While reading the newspaper this morning I noticed a funny cartoon, Real Life Adventures, by Wise and Aldrich. Two businessmen are talking to each other and the one says, ?It's a presentation karaoke machine. You can play an earlier successful presentation and lip-sync to it. And since most meetings are about the same old thing every time, nobody even knows the difference.?

It got me thinking about how many pathetic presentations I've attended that did sound like they were coming from a presentation karaoke machine. The presenter didn't care whether the audience was ?getting it? or not, he just rambled on with his agenda. It was a waste of time for both the presenter and the audience.

Make Presentations Two-Way Communication

Presentations can be described as a one-way communication activity. The participants sit and listen while the expert ?presents.? However, it's this type of thinking that creates a karaoke presentation.

I prefer to think of presentations as an opportunity to engage my audience in my topic. Presentations can be a two-way communication activity if you take the time to make each presentation unique for the group you are presenting to. No matter what your topic, it can be tweaked to meet the needs of a specific audience.

For instance, if I am giving a talk on effective business writing techniques to a group of realtors, I would make sure the examples I use refer specifically to the writing of realtors. I would find out ahead of time what realtors consider their main problems when putting together a business message. From there I would incorporate solutions to these specific issues in my presentation.

A presentation isn't effective unless the audience can relate to what you are saying. They have to bring the information into their world before it will make sense to them. That's why it's so effective to use examples common to them.

Adults Learn By Doing

Remember, adults learn by doing. Try to include some small, fun activity, in your presentation to involve your audience. Rather than telling them, let them experience the excitement of discovery. Arrange one of your main points to become an exercise for the audience.

The activity doesn't have to be complicated or take a long time. I often use a handout where participants fill in the blanks. I encourage participants to work with the person sitting next to them to try to get the right answer. Everyone laughs when I read off the answers and we all have a good time.

Doing this accomplishes two things: you give the audience a break from your lecturing and you give yourself a break from lecturing. Now you can put yourself in the role of a facilitator and get some one-on-one interaction with audience members. It will also cause your evaluations to skyrocket. Adults get such few opportunities to have fun at work that these activities are greatly appreciated.