Tips for Designing and Delivering an Engaging Presentation

Outlined below is a series of tips and resources to help you design, craft, deliver, promote, and leverage an engaging presentation at the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference—or anywhere for that matter.

BLUEPRINT your session…

...before you start drafting the session description

  • Define your audience
  • Define your one big idea
  • Keep it authentic!

Resources:

Create a Presentation Your Audience Will Care About  (by Nancy Duarte)

Craft a Winning Session Description

  • Clearly connect your one big idea
  • Keep your audience in mind
  • Make your title accurate and catchy
  • Make your abstract clear and intriguing
    • Be concise; avoid overly descriptive prose.
    • Use the abstract to clearly state the intended outcomes of your session and what attendees will gain. We cannot overemphasize how important it is to attendees that your title and abstract accurately reflect your presentation content.
    • Remember that attendees are looking for opportunities to engage with your topic in meaningful ways. (50-word limit)
  • Use your own voice/style—keep it authentic!
  • Write with interaction in mind—engage your audience

Resources:

How to Write Killer Conference Session Titles (Midcourse Corrections Blog)
Conference Session Descriptions That Whet the Appetite (Midcourse Corrections Blog)
Writing Session Descriptions For Dummies (Midcourse Corrections Blog)
Do Conference Session Learning Objectives Really Matter? (Midcourse Corrections Blog)

Design Your Presentation

  • Keep your audience in mind
  • Apply your one big idea as a filter to keep your session on target—reread your abstract and title to make sure you stay true to the session as described
  • Apply good visual design principles

Resources:

10 Rules to Instantly Improve Your Presentations (HubSpot Blog)
Nancy Duarte (Presentation Services)

Promote Your Session

  • Keep your audience in mind—who will be interested?
  • Use social media—use your one big idea to describe your session

Deliver Your Session

  • Keep your audience in mind—find out who's in the room 
  • Use your one big idea—stay focused
  • Be authentic—not perfect
  • Make it interactive—engage the audience

Resources:

Engagement Strategies / Facilitation Resources (Vic McWaters)
How to Practice Your Presentation (Six Minutes: Presentation Skills)

Leverage Your Work

  • Review evaluations
  • Add session links to your online resume
  • Provide report to your management
  • Turn your session into an article or blog post or enhance for another conference
  • Upload your materials to the EDUCAUSE Library