PRESENTATION SKILLS: time planning for presenters

As a speaker you are responsible for being at an event and making a presentation at the right time, on the right day on the right subject. That’s something you can do with planning – where you have time to plan.

Presentations: Time Planning

Sound timekeeping is essential. Whether it’s a Board room presentation, an agency pitch or a conference room address you owe it to the organisers and the audience to start and finish on time. This shouldn’t be problematic. You have already rehearsed, and dress rehearsed. You know your lines and you know the subject. You aim to plan to time and run to time.

The challenge is typically when you start late because of an untoward delay earlier in the event. If an earlier speaker over runs their allotted time or if the Board room discussion goes on longer than planned. In such circumstances you have to speak with the organisers very smartly. You have to know your options. Will lunch be delayed by 15 minutes if you stick to time? Should you run for 25 minutes and not the planned 40 minutes? Does the organiser want you to make up time?

All of these scenarios should be considered. And if the organiser wants you to save some time, then you have to be prepared to do so – without sacrificing the core purpose of your presentation. It’s a raw situation. But it’s a situation that is replayed every day somewhere in the UK. Your content editing skills might need to be used very quickly. This is planning quick time.

As a last note you have to consider the scenario where the organiser asks you to fill a conference agenda for longer than initially planned.

This might not seem as arduous as it first appears; you should always plan for tangent time. This is the time that you feel can be given over to explore some content in more detail if you sense that the audience requires it. If your content is clearly working with the audience you might have the opportunity to go into more detail than you had previously anticipated.

So if you have some tangent time prepared then you should be able to work this into your main presentation – thus meeting the organiser’s needs.

There are more time management skills tips here (External link).

You can learn more presentation skills tips on a PresentPerfect training course.

"All my possessions for a moment of time."

Elizabeth I