Blog

5 TED Talk Secrets To Revamp Your Online Presentations

(Picture courtesy of Steve Jurvetson)

What’s your favourite TED Talk?

If you’re a fan of TED, I’m sure you will have your favourites. Mine include some of the classics, such as:

  • Ken Robinson talking about creativity and education
  • Dame Stephanie Shirley talking about ambitious women (that’s her in the picture above)
  • All of the late Hans Rosling’s presentations – and seeing the way he constantly reinvented himself as a presenter
  • All of Bill Gates’ presentations – a surprisingly engaging presenter (for a nerd!), and it’s interesting to see his evolution as a presenter

and many more …

TED set a new standard for presentations.

We can thank TED for setting a new standard in presentation skills, and millions of professionals around the world should be eternally grateful. Audiences expect far more now from presenters – even in stock-standard, ‘boring’ business presentations.

That’s a good thing in general, but it can be a challenge for the typical business presenter, and sometimes even for professional speakers. Most presentations are not ideas that change the world, delivered by ‘the’ world expert on the topic.

It’s even more challenging if you’re delivering an online presentation – which has become more common now because of the pandemic. Even if you’re trying to learn presentation techniques from the best TED speakers, many of these techniques don’t work in online presentations.

For example:

  • People always relate to stories, but online audiences are more impatient, and will switch off (literally!) unless you get to the point fast.
  • You would like to use the energy in the room to take your audience on a journey, but they are individuals sitting alone in front of a computer screen.
  • TED audiences are ‘warmed up’ because they expect to hear from world-class experts with big ideas, but you need to build that rapport and credibility.
  • It’s more difficult to use humour and surprise because you don’t get as much feedback from your audience (and they don’t get feedback from each other).

But all is not lost!

You can still learn from the best TED Talks, and use or adapt these techniques to make your next online presentation zing!

For example:

  • Use humour differently, in a way that doesn’t need a bunch of people to burst out laughing.
  • Tell more stories, because stories are important. But use more slides for your story, so the online audience can see it unfold.
  • Have one main message, but add a clear structure to ‘signpost’ the presentation.
  • Design better slides, but you need to do even better than TED, because your slides are the visuals (not just visual aids).
  • Engage the audience regularly, but in more direct, interactive ways than just mentally invoking intrigue, curiosity, and surprise.

Stunning Slides for Online Presentations

I’m running an online presentation soon about one important part of better online presentations, so register below and I’ll show you some simple and practical steps you can take right now.

In this online presentation, I’ll show you simple tricks to make your online presentation more professional and engaging through creative and effective slides.

You will learn how to:

  • Design and optimise slides for online presentations
  • Build attractive slides quickly and easily
  • Find free and low-cost graphics you can use legally
  • Show data (numbers, statistics, etc.) in a meaningful way

When: Thursday 31st March, 8-8.50am WST, 11-11.50am AEDT

Register Now

This presentation will be recorded, and the recording will be sent to everybody who registers.

Find Out More

Scroll to Top