Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech is one of the most famous presentations in US history. It’s a message we still need just as much in 2020 as we did in 1963 when it was delivered. But if you had to guess how long this famous speech delivered to nearly 250 thousand people was, what would your guess be?
17 minutes. That amazing speech lasted less than 20 minutes. Most TED talks of today last between 10-18 minutes. What’s the secret?
While there is no one right length or no one right structure, there are some strategies that great speakers use. Since most presentations usually fall somewhere around 30 minutes, we’ve developed 5 strategies for planning out your typical 30-minute presentation. They range from 3 segments to 7. Segments are audience attention units. With each segment, you allow your audience a chance to reset and refocus.
Option 1: 3 Segments
- 5-Minute Intro
- 20-Minute Body
- 5-Minute Outro
This option is perhaps the most classic format: an intro, a body, and an outro or conclusion. You’ll notice that none of the segments in our plans spend over 20 minutes on the same thing. There’s a reason for that. Research has shown that most people can pay attention for about 18 minutes until they start to tune out. In fact, the TED organization won’t let anyone (no matter how famous) speak for more than 18 minutes. Others say you can safely speak on one thing for about 20 minutes, but no more than that. After 20 minutes, the audience needs a change, a transition, or something different to essentially reset their attention span.
Option 2: 4 Segments
- 5-Minute Intro
- 15-Minute Body
- 5-Minute Outro
- 10-Minute Discussion
This option allows for one third of the total presentation time to directly involve the audience. The presentation is compacted down to a brief intro, a 15-minute message, and a brief outro before allowing 10 minutes for audience involvement. How you handle the 10-minute discussion time is up to you. You might use that time for a traditional question and answer session in which you open up for the floor for questions. On the other hand, you might use that 10 minutes to allow audience members to break into small groups and discuss the presentation content.
Option 3: 5 Segments
- 5-Minute Intro
- 10-Minute Point 1
- 3-Minute Transition
- 10-Minute Point 2
- 5-Minute Outro
This option works well if you have 2 significant points you need to get across to your audience. Don’t fall into the trap that every presentation needs to have 3 main points. It doesn’t. This belief probably harkens back to our days of learning the 5-paragraph essay format for developing a clear message. If you use this format, pay special attention to that 3-minute transition, especially if points 1 and 2 are heavy or hard to process. That little “brain break” will give your audience a chance to come up for air before diving back down into the more serious content.
Option 4: 6 Segments
- 2-Minute Intro
- 8-Minute Point 1
- 5-Minute Group Discussion
- 2-Minute Transition
- 8-Minute Point 2
- 5-Minute Group Discussion
This option has 6 segments and works well if you’d rather give short presentations followed by group “break-out” sessions. In this option, you aren’t asking the audience to listen to you talk for more than 10 minutes at a time. And with the frequency of transitions between segments, it’s easier to keep the audience focused and engaged than it would be for a presentation in which you are talking the whole 30 minutes.
Option 5: 7 Segments
- 2-Minute Intro
- 8-Minute Point 1
- 1-Minute Transition
- 8-Minute Point 2
- 1-Minute Transition
- 8-Minute Point 3
- 2-Minute Outro
This option will work best for you if you have 3 points to cover. The main content is broken down into three 8-minute chunks with transitions coming in between each point. It is crucial that these transitions feel different than the content of your points. They have to stand out and feel like a break. You could use these transitions to make your audience laugh, or ask for a show of hands, or use presentation media like short video clips to give them a break from listening to you. The presentation will feel monotonous if your audience doesn’t recognize and feel all 7 of the different segments.
You can use these as templates and adjust them accordingly to meet the needs of your presentation context and your audience. Just make sure you break things up so that you aren’t asking your audience to pay attention to any one thing for more than 20 minutes at a time.
We love learning and sharing presentation strategies whether new or old. Check out our full line of presentation resources now.
