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I recently did a presentation night with my friends. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, it’s when a group of friends gets together to share presentations they created about a topic of their choice.
The topics are typically light-hearted and fun. For example, mine was “my friends as obscure animals.”
You would be surprised how difficult it was to develop ideas for something as silly and unserious as a social presentation night.
So, it’s naturally even harder to ideate presentation topics for a professional setting with the pressure of needing to impress, influence, educate, or entertain.
I will share how to develop thought-provoking and relevant topics for your presentations to ensure they are memorable and resonate well with your audience.
Table of Contents
I’ve broken down the painstakingly long process of choosing a topic into five simple and easy steps. Let’s walk through it.
“Some things are better left unsaid” is what I don’t want people to say about my presentations. That’s why I always have a specific goal before choosing a topic.
Some questions I ask myself are:
Having a solid goal helps me begin crafting the title of my presentation. For instance, if I’m presenting a seminar about AI, my goal might be to convince my audience to incorporate more AI into their daily lives.
A punchy idea for a title could be “Why AI Is NOT Ruining Your Life.”
Let’s say I’m preparing an internal presentation for my team at Nickelodeon. I would first consider my audience’s experience and interests.
I don’t want to present something they already know well or have the topic go over their heads. Since it’s my team, I would feel confident that these factors overlap comfortably with mine.
If you’re presenting to an unknown audience, research the individuals or general demographic if specific names aren’t available.
Next, I’d consider what style is preferred. Some workplaces might be more formal, requiring a serious presentation tone.
Based on the type of content we work on at Nickelodeon, we keep things light at work, so I’d integrate humor and a casual tone into my presentation.
Pro tip: Always consider your audience’s knowledge level on the topic before drafting your presentation. For example, a presentation on social media targeted at Gen Z will differ from that targeted at Millennials.
Of presenters, 47% tailor their presentation topics to current events, which is an easy way to ensure the topic is novel.
I’m not saying the presentation has to be completely centered around a current event. Even including certain references or themes can alert audiences that this isn’t a cut-and-paste presentation that’s been done before.
For instance, if I were giving a presentation to my team at Nickelodeon, I might slip in a humorous reference to the 2024 film Wicked since it’s very culturally relevant.
If I wanted to tailor my entire presentation to this topic, I could highlight some of the ways the PG-rated movie manages to capture hearts of all ages, which is relevant to our team’s family-friendly content.
Completing these first three steps puts me in a place with decent topic ideas. Now, I can cut out the excess and select a niche topic with a specific goal.
This is imperative because the broader the topic, the more difficult it will be for my audience to take away key ideas and actionable tips. Also, it would be more difficult to gather an audience intrigued and excited by my topic.
For instance, the first topic in the image is generic, sounds vague, and doesn’t specify any clear benefits. On the other hand, the second topic mentions the target audience, tells them what to expect, and provides a clear, actionable plan.
The audience knows exactly what they will take away from the presentation.
Presentations with stories are 22 times more likely to be remembered than those with straight facts. Such is the power of narrative and personalization in storytelling.
Therefore, I always consider topics I can tie back to myself, which also helps the presentations feel more authentic. There are a few ways I would do this:
Pro tip: Think about where your interests and professional experience meet. Then, narrow these topics or themes down to 2-5 driving factors to focus on in your presentation.
Below is an extensive list of presentation ideas from personal experiences to digital marketing and AI. I always reference this list when I find myself in a rut.
I can keep the framework and swap out keywords for many of these titles, providing an infinite combination of ideas.
While I’ve stressed the importance of using presentation topics to put audiences first, offer direct solutions, and fill in knowledge gaps, there’s more.
After all, the part that usually keeps me up the night before a big presentation isn’t typically the topic but the thought of actually presenting.
That’s why I’m sharing my five best tips to help you ace your next presentation.
I like to organize my presentations into four clear sections — introduction, body, conclusion, and follow-up — to help me construct a clear layout and attractive design. Here’s what I include in each area:
I hate to admit it, but nothing makes me zone out quicker than a black-and-white, word-heavy presentation. My lower attention span and visual learning preference make it hard to focus on a strictly verbal or text-based presentation.
Presentation visuals can increase content engagement by up to 80%.
LinkedIn also provides several reasons supporting the importance of visual aids, such as capturing the attention and interest of audiences, reducing cognitive load by breaking down complex concepts, and increasing the retention and recall of verbal messages.
I work full-time in media and entertainment, so it’s easy to add visuals to my presentations in the form of key art, video promos, and character art.
However, even in less creative industries, visual aids like charts and graphs, varied color schemes, and even brand logos can help break up the text.
I know my strengths and weaknesses best when it comes to presentation skills. I know I’m not the best at getting a high volume of information across quickly, but I have an exemplary memory (no speaker notes here!) and ease of communication.
All this self-knowledge helps me prepare presentation styles that make me feel most comfortable and confident. Presentation topics can also dictate what style is best.
For instance, if my topic is “Five life-changing habit changes I made this year,” I’ll likely adopt a storytelling style. On the other hand, a topic like “The Ethics of AI: Balancing business interests and societal impacts” might call for an instructor style.
The moral is to choose a way of presenting the material that makes me feel most confident. The actual information may be difficult, but how I share it can be simple.
Source
I live by the phrase “look good, feel good.” If I’m sick, exhausted, or just having a bad day, staying in pajamas and unwashed hair makes me feel worse than I am. But showering and wearing my favorite outfit can turn my entire day around.
The same theory applies to presentations. I’ve had to turn around last-minute presentations on sloppy slides, and feeling embarrassed about the appearance can be enough to throw me completely off.
This makes sense since 91% of professionals feel more confident presenting a well-designed slide deck.
My company uses branded slide templates, which eases the process, but manually going in to make the fonts, colors, text spacing, and visuals look good is imperative.
You can also use presentation templates to save time and discover beautiful, engaging designs.
It’s also important to practice running through these well-designed slides, especially if you’re driving the deck for a group presentation. Walk through the presentation in Slideshow mode and ensure everything looks as desired.
Typically, my biggest fear leading up to a presentation is ensuring that I relay all the information I have prepared.
However, I should be more worried about creating a strong enough connection with my audience that my presentation resonates in their minds long after.
Of audiences, 79% prefer interactive presentations with opportunities to get involved, so presenters have used tools like polls and quizzes to increase audience engagement by 40%.
This is also a great way to alleviate some of the pressure from myself — by throwing to the audience at times, I can make the presentation feel more conversational.
Here are a few ways that my colleagues and I have made presentations more interactive:
As a younger professional in my industry, I’m always looking for ways to make myself known, stand out from the crowd, and prove my ability to be a leader.
This blog post taught me that unique, memorable presentation topics can help me accomplish these goals.
We all have a wealth of expertise, experience, and personality, and that’s enough to create a story worth hearing. So the question is not “What should I say?” but rather “How can I say it?”
My most important takeaway is that authenticity comes from finding ways to personalize presentation topics.
Even something data-driven or industry-focused has the opportunity for a reference to an anecdote, metaphor, unique perspective, or audience interaction tool that can take presentations from informative to remarkable.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in August 2023 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
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