Effective Presentations

Keep it brief. This is the cardinal rule of public speech. No one will complain if your presentation is too short.

There are two possible outcomes to a short presentation:

• The audience liked it, and you left them wanting more
• The audience disliked it, but at least their time in purgatory was short

If this is so-- and it is-- then the logical conclusion is: unless you're Tony Robbins, keep it brief. Even if you are Tony Robbins, keep it brief.

A lesson from the muppets

As everyone knows, The Muppet Christmas Carol is the best Christmas Carol. In it, old Fezziwig gives a rousing Christmas speech. It goes like this:

Thank you all, and Merry Christmas!

To this, Marley and Marley (Statler and Waldorf, for Muppet fans) retort:

That was the speech?

It was dumb!

It was obvious!

It was pointless!

It was... short...

I loved it!

Keep it brief. Speaking of brevity, I've written too much already.