be a zealous presenter

is for ZEALOUS

The messenger is as important as the message." -unknown"

A zealous presenter plus "stimulants" create an energetic, entertaining, and memorable presentation.

At a party a woman was asked if she had ever had her ears pierced. “No” she replied, “but I’ve had them bored.”

The worst sin you can commit as a presenter is to be a bore!!!

The audience is giving you their time, their attention. You owe it to them to be as entertaining as possible. I like the term “EDUTAIN” coined by a trainer in a Fred Pryor seminar. I believe we are in the business of "edutaining."

There are many ways to add color, appeal, persuasiveness, and zeal -- edutainment to your presentations. Some of these have been discussed in other sections of this site: Epigrams

Aphorisms

Quotes

Facts

Stories

Statistics

Vocal Variety/Rhythm

Music

Visuals

Humor

Games Analogies

Questions

Puzzles

Illustrations

Repetition

Contrasts

Another crowed pleaser is audience rewards, such as candy, success stickers or merchandise. The fact is, offer good edutainment, be zealous, and you increase your blue-book value as a speaker, a trainer, – as an employee or employer. Now THAT is something to be zealous about!

ZEALOUSNESS WINS OUT - BY TOM ANTION
I was hired to critique and improve the sales presentation of program staff working for a government. The audience was nearly asleep from the boring presentations. I had been watching one particular presenter prior to his segment, and I was thinking to myself, “I’m going to have to really tear this guy up on his evaluations.” He was poorly groomed, including big dandruff flakes on his poorly fitting sports jacket. His tie was hanging out over the top of his jacket button. His pants were way too short – I mean WAY too short. He appeared to be just a goober of a guy.

When it was his turn to present his boring legislative issues topic, I got the shock of my life. He virtually flew up on the stage. He was running around like Groucho Marx. He was spouting off facts and figures. He made a perfect ad-lib when the electrically operated overhead screen started to go up by itself. The audience woke up and they were laughing and learning from this man. He actually got applause in a meeting that wasn’t even a setting where applause would be appropriate.

From this experience I learned the value of enthusiasm. This man made almost every technical error a presenter could make, but I gave him the highest evaluation of all the other presenters. If you are ultimately enthusiastic about your topic and let it show, many of your errors will go noticed. Your enthusiasm can make or break your overall performance.