Presenting data and being interesting

All too often, presenters hide behind the brick walls of never-ending numbers and charts under the erroneous impression that this is just what their audience wants.

It isn’t.

What audiences want is to be engaged, stimulated and changed in some way.  Audiences do not appreciate the force-feeding approach to facts and statistics and will generally not remember much of what they heard anyway save one or two key points of interest.  There are, of course, occasions in which the presenter is obliged to deliver data and it is beholden upon them to do so imaginatively and creatively wherever possible.  It doesn’t matter what that data is, there is always a way of bringing it to life and even if you don’t have the technical wizardry of a production company available to you, and most don’t, there is no excuse for not investing some time in looking at how you are going to deliver effectively and with impact through simple and visually appealing slides.

Hans Rosling has become the person many think of as the Daddy of data delivery and it is easy to see why.  At the very least his enthusiasm for his data should be something to reproduce.  Admittedly, your data may not be quite so enthralling, but you may as well develop some enthusiasm for it not least for your own sanity – it is after all you who has to deliver it and if you are not enthused then your audience certainly won’t be.