Sam Thatte

How long should your presentation be?

Stickonomics tip #3

Please comment below after you watch the video. I would like to hear from you so I know what problems you see with presentations that I can help solve in the future!

What follows is the transcript from the video. That is for Google and Bing. Not for you. Unless you are using Netscape Navigator. If you are, you probably don’t see the video. So go ahead and read!

Welcome to the 3rd issue of Stickonomics! Hi, My name is Sam Thatte. I work with small businesses on developing their presentation skills. You can find me at samthatte.com.

So what is Stickonomics? Stickonomics is “Sticky presentation tips that improve your economics”.

How long should your presentation be?

Let’s face it. You probably are more interested in presenting to this group than they are interested in listening to you speak. So it should not be longer than they want it to be. Which means you have to keep their attention. Which means you have to make it interesting. Which means you have only one main point. Which means you have to clarify your message to the core!

Applebee’s  is selling a lot of beer and chicken wings with 60 second commercials. Your message may be a bit more complex but distill it! Plan to finish early and give yourself some breathing room. I’ll promise you this, No one ever, ever complains if the presentation ends early!

If you seriously think that it will take an hour to get through the important points, consider sending some information to the attendees ahead of time. You can always email a handout later to people that really want it.

Know your point, get to the point and stick to your point!

If you have a choice to be really boring for a long time, versus being really boring for a short time, then it’s better to be really boring for a short time because that will still get you an applause for ending early!

So to answer your question, how long should it be? It should be short enough to be interesting but long enough to cover the subject!

On that note, I am going to finish this short presentation while it is still interesting!

Thanks for watching, and for more tips and pointers on presentations, please visit my website at samthatte.com.