keep things simple with a single presenter. If you’re planning a longer event and want to keep things as dynamic as possible, consider using two or three speakers. 

Host Your Next Virtual Presentation with Gloww 

Ready to unlock the potential of virtual presentations? Whether you’re presenting to prospective clients or need to reach out to remote teams, virtual presentations are the way forward . However, you’ll need a reliable video conferencing solution to stage a successful virtual presentation. 

With Gloww, you have everything you need to deliver memorable presentations that strike the right note with audiences. You can adapt your existing presentation material for the virtual space or explore brand-new elements to bring interactivity to your sessions. Add existing slide decks to readymade templates, make things more interesting with polls and quizzes, or integrate multimedia assets to take your presentations to a whole new level. You can get started with Gloww today. If you want to learn about Gloww can help you fine-tune your virtual presentations, explore our pricing plans , and discover more about our premium features. Do you still have questions about Gloww? Get in touch with the team.

Want to learn more? Here’s everything you need to record your meeting , a template for your monthly business review meetings , virtual meeting etiquettte , and all about how video conferencing works .

Ben Aflalo heads Gloww's product team with over two decades of leadership experience. Passionate about leveraging innovative technology, he is committed to building products for the greater good.

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2024 federal budget's key takeaways: Housing and carbon rebates, students and sin taxes

Budget sees nearly $53b in new spending over the next 5 years.

What's in the new federal budget?

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Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland today tabled a 400-page-plus budget her government is pitching as a balm for anxious millennials and Generation Z.

The budget proposes $52.9 billion in new spending over five years, including $8.5 billion in new spending for housing. To offset some of that new spending, Ottawa is pitching policy changes to bring in new revenue.

Here are some of the notable funding initiatives and legislative commitments in budget 2024.

Ottawa unloading unused offices to meet housing targets

One of the biggest pillars of the budget is its housing commitments. Before releasing the budget, the government laid out what it's calling Canada's Housing Plan — a pledge to "unlock" nearly 3.9 million homes by 2031.

The government says two million of those would be net new homes and it believes it can contribute to more than half of them. 

It plans to do that by:

• Converting underused federal offices into homes. The budget promises $1.1 billion over ten years to transform 50 per cent of the federal office portfolio into housing.
• Building homes on Canada Post properties. The government says the 1,700-plus Canada Post offices across the country can be used to build new homes while maintaining postal services. The federal government says it's assessing six Canada Post properties in Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia for development potential "as a start."
• Rethinking National Defence properties. The government is promising to look at redeveloping properties and buildings on National Defence lands for military and civilian use.
• Building apartments. Ottawa is pledging a $15 billion top-up to the Apartment Construction Loan Program, which says it will build 30,000 new homes across Canada.

Taxing vacant land?

As part of its push on housing, the federal government also says it's looking at vacant land that could be used to build homes.

It's not yet committing to new measures but the budget says the government will consider introducing a new tax on residentially zoned vacant land. 

• Freeland's new federal budget hikes taxes on the rich to cover billions in new spending
• Are you renting with no plans to buy? Here's what the federal budget has for you

The government said it plans to launch consultations on the measure later this year.

Help for students 

There's also something in the budget for students hunting for housing.

The government says it will update the formula used by the Canada Student Financial Assistance Program to calculate housing costs when determining financial need, to better reflect the cost of housing in the current climate.

The government estimates this could deliver more aid for rent to approximately 79,000 students each year, at an estimated cost of $154.6 million over five years.

• Updated Federal budget's funding boost for defence spread out over multiple years
• Liberals pledge $9B in new money for Indigenous communities in 2024 budget

The government is also promising to extend increased student grants and interest-free loans, at an estimated total cost of $1.1 billion this year.

Increase in taxes on capital gains

To help cover some of its multi-billion dollar commitments, the government is proposing a tax hike on capital gains — the profit individuals make when assets like stocks and second properties are sold.

The government is proposing an increase in the taxable portion of capital gains, up from the current 50 per cent to two thirds for annual capital gains over $250,000. 

New investment to lead 'housing revolution in Canada,' Freeland says

Freeland said the change would impact the wealthiest 0.1 per cent.

There's still some protection for small businesses. There's been a lifetime capital gains exemption which allows Canadians to exempt up to $1,016,836 in capital gains tax-free on the sale of small business shares and farming and fishing property. This June the tax-free limit will be increased to $1.25 million and will continue to be indexed to inflation thereafter, according to the budget.

The federal government estimates this could bring in more than $19 billion over five years, although some analysts are not convinced.

Disability benefit amounts to $200 per month 

Parliament last year passed the Canada Disability Benefit Act, which promised to send a direct benefit to low-income, working-age people with disabilities. 

Budget 2024 proposes funding of $6.1 billion over six years, beginning this fiscal year, and $1.4 billion per year ongoing, for a new Canada Disability Benefit.

Advocates had been hoping for something along the lines of $1,000 per month per person . They'll be disappointed.

According to the budget document, the maximum benefit will amount to $2,400 per year for low income individuals with disabilities between the ages of 18 and 64 — about $200 a month.

• Federal government plans to lease public lands for construction through new housing strategy
• Alberta premier says she's prepared to take Ottawa to court over housing deals

The government said it plans for the Canada Disability Benefit Act to come into force in June 2024 and for payments to start in July 2025.

Carbon rebate for small businesses coming 

The federal government has heard an earful from small business advocates who accuse it of reneging on a promise to return a portion of carbon pricing revenues to small businesses to mitigate the tax's economic costs.

• What's behind the carbon tax, and does it work?
• Federal government scales back carbon tax rebates for small businesses

The budget proposes to return fuel charge proceeds from 2019-20 through 2023-24 to an estimated 600,000 businesses with 499 or fewer employees through a new refundable tax credit.

The government said this would deliver $2.5 billion directly to Canada's small- and medium-sized businesses.

Darts and vape pods will cost more 

Pitching it as a measure to cut the number of people smoking and vaping, the Liberals are promising to raise revenues on tobacco and smoking products.

• Just Asking  wants to know:   What questions do you have about quitting smoking or vaping? Do you think sin taxes will encourage smoking cessation?  Fill out the details on  this form  and send us your questions ahead of our show on April 20.

Starting Wednesday, the total tobacco excise duty will be $5.49 per carton. The government estimates this could increase federal revenue by $1.36 billion over five years starting in 2024-25.

The budget also proposes to increase the vaping excise duty rates by 12 per cent effective July 1. That means an increase of 12 to 24 cents per pod, depending on where you live. 

• 'Stay the hell away from our kids': Health minister vows to restrict nicotine pouches — but how?

Ottawa hopes this increase in sin taxes will bring in $310 million over five years, starting in 2024-25.

More money for CBC 

Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge has mused about redefining the role of the public broadcaster before the next federal election . But before that happens, CBC/Radio-Canada is getting a top-up this year. 

The budget promises $42 million more in 2024-25 for CBC/Radio-Canada for "news and entertainment programming." CBC/Radio-Canada received about $1.3 billion in total federal funding last year.

The government says it's doing this to ensure that Canadians across the country, including rural, remote, Indigenous and minority language communities, have access to independent journalism and entertainment.

Last year, the CBC announced a financial shortfall, cut 141 employees and eliminated 205 vacant positions. In a statement issued Tuesday, CBC spokesperson Leon Mar said the new funding means the corporation can balance its budget "without significant additional reductions this year."

Boost for Canada's spy agency 

As the government takes heat over how it has handled the threat of foreign election interference, it's promising more money to bolster its spy service.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is in line to receive $655.7 million over eight years, starting this fiscal year, to enhance its intelligence capabilities and its presence in Toronto.

• CSIS chief defends his spies' work after PM casts doubt on reliability of agency's reports
• Trudeau says it's his job to question CSIS intelligence, call out 'contradictions'

The budget also promises to guarantee up to $5 billion in loans for Indigenous communities to participate in natural resource development and energy projects in their territories.

These loans would be provided by financial institutions or other lenders and guaranteed by the federal government, meaning Indigenous borrowers who opt in could benefit from lower interest rates, the budget says. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Catharine Tunney is a reporter with CBC's Parliament Hill bureau, where she covers national security and the RCMP. She worked previously for CBC in Nova Scotia. You can reach her at [email protected]

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