Watch presenters on television. They might use visuals, referring to bullets on a slide to begin new points, or clicking on a graphic that helps make their point, but the real interaction is the 97 percent of the time that a friendly human being is speaking directly to other human beings. That s why you cannot read a speech at a podium. Don t even have a podium. Don t make an incredibly large set of slides and click through them from the back of the room, reading each line aloud.
Presentations are much more human than that.
Experts recommend that you write and memorize the first three minutes of your presentation precisely, so you get off to a confident start. Practice the rest of your presentation by using a visual to cue the idea, but take it from there yourself, with your eyes making contact with audience members eyes. If you re on a stage, walk toward different segments of the audience. Practice that as you practice what you re going to say. People read from left to right, and you provide an anchor for the eyes of those in the audience.