Presentations come in a wide variety of formats but the purpose and objective is singular. Presentations are a one way exchange of information.
The Dark Ages
When I first started giving presentations in organizational settings (more than 35 years ago) it began as stand and talk, with maybe some models or posterboard representations to support the topic.
This quickly evolved to where state of the art was photocopying from a document onto acetates and projecting to a screen with an overhead projector. Later you could also write on the acetate using a dry erase marker during the presentation making it a bit more lively.
Meeting/ presentation rooms began to be equiped with white boards and you could use these. Flip charts became a popular replacement for pre-prepared poster boards and still today I see this approach used by more mature presentors (not because its good, just because they are living in the past – some people have trouble keeping up with the times).
Modern Lazy Man Presentations
Presentation software, digital projectors (there was a point where I used to lug one around with me) and now more commonly smart TV’s have become the norm. You can whip up a presentations with ornate graphics, video and sound in literally just minutes.
Unfortunately the ease associated with the current tool set has contributed to a severe drop inthe quality of the presentations.
Often these days we just get to see a talking head reading the text which is on the powerpoint slides they are showing. I feel like shouting, “I can read, you don’t need to read it to me”.
Some Suggestions
First, remember presentations are one way information exchanges. You may allow clarification questions but if you want a discussion there are many other far more appropriate forums (workshops, seminars, meetings, etc).
If the audience is bored you are not meeting your objective, as a general rule bored people don’t absorb information. In these cases while you may have droned on, or read slides, it’s likely very little information was actually passed along.
To avoid boredom use the accompanying exhibits to grab attention. For example in the middle of a series of slides insert a picture of a horse -for no reason other than to get the audiences attention. Basically a random act, humor works as well.
My final advise is to pay attention to your audience. It is really easy to tell if people are engaged and frankly if they are not, and you have no attention getters left, then just give up. Wrap up the presentation and say goodbye. Believe it or not I do this regularly, I have little patience for wasting time and if the audience is not receptive whats the point?