How to Build Support Quickly for Your Presentation
Last year I wrote about what to do if you need to create an important presentation at the last minute in The Dog Ate My Speech: Preparing an Important Presentation at the Last Minute . This focused on techniques for creating and learning effective content with very little time. But if you have time, another way to make last minute presentations more effective is to get the support of the audience before you start. Before most presentations there are breaks where people drink coffee and chat. You can use this time to mention your most important points to as many people as you can. Later when you are presenting you will probably notice these people nodding as you mention these points. Your ideas sound familiar so people show signs of recognizing them, and this gives encouraging body language feedback that will make you more confident. If you have a little more time, you could also try to organize a practice session with some of the people who will attend the real presentati...