It’s time for a personal confession. My name is Scott Schwertly and I am annoyed. No, I am angry. People can care less about their presentations. Don’t believe me. Look around you! Most of them are lame.

Hence, I have created a personal blog (think of it as an extension of Ethos3) to point out the flaws, weaknesses, and dumb crap that presenters do each and everyday.  It’s a reaction to both Stuff White People Like and Stuff Christians Like so I am calling it Stuff Presenters Like.  In a nutshell, it’s a blog about the good, the bad, and the lame things presenters do everyday.

This is what you will find on Stuff Presenters Like:

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If you find yourself making your fair share of presentations for your company or business, there is a good chance you may also be called upon to introduce another speaker – maybe at short notice.
Don’t panic! If you know your way around a presentation, you can make a great introduction. Essentially, you’re being asked to deliver a very short speech. Many of the same fundamentals that apply to a presentation apply to an introduction, with a few special points to keep in mind.

How Long Is Too Long?
When making an introduction, it’s important to remember that brief is best. After all, the audience is there to hear a speaker, not an introduction. Your goal is to set the stage in a speedy manner while getting across three important points:

Subject – What is your speaker going to address?
Interest – What makes this subject important to your audience?
Speaker – Who is your speaker?

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Even in the midst of these economic hard times, people are still finding the extra cash to check out a movie now and then. Recent films like Avatar and The Book of Eli show that the public is still hungry for blockbusters, and when it comes to blockbusters, one name stands above the others – Steven Spielberg.

Love him or hate him, no one walks the line between innovative, artistic film making, and popular success like Steven Spielberg. In fact there was no such thing as a blockbuster film until Spielberg made Jaws. There had been very successful films of course, but Jaws remade film distribution – and profitability – into the model we still have until this day.

What does this have to do with your next presentation?

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It’s great to find yourself at the front of the room, speaking clearly, shuffling confidently through your perfectly-chosen slides, seeing looks on the faces of your audience members that seem to say “Yes, I am listening. No, I cannot turn away.”

If only it was always that easy…

It can be helpful to think about attention in terms of presentations in three ways: First, we need to grab the audience’s attention. We need to find some way to capture them quickly and make sure that they are invested in our message right from the start. Secondly, we need to hold their attention. It serves little purpose to shock our audience into a state of alertness if we quickly lull them back into a stupor of boredom and complacency. Once we have our audience’s attention, we need to pace our presentation in such a way that can keep them coming along for the ride by creating various, dynamic “highs” and “lows” as we build toward our conclusion. The third way to think about attention in regards to our presentations involves what happens after the presentation is over. Did all of our hard work go in one ear and out the other – or did we make it memorable?

Making your presentation memorable can be tricky. Some of the things we do to create excitement in the moment when we are speaking won’t necessarily resonate beyond that afternoon. However, some of the fundamentals of a good presentation will make you compelling on stage and for many water-cooler discussions to come.

Here are a few ways to create a buzz the next time you present.

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