Have you ever been asked to deliver a presentation or speak at an event at the last minute? Every part of you shouts; “ No!” because you don’t have enough time to prepare but you know you can’t let the opportunity pass you by.
Working in a newsroom trains you to work hard and work fast in whatever time you have before every live TV or radio bulletin. Working in that way trains you to focus and prioritise.
This is what I did recently when I was asked at short notice to stand in and deliver a keynote speech for the Association of Schools and Colleges about my video production work with schools over the last five years.
Here’s a quick guide to how I pulled it together in limited time:
1. How much time have you actually got?
Firstly, I worked out exactly how much time I had and then how much of that time I would give to planning, writing and rehearsing. I also saw this as an opportunity to delegate some household taskst!
2. What’s your objective?
I identified my audience, key message and call to action.
My audience was: school & college principals, who also happen to be the target audience of one arm of my business so this was definitely too good an opportunity for me to pass up! I jotted down some notes of what would be of interest to them so that I didn’t overwhelm them with information that wasn’t relevant.
My key message tied in with the theme of the event; ‘leadership’, and how my background working in newsrooms and setting up a business a month before Covid, led me into producing broadcast standard open-day films for schools.
My CTA; a very subtle: ‘if you are thinking about creating online content for your school, don’t hesitate to get in touch’!
I was the last of 8 speakers that day, so I wanted to create something sharp, funny and engaging and I had plenty of good stories up my sleeve from my time with GMTV and BBC.
3. A Simple Structure
Intro: I always start with a hook: a story, question or thought-provoking statement; something really gripping to get my audience’s attention.
Main body: I pulled together all my rough notes; the key points backed up with stories and anecdotes. Then I edited it; cut out what I didn’t need and re-jigged the order until it flowed.
Conclusion: In a truly serendipitous moment, I was half-way through a ‘leadership’ programme with Shirely Palmer when I was writing this ‘leadership’ speech and she helped me bring it back to the theme of leadership with a memorable quote, and contrast my ‘learning on the job’ experience of leadership to the excellent leadership that I witness in schools; sympathising with the huge challenges that principals face.
So the conclusion consisted of an authentic note, followed by a flirty; ‘and ‘if you would like to create a school promotional video any time soon…!’ ensured the presentation ended on a high.
4. Visuals
I used Powerpoint to create a very short slideshow (6 slides) and repurposed two slides from a previous presentation. I used Canva for branding. I kept it clean and impactful, with minimal words, a few photos from my own stock and one short video – this gave me breathing space during the speech.
5. Practice, record, watch back
I wrote each section on one piece of paper and said it over and over again until I didn’t need to look at the paper. I did this so many times that I could recite the main body in any order, in the car, in the shower, emptying the dishwasher!
Then I propped up my mobile phone, hit record and went for it – I could see which bits worked and which bits didn’t and it helped me with timings. I did this three more times focusing on the words; then body language, eyeline and tone, always asking myself; ‘is this engaging?’.
And that’s it, I went in with a really positive mindset because I knew that a confident and engaging presentation would win every time over a perfectly created but poorly delivered one.
And that’s my final tip for creating an engaging presentation in less time – focus on delivery over perfection.