There is a skill to keeping an audience enthralled at a Phuket conference venue, and it’s not one that everyone possesses. Many an interesting topic has been poorly communicated because the speaker wasn’t properly prepared. They end up losing their audience in inane slides, drawn-out explanations and random, inconsequential tangents. Getting the planning of your presentation right is half the battle, so here are a few tips to nailing that.

Start with an outline

It’s said that, if you can’t explain a complex theory simply, you probably don’t understand it fully. That’s not always true. In fact, the reverse can sometimes apply. If you’ve been selected to speak at a Phuket conference venue, your excitement at being able to share something you’re passionate about can quickly overcome you and you’ll find your slide deck getting longer and longer as you add more of the little details which you find so remarkable. This will inevitably lead to a failed presentation. Instead, start by asking what specific question you want to answer. Create an outline of your presentation to answer that question and only that question.

Plan for the time

Conferences need to work on a tight schedule so that the organisers can pack as much value into a limited time as possible. If they indulge every speaker and allow them to talk on an on about their passions for hours, the conference could potentially last weeks instead of days. Instead, each speaker is kept to a strict limit. It’s important to plan for that limit and make sure that you don’t try to cover too much detail. Making a few pivotal points and elaborating in the Q&A or inviting attendees to approach you after your presentation is much better than trying to fit every last detail into a finite amount of time.

Use relevant visuals

Building a good slide deck is more challenging than you might think. The common advice is to incorporate images because endless blocks of text will soon have the whole Phuket conference venue snoring. However, irrelevant and confusing visuals will only make things worse. Your slides – the images or graphs therein – should enhance the audiences understanding of what you’re saying, not obstruct it, so think very carefully about each one and ask yourself if it makes things more or less clear.

Know your audience

No one likes being talked down to, but few people like being confused by jargon, either. Make sure you find out exactly what kind of people are expected to show up at the Phuket conference venue you’re speaking at so that you can gauge their knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. Once you know that, you’ll know how technical you can make your presentation.

Rehearse

Don’t try to play your presentation off the cuff because you’re almost certain to panic, forget important details, fall over your words or waste half your allotted time saying “umm” and “ahh”. Write a script, time yourself speaking it so that you know it fits the timeframe, rehearse it, simplify it into notes, hearse it some more and keep practising until a single cue card can remind you of exactly what you wanted to say about each slide.