RE: FN-FORUM: presentation

date posted 19th August 2003 20:07

> short informal presentation on my ideas. It will probably be only one
> person and they suggested a powerpoint presentation.

Hehe. Short funny story:

It was my turn to make a 10 minute presentation about my business this
morning at my BNI chapter meeting.

I'd planned to totally AVOID using Powerpoint presentations (I
personally don't like them) or indeed any form of technology. I was
going to stand up and speak, possibly with a flipchart but definitely
with a single page handout.

However a friend of mine suggested I do a short demo of some stuff I'd
been working on. He convinced me it was a good idea and I turned up at
7am with a demo on my laptop, all ready to go... but the video lead for
the projector was missing, and so I had to revert back to my original
idea!

Fortunately I hadn't abandoned the handout idea completely and I had a
stack of them in my bag, and everything ended successfully (in fact a
few folk complimented me on on my presentation)

In short:

1) Personally I prefer to avoid the techno-approach, but if you do
decide to depend on technology, make sure you have a non-technical
backup plan for when (if) it all goes pear-shaped

2) if I were you I'd speak about (a) your ideas (b) how you'd implement
them (ie your process) and (c) why it's important to do it that way.

3) you *must* be able to speak with passion about what you're doing.
IMHO it doesn't matter if you come across as nervous, but it *does*
matter that you demonstrate that you know what your business is about
and how to do it properly. But if you can do the latter then the former
is less likely to be an issue...

Just my 2p, Lindsey. Good Luck :>

Cam