Present Beyond Measure

34Send an Effective Presentation Handout

“Communication is about getting others to adopt your point of view…if all you want to do is create a file of fact or figures, then cancel the meeting and send in a report.”

—Seth Godin

At some point during my keynotes and workshops, there is a 100 percent probability someone asks this question: “With so many more slides, how do we handle creating printable presentation handouts?”

This is an understandable dilemma considering having learned the “slid-ea” philosophy, which can significantly expand the number of slides in their decks. Presentation handouts or leave-behinds are a globally required artifact of business presentations. They serve to inform an offline audience who either wants a reference of the meeting or wasn't present for it.

With larger decks, however, the dilemma inevitably becomes how such a document will communicate without you, the narrator. My answer to this question is best illustrated through this real-life fable.

Never Goad a Godin

When you're a marketer and a presentation enthusiast, watching marketing deity Seth Godin¹ present to an intimate audience of 100 is as close to a professional religious experience as you can get. I was gifted such a privilege many years ago while attending a digital marketing forum. Unsurprisingly, Godin the Great stole the show with his musings on the death of mass marketing and the birth of the individualized tribe. As the iridescent gold dust settled from his talk, I was shocked ...