his presentation will last for ten minutes

10-Minute Presentation Topics | 50 Unique Ideas in 2024

Lawrence Haywood • 05 Apr 2024 • 10 min read

For 10 minutes, what can you really do? A shower? A power nap? An entire presentation?

You might already be sweating at the idea of that last one. Cramming an entire presentation into 10 minutes is tough, but doing it without even knowing what to talk about is even tougher. So let’s check out 10-minute presentation topics

No matter where you’ve been challenged to give a 10-minute presentation, we’ve got your back. Check out the ideal presentation structure below and over fifty 10-minute presentation topics, you can use for your big (actually, pretty small) speech. So, let’s check out the best 50 10-minute presentation topics!

Table of Contents

• The 10-Minute Presentation Structure
• Topics for College Students
• Topics for Interviews
• Relatable Topics
• Interesting Topics
• Controversial Topics

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Tips from AhaSlides – 10-minute presentation topics

• Types of Presentation
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The 10-Minute Presentation Topics Structure

As you might imagine, the hardest part of a 10-minute presentation is actually sticking to 10 minutes. None of your audience, organisers or fellow speakers will be pleased if your speech starts running over, but it’s hard to know how not to.

You might be tempted to cram as much information as possible, but doing so is just going to make for an overbearing presentation. Especially for this type of presentation , knowing what to leave out is as much of a skill as knowing what to put in, so try and follow the sample below for a perfectly structured presentation.

• Introduction (1 slide) – Start your presentation with a quick question, fact or story relayed in a maximum of 2 minutes.
• Body (3 slides) – Get into the nitty gritty of your talk with 3 slides. Audiences struggle to take home more than three ideas, so spacing all three out over the course of 6 or 7 minutes can be very effective.
• Conclusion (1 slide) – End it all with a quick sum up of your 3 main points. You should be able to do this in 1 minute.

This 10-minute presentation example format contains a fairly conservative 5 slides, based on the famous 10-20-30 rule of presentations. In that rule, an ideal presentation is 10 slides in 20 minutes, meaning a 10-minute presentation would only require 5 slides.

Use interactive features with AhaSlides to gain better engagement in any type of presentation! You can spin the fun to the presentation, by gathering crowd ideas by idea board , live word clouds , or surveying them by top free survey tool , online polling , and also test their knowledge with an online quiz creator !

10 Ideas for College Students – 10-Minute Presentation Topics

A 10-minute presentation is all you need as a college student to show your knowledge and forward-thinking values. So let’s check out few 10-minute presentation topics!

They’re also great practice for presentations you might be making in the future. If you feel comfortable within 10 minutes, chances are that you’ll be alright in the future, too.

• How to work alongside AI – Artificial intelligence is making huge steps forward daily. We’ll soon be in a different world, so how are you, the worker of the future, going to deal with it? This is a super interesting topic and one that’s very relevant for your classmates.
• Fighting the climate catastrophe – The issue of our age. What is it doing to us and how do we solve it?
• Portable homes – The portable home movement is on the way to revolutionising the way we live. What’s good and bad about having a house you can move around and what does your ideal one look like?
• The thrift life – How to save money on clothes, along with the pros and cons of throwaway fashion for youngsters.
• The future of streaming platforms – Why is TV on demand so great and why is it not universal? Or is it stealing too much of our free time?
• What happened to newspapers? – Newspapers are probably ancient technology to college students like you. A deep dive into history will reveal what they were and why they’re on their way out of print.
• The evolution of the mobile phone – Has any device in history advanced as quickly as mobile phones have? There’s so much to talk about in this 10-minute presentation topic.
• The life and times of your hero – A great chance to show your love for someone who inspires you the most. This can be within or outside of your college subject.
• My permaculture future – If you’re looking for a greener existence in your future, try explaining to your classmates about the advantages and logistics of having a permaculture garden.
• E-waste – We dump out so much electrical waste these days. Where does it all go and what happens to it?

10 Interview Presentation Ideas – 10-Minute Presentation Topics

More and more nowadays, recruiters are turning to quick-fire presentation as a means of testing a candidate’s skill and confidence in presenting something.

But, it’s more than that. Recruiters also want to learn about you as a person. They want to know what interests you, what makes you tick and what has changed your life in a profound way.

If you can nail any of these presentation topics in your interview, you’ll be starting next Monday!

• Someone who inspires you – Pick a hero and talk about their background, their achievements, what you’ve learned from them and how it’s shaped you as a person.
• The most eye-opening place you’ve ever been – A travelling experience or holiday that blew your mind. This might not necessarily be your favourite ever abroad experience, but it was one that made you realise something you had not thought about before.
• An imagined problem – Set out a hypothetical problem at the company you’re applying for. Show the recruiters the steps you would take to eradicate that problem for good.
• Something you’re proud of – We’ve all got achievements we’re proud of, and they do not necessarily work achievements. A quick 10-minute presentation on something you’ve done or made that has made you proud can reveal a lot of good stuff about you as a person.
• The future of your field – Make some interesting, bold predictions about where you think the industry is heading in the upcoming years. Do research, get stats to back up your claims, and avoid being condescending.
• A workflow you’ve fixed – Untidy workflows are rampant in many workplaces. If you’ve had a hand in turning something inefficient into a well-oiled machine, make a presentation about it!
• A book you’d love to write – Assuming you were a top-class wordsmith, what’s the one topic you’d love to write a book about? Would it be fiction or non-fiction? What would the plot be? Who are the characters?
• Your favourite work culture – Choose the job with the best work culture in terms of office atmosphere, rules, after-work activities and trips away. Explain what was so great about it; it might give your potential new boss a few ideas!
• Pet peeves in the workplace – If you fancy yourself as a bit of a comedian, listing out the things that grind your gears in the office could be a good laugh and a nice bit of observational comedy for your recruiters. Make sure it’s actually funny though, as listening to a candidate moan for 10 minutes is not normally something that leads to recruitment.
• The good and bad of remote working – Surely every office worker in the world has experience of remote working. Pry open your own experiences and discuss whether or not they’ve been for the better or for, the worse.

10 Relatable 10-Minute Presentation Topics

People love stuffs they can relate to their own experiences. It’s the reason why your presentation on the problems of the post office was a hit, but your one on the use of thermoplongeurs and suspension compression on modern fatigue carousels was an absolute travesty.

Keeping topics nicely open and accessible for everyone is a great way to get a good reaction. Do you need some topics for presentation that participants can get involved in quickly? Check out these fun presentation topics ideas as below…

• The best Disney princess – The best interesting presentation topics! Everyone’s got their favourite; who’s the one that gives you the most hope for generations of strong, independent girls?
• The greatest language ever – Maybe it’s the language that sounds the sexiest, looks the sexiest or the one that just works the best.
• Coffee vs tea – Most people have a preference, but very few have the numbers to back it up. Do some scientific research into what’s better between coffee and tea and why.
• Stand-up – You may not initially think it, but a stand-up comedy performance is definitely a presentation of sorts. 10 minutes is a great time window for some witty observations that make everyone laugh.
• Reasons for procrastination – List out all the things that keep you from doing what you’re supposed to be doing. Remember to tell some stories in this – chances are that almost all of your audience will be able to relate.
• Is social distancing for life? Introverts, assemble. Or actually, don’t. Should we keep social distancing an opt-in, opt-out kind of thing?
• Paper books vs ebooks – This one is all about physical touch and nostalgia against modern convenience. It’s a fight for our age.
• Identity of the decades – We all know the distinction between the 70s, 80s and 90s, but what were the unique cultural points of the 2000s and 2010s? Will we see later or will they just never get their own identities?
• Pluto’s a planet – Believe it or not, there are a surprising number of Pluto aficionados out there. Talking about how Pluto’s a planet could really get them on your side, and they’re a powerful bunch.
• Observational comedy – A dive into the most relatable of relatable short presentation topics. What makes observational comedy so relatable?

10 Interesting 10-Minute Presentation Topics

This one is the exact opposite of ‘relatable topics’. These short presentation topics are all about super interesting scientific phenomena that a lot of people don’t know about.

You don’t have to be relatable when you can be fascinating!

• Crown shyness – A presentation that explores the phenomenon of the crowns of trees that grow in such a way as not to touch each other.
• Sailing stones – There are rocks that can sail across the floor of Death Valley, but what causes it?
• Bioluminescence – Dive into what makes certain animals and plants light up the night using just their bodies. Include heaps of pictures in this one, it’s a glorious sight!
• What happened to Venus? – Venus and Earth came into existence at the same time, made of the same stuff. Yet, Venus is a real hellscape of a planet – so what happened?
• Music therapy in Alzheimer’s treatment – Music is so effective in treating Alzheimer’s disease. Take a dive into the interesting reason why that is.
• What the hell is slime mould? – An exploration of the mould made up of single cells that can solve mazes when those cells combine forces.
• All about Havana Syndrome – The mysterious illness that struck the US embassy in Cuba – where did it come from and what did it do?
• The origins of Stonehenge – How did people 5000 years ago drag boulders from the Welsh highlands to lowland England? Also, why did they even decide to build Stonehenge?
• Intuition – Gut feeling, sixth sense; whatever you want to call it, scientists don’t really know what it is.
• Deja vu – We all know the feeling, but how does it work? Why do we feel deja vu?

10 Controversial 10-Minute Presentation Topics

Check out some controversial 10-minute presentation topics. Not only are social topics for presentation, but these are also ideal topics for presentation for students in class as they can make positive debates in the learning environment.

• Cryptocurrency: good or bad? – It resurfaces in the news every few months, so everyone’s got an opinion, but we often only hear one side of the cryptocoin and not the other. In this 10-minute presentation, you can introduce the good and bad of crypto.
• Should we ban Black Friday? – Mass consumerism and mass tramplings at store entrances – has Black Friday gone too far? Some will say it’s not gone far enough.
• Minimalism – A new way to live that’s the opposite of everything Black Friday represents. How does it work and why should you try it?
• The best stuff for your health – Another one about which everyone’s got something to say. Do the research and give the facts.
• Disney whitewashing – This one’s definitely a controversial topic. It could be a quick exploration of how Disney seemingly chooses and alters skin tones depending on the story being told.
• Time to eat some bugs – As the world will soon have to move away from meat, what are we going to replace it with? Hope your audience likes cricket sundaes!
• Free speech – Is free speech something we still have? Are you having it right now while you give this presentation? That’s a pretty easy one to answer.
• Gun laws around the world – See how the world’s most gunned-up country compares to other countries in terms of weapons available and its ramifications.
• 1 million vs 1 billion – The difference between $1,000,000 and $1,000,000,000 is much bigger than you think. There are so many ways to highlight the enormous wealth gap in a 10-minute presentation.
• Military spending – We could solve all world issues in a flash if every country dissolved its military and used its funds for good. Is it feasible?

Bonus Topics: Vox

Looking for unique topics for presentation? Being your great idea source, Vox is an American online magazine with a real knack for making insightful video essays on interesting topics you may never have thought about. They were the guys behind the ‘ Explained ‘ series on Netflix, and they’ve also got their own YouTube channel full of topics.

The videos vary in length, but you can choose any of these to present if you feel like it’s interesting enough for your crowd. They are not only the best topics for presentation in college but also unique topics for presentation in office. Contract or expand the information in the video to 10 minutes and make sure you can present it comfortably.

Some of Vox’s videos include trendy topics for presentation…

• How music on TikTok goes viral.
• London’s super basements.
• The AI behind creating art on demand.
• The end of oil.
• The rise of K-pop.
• Why diets fail.
• Many, many more…

Wrapping Up

10 minutes is, categorically, not a long time , so yes, 10-minute presentation topics can be difficult! Okay, it’s a long time to spend on your turn on the karaoke machine, but it’s not a long time for a presentation. But those also can be the best ideas for video presentations!

Above is your choice of 10-minute presentation topics!

Nailing yours starts with the right topic. Any of the 50 unique ones above would be a great way to kick off a 10-minute presentation (or even a 5-minute presentation ).

Once you have your topic, you’ll want to craft the structure of your 10-minute talk and the content. Check out our presentation tips to keep your presentation fun and watertight.

3 magic ingredients of Amazing Presentations?

The Audience, Speaker and Transformation in-between.

How do you present for 15 minutes?

20-25 slides are perfect, as 1-2 slides should be spoken in 1 minute.

Is a 10-minute presentation long?

a 20-minute presentation should be 9 – 10 pages long, while a 15-minute presentation should be 7-8 pages long. Therefore, the 10-minute presentation should be around 3-4 pages long

Lawrence Haywood

Former ESL teacher and quiz master converted to the wild slide. Now a content creator, traveller, musician and big time slider preaching the good word of interactivity.

More from AhaSlides

Why Presentations Die After 10 minutes and How To Save Them

To deliver a message at your presentation, you naturally need the attention of your audience.

According to biologist John Medina , given a presentation of moderately interesting content, your audience’s attention will drop to zero after 10 minutes of your speech.

I already hear you saying: “Wait wait wait… but my presentation will last 30 minutes. There must be a way to save it…”

I was in a similar situation myself. I was standing on the stage and no matter how engaging I tried to be, I suddenly got a feeling that I was losing my audience. And the harder I tried, the more awkward it got. Subconsciously, I stopped what I was saying and created a break to change the dynamic of my talk.

It worked great. Since then, I deliver my presentation in bite-size content pieces and insert short mental breaks in between.

Here are 5 types for your inspiration.

1. Leverage the power of video

With  Over 6 billion hours of video being watched each month on YouTube , it’s truly hard to believe that so few presenters use them in their presentations. Videos are a great help to all presenters. They not only engage the audience, but they also help to evoke emotions that are otherwise super difficult for speakers to elicit by themselves.

You’ll stand apart by incorporating videos and it’ll help you to keep audiences’ attention if you space them out every 10 minutes. However, make sure that they are not lengthy and that they evoke feelings that are consistent with your presentation.

2. Demo your product or use props

Don’t wait until you click through all 257 slides of your slide deck to demo a product. Your audience will be dead by then and not in the mood to test-drive your product. Show them what your product can do for them and how it can help them achieve their goals during the presentation.

If you don’t do a product demo, but you hold a presentation on a certain topic, bring props and use them during your presentation. If you have a smaller group of people, pass the props along so the audience can wire in another sense to absorb your presentation subject.

3. Have a mid-presentation Q&A

Take a break from your slides from time to time and involve your audience in an open discussion. However, people are naturally shy and fear public speaking more than death. To get questions from them, use an audience engagement tool that allows everyone to ask a question without speaking up. Don’t wait until the very end but incorporate the questions from the audience to create soft breaks and keep them engaged.

4. Poll your audience

Live polling is another effective way to involve your audience and create a soft break. Take instant surveys related to your presentation topic and discuss the results with your attendees. They will love seeing what the rest of the audience thinks and you as a presenter can gain incredible insights that you can work with after your presentation.

5. Invite presenting partners

Don’t steal the entire “show” for yourself. Share the stage with other presenters that will help you to narrate the story. Steve Jobs never pulled off the entire presentation by himself, he always invited several speakers including designers, partners, and executives to help him introduce their latest product and create soft breaks. Do the same. Ask your colleagues if they could help you cover certain parts of your presentation and re-engage your attendees with their input.

It’s cruel but you’ll run out of the audience’s attention in 10 minutes. These simple techniques will help you to create mental breaks and regain the attention of your crowd. Use them wisely at your next presentation and you’ll have your audience hanging on the edge of their seats.

What techniques do you use to keep the attention of your  audience? Did we forget any? Please share your thoughts with us.

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Communication, facilitation, ​powerspeaking blog: tips and strategies for crafting presentations, 15 tips: how to prepare for a last minute presentation.

by PowerSpeaking, Inc.     Oct 24, 2013 10:46:00 AM

Did you just find out that you need to give a presentation in 90 minutes? Here are a few easy and effective tips to help organize and present that next mission-critical presentation.

  Organizing Your Content

Develop a short, clear one sentence main message, i.e. "I have a dream."

An analogy, metaphor or memorable phrase for the main message increases retention, i.e. Informix's " The database with the future built in."

Repeat your main message a number of times during the presentation. Use the exact wording each time.

Stories and personal experience create longer retention. Illustrate points with stories, i.e. "Last week when I called on Bob Johnson, the CEO of Acme Jeans in Seattle, he said, 'You know John, using your customer service strategy has doubled our market share.' Then he said..."

PowerPoint Is Not The Talk...You Are!

Build your talk first, then add visuals as you need them. Do not let PowerPoint templates determine your content.

Use fewer visuals, not more. People are persuaded by you and respond to you, not slides.

Begin and end your presentation without visuals. People remember longer what they hear at the beginning and at the end. Your main message will have more impact without slides.

Design the talk so that every, say, seven to ten minutes you can turn off the projector and just talk to people. In PowerPoint you can just hit the "B" button to make your screen go blank. Hit it again to make the slides come back.

When referring to a slide, stand at the screen, facing the audience and use a pointer to highlight the key words or images.

Drive It Home With Style

The way to build style is to practice your presentation in real rehearsal. That is, standing up, moving around, speaking out loud.

In rehearsal, exaggerate everything. Talk louder, use longer pauses, wave your arms around, move from point to point and look 'em in the eye. Strong "in your face" style feels unnatural and phony, yet looks confident to the audience.

This is no time for the soft-spoken, self-effacing, humble approach. Throw back your shoulders and let 'er rip. You almost can't overdo the style, as contrived as it feels.

After asking for questions, wait a few moments. It may take people awhile to think of any. If no ones asks a question, ask your own: "You know, a question that often comes up when I give these talks is..."

Repeat questions for clarity. Answer to the whole group so everyone feels included.

If you don't know the answer, agree to find out and get back to them.

Now, you've got the tools. Knock 'em dead!

Related Blog Posts: Six Strategies For How To Control Timing , "A Shining City On The Hill" How A Metaphor Can Touch Your Audience , Five Game Changing Principles of Presenting Slides

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Ace the Presentation

How to Effectively Manage Time During a Presentation? Short and Long Ones!

Slides are one of the best ways to engage an audience and nail a presentation. Nowadays, people use the most efficient and practical skills to make the slides clear, easy to understand. However, most people struggle to plan and manage time in their presentations.

How Many Slides are Suitable for Finishing a Presentation on Time?

The general rule says 1 to 2 slides per minute. However, it is critical to note that the presentation’s number of slides will vary according to the topic complexity, audience, available time, presentation structure and format, and goal. Good planning, rehearsal, and delivery skills are essential!

To be more specific, if you have too many slides in a presentation at the range of 3 to 15 minutes, you will end up confusing your audience or spending a significant part of your time explaining the slides. It does not mean you have to prepare a lot of information and squeeze it into few slides, and the best practice is to summarize your content to understand it easily.

From 25 minutes to 60 minutes, you can make a considerable number of slides. Some experts recommend 1 to 2 slides per minute, but as I said before, it will depend on the topic. Imagine that one of your slides contains graphs about some work you have been doing that can take more than 2 minutes, and it is important to explain it in detail to the audience.

It all starts with planning, researching, organizing all the collected data, prioritizing your key points, and making a structure. After this exercise, it will be easier to know how many slides you will have according to your given time.

To sum this up, there is no exact rule to set a number of slides for a given time frame, and it will vary according to the topic, your research, and your presentation skills. All you have to do is to balance the slides with your speech and time.

How many Slides for a 3-minute Presentation?

For a 3-minute presentation, the presenter should use four slides. Depending on how the slides are structured, 15 seconds to 2 minutes can be spent on each slide.

What really matters is not the amount of the slides but the quality. You can make three powerful slides and nail your presentation or make 5 with too much content and ending up having a boring presentation.

A good practice for a 3 minutes presentation is to keep it clean and straightforward. Keep in mind that slides are more engaging with visuals rather than texts. And on your speech, be as brief as possible, make a 15 to 20 seconds introduction, and do the same on the conclusion.

How many Slides for a 5-minute Presentation?

Five minutes is enough time to deliver your message and engage your audience with content that is straight to the point. The only thing you need to do is keep in mind that every second of your time counts a lot for your presentation.

How many Slides for a 10-minute Presentation? 

The Rule of Thumb for a 10-minute presentation is having 10-12 slides. Presenters with good skills use up to 30 seconds per slide to keep it nice and engaging. This time frame is suitable for elaborately introducing the subject or topic, diving deep into it, and highlighting the key points.

According to your topic, you can even make eight slides considering the fact that slides are only the guide of your presentation. That is why it is essential to make an excellent structure to organize your content on the slides properly; this will help you to put aside unnecessary data and focus only on what is essential for the audience.

How many Slides for a 20-minute Presentation?

According to  Guy Kawasaki , a 20-minute presentation should have ten slides where each slide utilizes a 30 point font. Using this rule of 10/20/30, the speaker would spend up to 1 minute per slide, which gives time for even allowing 1 or 2 questions from the audience.

To structure a 20 minutes presentation using the rule of 10/20/30 from  Guy Kawasaki , you have to use the first slide to introduce your subject, case study, or others, and from the second slide, start diving deep until you get to the conclusion.

In some cases, each slide has a different theme, and you will need to approach them differently. Having different themes per slide will require you to summarize each slide’s content in under a minute.

Although the Rule of Guy Kawasaki is suitable for a 20-minute presentation, you can set your own number of slides according to your subject and how much time you spend on a single slide as long as you deliver the message properly and engage your audience.

How many Slides for a 25-minute Presentation?

For a 25-minute presentation, the general rule is to use 20 to 30 slides. By spending up to two minutes per slide and focusing on the main subject, the speaker can keep the audience engaged for this period of time. 

Kawasaki believes that a human being can comprehend at least ten concepts in a meeting. In other words, you have to include in your topic or subject up to ten themes to be discussed. Any More than that can make your audience get confused or bored.

In this given time frame, you now have the opportunity to interact more with the audience, start with a quote, let them raise some clarification questions, and get more involved with them. 

How many Slides for a 30-minute Presentation?

Experts recommend 30 to 40 slides to make a memorable presentation. With 30 minutes, the presenter has more options compared to when the given time frame is short. Consider making the content as straightforward as possible. Also, make two paragraphs per slide at the most.

This technique will allow the audience to read all the information on the slide easily and quickly and move to the next one alongside you. If you add too much content on one slide, the audience will likely read something that you are not explaining yet or the opposite.

But you can make more than 40 slides and still have a memorable presentation in just 30 minutes, and I will explain to you how. Well, if you want your audience to understand clearly each content of your slide, make it one paragraph or one sentence, and use more visuals.

Using this method, you will spend 1-2 seconds per slide, and the audience will understand way better seeing the visual (which counts more than text). The explanation is gradual from the beginning to the end.

How many Slides for a 45-minute presentation?

As a general rule, for a 45-minute presentation, between 20 and 50 slides would grant a memorable presentation. Spending 1-2 minutes per slide, the speaker will have time to make a great introduction, interact more with the audience and have a questions and answers session.

A 45-minutes presentation is in the range of long times ones, and in these cases, you have to use the slides very carefully, making them proportional to your presentation time. Consider having a wristwatch to control your time.

A good practice is to use the slides only to guide your speech during the presentation, but you will need to master them. Rehearse the most important of each slide to make sure you spend the right time, or even less. This time management will give you an advantage because you will have enough time to make a great conclusion.

How many Slides for an hour Presentation?

Experts recommend 30 to 60 slides for a 60-minutes presentation. This period of time gives the speaker two main options: summarize the content in 30 slides or make a structure that allows one theme per slide. These two options also give more time to interact with the audience make a great introduction and conclusion.

Both of them are OK. But there are aspects that you have to consider; if you are preparing few slides, you will need to train how to summarize content to make sure you don’t spend too much time explaining all the points or having your audience stuck on reading your slide. 

And if you are planning to make one theme per slide to facilitate the understanding to the audience, make sure you spend 30 seconds at the most. But also consider having black screen slides to make pauses or small breaks and entertain or reengage your audience.

How many Slides for a 90-minute Presentation?

A 90-minutes presentation should have not more than 60 slides. In this situation, the speaker will need to know how to keep time on presentations. Experts recommend up to 2 minutes per slide, but depending on how the presentation is flowing, spending more than 2 minutes per slide is possible.

If you fail to make these pauses to double-check if the audience is on the same page with you, you will be running a risk of going back from almost the end of the slides to the first ones to explain something that the audience did not get very well.

How many Slides for a two-hour presentation?

A two-hour presentation would need 60-80 slides to deliver the message memorably. Some experts recommend one theme per slide to make it clear and easily understandable. Keep in mind that a presentation this long requires careful planning and a very well-organized structure.

Generally, a presentation with more than one hour of duration is for professional speakers who can deal with time management. The best way to not have your audience boring is to use the method of one idea per slide; it will make them easily understand each part of your content.

How many Slides for 2+ hours presentations?

Presentations with more than two hours should have not more than 80 slides. Long presentations with over 2 hours, the speaker can organize the information in order to spend 2-3 minutes per slide. 

120+ minutes is considered an extended time frame; a good practice is to keep the slides brief and clean to ensure your audience won’t get exhausted.

What are the skills needed to Deliver Long Presentations or Speeches?

For long presentations, several skills are required to ensure successful delivery, such as:  

• Time management;
• Engaging the audience
• Solid posture
• Good eye contact
• Controlling your voice, and more. 

All these skills will keep your audience engaged and entertained, and make sure you reserve 15-20 minutes for questions and answers after a long presentation or speech.

How to keep time in your presentation?

First of all, to have complete control of your time on stage, you have to write the schedule of time you will spend on each part of your presentation, something like setting time for your opening, how long time you will spend on the introduction, how long time you reserve for questions and answers, etc.

Make sure you start your presentation on time. If you fail this step, then everything that comes ahead may also delay and end the presentation after the scheduled time. You also need to plan how long your speech will take and have a clock to control it.

Planning is also crucial to keep time on your presentation. The main thing in the plan to deliver your message is the structure of your content. A good structure will allow you to know how much time you will spend on each point.

I have an excellent article with  a guide for outlining your speech , which should help you nail this part of the process. A  good speech outline  is key in managing presentation time.

And last but not least, you need to rehearse before you go on stage. It will allow you to know how much time you need for the presentation and practice to see if you need to remove or add something to your presentation to make it perfect.

Why do people usually fail to finish a presentation within the stipulated time?

Generally, people fail to finish a presentation on time because they do not make a good plan, underestimate rehearsing, and fail at an impromptu delivery attempt at the last minute. What commonly happens is that people make too many slides and fail to go from one to another on time. The rule of thumb says that 1-2 minutes per slide is enough using standards.

Another session that makes speakers fail to finish the presentation in time is the question and answers. This mistake happens when the speaker does not practice enough or predict questions that may come and end up thinking about the answer when the question is raised.

Not setting time for each session of your presentation also makes you not finish on time. This mistake will cause you to take longer at one point or another, especially if you don’t have a clock to keep track of the time.

How to keep your Presentation Brief and Clear

To keep a presentation brief and clear, organize your content to be only one theme per slide. To be more specific, consider having one paragraph or idea per slide, one that is concise, straightforward, and should also include minimalist visuals. 

The design is also essential to help you get a clean design. Choose a layout that comfortably suits your text and image. Another detail is the color, which has to be neutral to help the reader focus on the content only. 

For More Tips on Designing and Nailing a Presentation, open the recommended articles below.

Designing a Killer Presentation in 8 Steps

Planning and performing a presentation that meets expectations and involves the public requires a lot of care. The details involved in holding a talk will be super important to ensure her success and approval from those who participated. Therefore, we have prepared a post with a few crucial steps that you should follow to organize…

What Makes a Great Presenter? 9 Key Qualities to Look for!

Want to Stand Out? 15 Key Tips for an Awesome Presentation

In conclusion, the number of slides a presentation should have for a given time depends on who is presenting and the topic or subject. And also, it varies according to the methods that you use to deliver your message. As long as it reaches the audience properly and on time, the number of slides should be the least of your concerns. 

But you can follow the standards that some experts recommend for a presentation from 3 minutes to 120+ minutes. For example, Guy Kawasaki recommends the rule of 10/20/30 for a 20 minutes presentation. This rule of thumb allows you to have ten slides to be presented in 20 minutes, and the font should be 30 points. 

This example shows that you can follow the standards and still have a successful presentation. the main thing you have to do, is a good planning, a good structure, and make your content brief and clear, that will help them understand and enjoy your presentation 

References and Further Reading

How to Create a Killer 5-Minute Presentation (hubspot.com)

How Many Slides For A Whatever-Minute Presentation? (slidecow.com)

https://www.soappresentations.com/how-many-slides-should-be-used-for-a-60-minute-presentation/

The ideal number of slides for an hour-long presentation, and other thoughts on preparing slides | I’d Rather Be Writing Blog (idratherbewriting.com)

Presentation Slide Counts (duarte.com)

3 Ways to Choose the Right Number of Slides for a Powerpoint Presentation (wikihow.com)

Brevity, Clarity and Wit: 10 Commandments for a 10-Minute Talk | Cath Lab Digest | HMP Global (hmpgloballearningnetwork.com)

How Many Slides to Use For a 5, 10, 15+ Minute Presentation (tutsplus.com)

The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint – Guy Kawasaki

How Many Slides to Use in a Presentation? 5 Tips | Design Shack

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Timing Tips for Successful Presentations

Would you consider a presentation successful if the speaker went beyond the allotted time? It may have been a really good presentation, but because of the delay, you were late for some other important appointment. Remember, for the speaker to go over the allowed time is a big no-no.

In this article, DeckRobot examines the importance of finishing your presentation on time and gives tips for staying within your time constraints.

Know your time

The first thing to do is to determine how long your presentation is going to run . Consider that a 10-minute presentation needs to be prepared differently than a 30-minute one. No surprise that longer presentations require longer preparation. If you don’t prepare properly, then there is a risk of running out of things to say or show.

Know your talking time

If you are familiar with presenting basics then you probably know that your talking time is not the same as your presentation time. For instance, if your presentation is about 30 minutes, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to speak for 30 minutes sharp. Depending on the nature of your presentation, you may need to allocate 10 minutes for a Q&A session. Thus, check with the presentation organizers and see how many minutes should be allotted for questions.

The number of slides

Determining the right amount of slides is a bit difficult. According to Guy Kawasaki , you should follow the 10/20/30 rule – 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30-point font. And this technique is one of the best, but truly it depends on the nature of your presentation. However, it shouldn’t technically matter how many slides you use as long as you make everything fit within your allotted time.

Time for your slides

The best timing tip for successful presentations is to figure out how many minutes you’re going to spend on each slide. You don’t need to spend a uniform number of minutes on each slide. Some slides may only take you a few seconds, others may take several minutes. As you go through each slide take note of how long each one is going to take. Use your phone’s stopwatch app for this. Tap on the ‘lap’ button once you finish a slide. The idea is to have each lap correspond to one slide, so you can figure out how long each slide takes.

One trick to make sure you’re timing your slides properly is by delivering your presentation as you would on presentation day – by doing it verbally! This means practicing your entire speech and actually saying it out loud. If you just say the words in your head, then you could mistime your presentation. We do read faster in our minds. Don’t forget about pauses. Every pause counts. In addition to helping you rest for a bit, you can also use pauses to emphasize certain points.

Speaking over your allowed time is disrespectful and will annoy at least some people in your audience. It’s a privilege to have their attention, whether it’s for 5 minutes or 5 hours. Your task as a presenter is not to abuse it! Following a strict timing schedule during rehearsal and your actual presentation are necessary steps to being a successful speaker. You’ll not only position yourself as an expert presenter but also as someone who respects people’s time.

If you liked this article make sure to check our News section for more interesting articles and follow our LinkedIn page to stay tuned about our company’s updates.

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How to Prepare for a Last-Minute Presentation (Part 1)

by Jezra on July 31, 2019

“Invited” to Speak at Work? Tomorrow? Here’s How to Ace Your Talk, Even with Little Time to Prepare

Has this ever happened to you.

You’re at your desk, minding your own business, when your boss walks by (or emails or Slacks you) and says, “Hey, can you do me a favor? Some people are coming in tomorrow and I need you to present our new initiative.”

The Pitfalls of Last-Minute Presentations

Deadlines can be good for concentrating the mind, but in this scenario, two things are likely to happen next:

• You’ll be up all night scrambling to create a new talk; and/or
• Your boss hands you a slide deck that someone else has prepared (perhaps badly), and you’ll be up all night figuring out how to deliver it.

In addition, you may also have to prepare for tough questions during Q&A.

So how can you manage this challenge, and ace your last-minute presentation, especially with so little time to get ready?

Review the Big Picture

Right now, the easiest thing in the world would be to dive headfirst into your content (a/k/a what you’re going to say).

But successful presentations aren’t all about content — they’re about establishing a three-way relationship between the speaker (that’s you), your audience, and what you’re going to tell them.

So here are two things to do before you jump into thinking about what you’re going to say.

1. Take a Minute to Think about the People You’ll Be Talking To

Jump start your last-minute presentation by asking yourself:

• What’s the story I’m going to tell this audience? Is it about how you’ve solved a technical problem? How your innovation will transform the market? How everyone is going to benefit? Even an “update” presentation tells a story about how well or badly a project is going.
• What do I want them to do differently as a result of my talk?
• What would motivate them to do it?

2. Now Take a Minute to Think about Y OU , the Person Who’s Going to Be Speaking

Ask yourself:

• How do I want the audience to view me? Do I want to be seen as smart? Confident? Helpful? Open-minded? (For more on how to project the qualities you choose, read about your public speaking Avatar. )
• What aspects of this situation are likely to trigger anxiety or fear? Some of us feel more vulnerable around strangers, or people with more status, or better haircuts. Will your feelings about this audience be an extra challenge?
• How have I managed public speaking anxiety or fear in the past? It’s comforting to know in advance that, if nerves do strike, you have some tricks and techniques up your sleeve for managing them.

And Now, You’re Ready to Organize the Content for Your Last-Minute Presentation!

Here’s how.

You May Also Want to Read...

• The Public Speaking Team of 3: Prepare, Practice, and Present
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The Pragmatic PhD

Craft skills for students and supervisors

Tips for a 10-minute presentation

Prioritise.   Select.  In a 10-minute talk, you can hope to convey one key idea.  So:  what’s your ‘take-away message’?

Think of a 10-minute talk as an extended abstract:  your aim is to convey the unique character of your research, with just enough detail so that the audience can grasp the big picture and understand what distinguishes your research from other related work. 

Plan the time:

If the talk is 10 minutes, then you can’t spend 5 of them on the introduction.  Associate time with important points – points essential to convey the character and shape of your research, points important to your line of reasoning, points concerning the implications of your research, and so on.  

It is essential to cover enough of the design and structure of your research for the audience to grasp its character.  So, your talk should include the classic key ingredients:

1.  Research question :  including what motivates you to address it, and why an answer will be important.  

2.  Context :   what is already known, what the issues are, what other approaches have been tried or are being tried – in brief.

3.  Your research design :   what you’re doing, what evidence you expect to find.

4.  Findings:    what evidence you have produced so far.

5.  Take-away message:   what you want the audience to remember about your research.

You’ll need balance among these elements:  don’t sacrifice the evidence, or your take-away message won’t be convincing.  Don’t short-change the context, or the research choices may not make sense.  Don’t forget to motivate the question, or the audience might wonder why you’re bothering.  And so on.

Start by giving a minute to each of the five – and then allocating the remaining five minutes to the elements that are most important to you to convey.  Note the time allocation on your running notes or script (whatever you use to guide yourself during your talk).

Plan the slides:

At 1 slide per minute, you need to contain your key points in 10 slides or so.  That doesn’t mean squeezing the material from 20 slides into 10; it means selecting key points and crucial material.  Remember:  if the audience is too busy trying to read your slides, then people won’t be listening to your words.  The purpose of the slides is to focus attention and reinforce key points.  If you have important supporting material (e.g., data, analyses) that won’t fit into the talk, keep them to hand in case they’ll help you answer questions.

Don’t just guess.  Make sure you’ve timed yourself giving the talk in a normal delivery pace at least once.  For example, give the talk to some friends or colleagues, and time it.  

11 Steps to Help You Keep Time During Your Presentation

Anushka kala.

• Body Language & Delivery

Some researchers say that the attention span of the human mind is only about 8 seconds. Even if we assume this to be a more pessimistic approach, there still exists a huge challenge faced by every presenter, in keeping their audience enraptured.

A key concept that successful orators and presenters use is the dictum of the ABC in effective communication: Accuracy, Brevity , and Clarity. These are bound by one common factor– time, or as we like to call it, the muslin minute .

This mantra ensures that the underlying principle of effective communication is adhered to, and forms the backbone of any good presentation.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Frantically Speaking (@frantically.speaking)

Here’s why keeping time is so important, in any presentation:

Importance of Keeping Time :

1. prioritize your audience:.

Let’s face it, as a presenter, one unfortunately does not have the luxury to speak for hours together, with no time restriction.

While it is important to get the message across, it is also essential to do so, while respecting the audience’s and/or organiser’s time.

Ever so often, there may be multiple speakers presenting one after the other, which makes adhering to the given time limit even more necessary.

Additionally, the audience too would have multiple commitments to get to, post your presentation, and thus, considering these factors is pivotal.

2. Limited Attention- A Tension:

The fact of the matter is that no matter how interesting the subject may be, the human mind is easily distracted, resulting in a loss of attention.

For a presenter, this poses as a challenge, as the main goal is to ensure that the subject being discussed is thoroughly understood and retained.

Hence, following the time limit and preparing your material concisely, and in accordance to the same, will help in making your presentation effective in nature.

3. More Information:

Yes, you read that right. One may ask how keeping time will help propagate more information.

An important point to be kept in mind is the fact that presentations aren’t merely about reading the slides of a PowerPoint presentation, but also depend majorly on any form of discussion (usually Q&A) where queries are addressed and doubts are cleared, so as to ensure an in-depth understanding of the subject.

Thus, presenters must allocate enough time for an interactive session with their audience, in addition to the ‘talking time’ to skim through and explain the presentation itself.

Now having understood the importance of following and respecting the time limit, let’s now move on to understanding how to do so.

How to Time Your Presentation:

1. what’s the time :.

The first step is to simply ask and know what your time limit is. Always note it down in case you forget.

If no time limit is specified, try consciously packaging your material in a succinct manner, so as to respect your audience’s time.

Regularly follow-up with the organizers, in case of any changes.

2. Know it All:

Know what you have to say.

If you’ve been given a subject or are asked to present a topic of your choice, it is important to be absolutely well-versed with the required concepts, what it entails, and the sub-topics you would want to cover within the given duration.

If your knowledge is inadequate on your end, it could result in a lot of wastage of time– after all, your goal of communicating efficiently with your audience is obstructed.

You must also know how to work your way around the technology you use. While it does make life simpler, it could also end up wasting time, if you don’t know how to use it well.

Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Keep reading this article to find out some tips, shortcuts and tricks that can enhance your presentation.

3. Ration your Duration:

Once you’ve made note of your time limit and have an idea of the concepts you wish to cover, it is crucial for you to begin scheduling your information and placing them in your slides accordingly.

Structure your presentation in accordance to the given time, and allocate a certain duration per slide/ concept. This will give you a blueprint of your presentation, and ensure its smooth sailing.

Related Article: Effective Speech Transitions: How To Make Your Speech Flow

4. Time Yourself:

Keep timing and recording yourself while practicing.

This practice helps you recognize areas you could cut, need be, as well as gives you an idea on how the presentation would sound to your audience.

There are so many more benefits to this, and is something one must most definitely inculcate. Read more about this here .

5. Write Your Speech:

Write each and every word of your speech. Don’t take shortcuts through bullet points and summaries.

While it is not essential to memorise your entire speech, it is scientifically proven that writing helps you process, analyse and retain information much better, which is necessary when it comes to public speaking.

This exercise ensures that you’re more well-acquainted with your speech and subject, and leaves lesser room for error, thus saving time.

Additionally, if you practice by merely referring to bullet points, chances are you might spend more time beating around the bush while presenting, resulting in time-waste.

6. Watch it:

During your final presentation, do ensure that you have an accurate source of time with you–a wristwatch, clock, smartphone, or even a trusted aide who could signal it for you.

Make sure this source is near you, and in your line of sight, so that you can adhere to it precisely.

7. The Ritual of Being Punctual:

Be on time. Reach your venue at least 10 minutes before the scheduled time.

Very often, presenters themselves are late, and hence, find themselves in a position where they’re scrambling for time. This may result in the impact of your presentation going downhill.

Plus, this will most definitely cut into the time of the other speakers present.

Punctuality is a sign that you respect the time of your fellow speakers, organizers and most importantly, listeners. This goes a long way.

8. Adapt and React:

The element of uncertainty always exists. You could still find yourself running out of time. Or, the organizers might ask you to speed your presentation due to a venue being booked for a limited time, other delays and/or technical issues.

Nevertheless, there must exist a Plan B. You must immediately be able to adapt to the situation and eliminate the needful.

Yes, your material may be concise, but you must always have a fair idea of what can be eliminated in case a situation like this arises. Consider your audience and approach it from their perspective.

You must be quick on your feet. Don’t let your nerves get the better of you. With adequate prior preparation, one will seamlessly be able to adapt to the situation.

9. The Filler Killer:

We often use filler words such as Um, Well, and Like in our day-to-day conversations.

However, while giving a presentation in a limited timeframe, these filler words may actually end up wasting time and cause you to exceed your given limit. After all, these words are meaningless.

We often use these words due to lack of preparation, nerves or just sheer habit.

Learn how to eliminate its usage through this helpful article.

10. Handy Handouts:

The experience of an effective PowerPoint presentation is incomplete without handouts.

Handouts are a tangible and printed form of information handed over to your audience.

As a presenter, you may feel restricted, in terms of addressing all essential points for a subject. This is where handouts come in handy.

All required information can be printed on your handout, and these help in creating a lasting impression and impact on your audience.

Here’s all you need to know about presentation handouts.

11. Don’t Stress to Impress:

We get it, public speaking and giving presentations is nerve-wracking. But, we’ve got your back.

Nerves result in the wastage of a lot of time. No matter what the preparation is, your efforts might go in vain due to nerves.

Relax! That’s what you have to do when you’re up next. You can even harness your nervous and vulnerable state of mind, into a powerful tool.

Read this article, in order to do so.

Ideal Length of a Presentation

Speeches and presentations are subjective in nature. There isn’t any universal duration set for your presentation.

This depends on the kind of meeting being held, as well as, your audience.

To help you get a fair idea, here are some examples of the types of speeches and their ideal duration:

• TED Talks : A talk can be no longer than 18 minutes, as it is considered to be just the right span of time to hold one’s attention and create a serious impact.
• Business Pitch: Should range between 10-18 minutes, but not exceed this limit. It is done so to prevent saturation of information and loss of interest.
• Ceremonial Speeches: Should range between 5-10 minutes. These include weddings, graduations, birthdays, and even funerals.
• Informative Speaking : Ideal time considered is 10 minutes. Here, the speaker disseminates important information.
• Persuasive Speaking : Duration between 2-7 minutes. Here, a speaker tries to convince their audience to agree with their viewpoint.

Again, there is nothing set in stone in terms of time, for these presentations. They wary in nature, size and context.

In some scenarios, one could probably be more flexible with their time; for example– a wedding toast, which isn’t necessarily bound by a restrictive timeframe.

Whereas, in more formal environments such as a business pitch, the 18 minute time limit is adhered to.

Best Time of the Day to Give a Presentation

Yes, that is a thing. If you have the flexibility to schedule your presentation, you should most definitely aim to take the morning slot around 10 AM.

Why? This is because your audience will be fresh, with higher levels of concentration and short-term memory.

10 AM isn’t too early in the day, where your audience might doze off.

If a slot is taken after that, around afternoon, it may coincide with lunch time (which, let’s admit, is very important) and result in your audience being more distracted and restless due to the same.

Post-lunch, too, becomes relatively riskier, as productivity levels do go down in the afternoons, especially after a heavy meal. A large number of people feel tired after a heavy meal, and concentration levels dip.

Of course, in the end, choosing your time depends on your knowledge of your audience. It depends on who they are, what they do, and their working hours.

So do keep these factors in mind while scheduling your next presentation!

Putting Power in your Point: Tips & Tricks

Now, keeping time isn’t necessarily limited to just your speech. The presentation you make must also be accurate and clear.

Here are a few hacks you could use to up your PowerPoint game.

1. Simplicity’s the Key:

KISS . Keep it simple, stupid!

If you want to save time while presenting, avoid using ‘fancy’ words or complex explanations; you’re probably going to end up explaining those more than actually presenting, leading to a waste of time. If there’s a simpler route, always go for that.

Limit the number of words per line, and throughout your presentation. Just about 6-8 words per line, and keep a close eye on the number of slides.

2. Display Matter that Matters:

Make it a point to present only essential information. The explanation is to be done by the speaker.

Hence, just put in the required keywords in bullet points, and explain them accordingly.

Quite often, presenters make large bullet points with the whole text, and end up reading those verbatim instead. This must be avoided.

Follow the 6 x 6 rule for bullet points , which states no more than 6 words per point, and no more than 6 points per slide.

3. Limit your Slides:

Ensure that you don’t have too many slides, which may result in exceeding the time limit.

Time your presentation accordingly, with reference to the one slide per minute rule.

4. ‘Builds’ Could Knock you Down :

Build slides are those slides that gradually show you the bullet points so present, as the mouse is clicked.

They are used to add variety, but ever so often, they end up slowing down the presentation.

Avoid using builds repetitively, and use them only where necessary and/or to make a point.

5. Learn to Navigate:

In the course of the presentation, you may be asked to go back and forth your slides, for purposes of reference.

For example, if at Slide 14, you wish to cover a concept so explained on Slide 5, you may end up wasting time going through each of those previous 9 slides. Remember, every second counts.

There are various methods to ensure you reach your desired slide, with the simple click of a button. Read this.

Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule :

It’s pretty simple:

10 Slides — the optimal number 20 Minutes — the optimal duration 30 pts. — minimum font size.

According to Kawasaki, 10 is the adequate number of slides that the human mind can fully interpret and retain. It’s up to the speaker on how he wants to structure his presentation, but the message should be conveyed within those 10 slides.

20 minutes is the time you should allocate for your presentation. Even if you are given a whole 60 minutes for the same, aim to finish in 20 and allocate the remaining 40 minutes to an interactive question/answer session.

30 pts. should be the minimum size of the font you choose. Nothing smaller than that. The idea behind this is that the smaller the text, the more information is put on the slide. This may be counterproductive to the fact that PowerPoint Presentations are meant to be concise and to-the-point. The explaining is to be done by you.

In Conclusion

Keeping your thoughts, on the dot, may seem like a task, at first. But, now you know, it surely isn’t.

All it requires is prioritization from the presenter’s end. Keep the needs and interests of your audience in mind and respect their time.

Keep time, and don’t let time keep you.

Enroll in our transformative 1:1 Coaching Program

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Last-Minute Presentation Tips

• by Steve Mandel

Sometimes, you have to prepare for an important presentation at the last minute. Maybe you were asked to fill in for someone on short notice, or perhaps you’ve known about it for some time but received critical information the night before or morning of. Maybe you just procrastinated or were too busy to get it done in a timely manner.

It happens to all of us (hopefully, not too often)!

Regardless, you still want to pull together a good presentation and deliver it well. When you have no choice but to do a rush job, here are some tips on preparing for and delivering presentations at the last minute.

Fine-tune to your audience.  It can be seductively easy to throw together old materials, re-label old slides, or repurpose a presentation you’ve given before without making any changes.

That’s a risky choice, though, because your audience has changed. Each presentation requires critical thinking about who is in your audience:

• What’s important to them?
• What is their level of knowledge of the topic?
• Perhaps most importantly, ask yourself:  “What is my goal for this audience ?”

Your answers will guide you on ways to quickly fine-tune slides you’ve used before, to make them relevant and persuasive for your current audience.

Check your slides. When you do re-purpose old slides, after you’ve finished fine-tuning them, carefully check each one.

• Is the presentation title still accurate?
• Is the slide title still accurate?
• Is your data timely?
• Is the message of the slide still relevant and interesting to your new audience?
• If this is a customer-facing presentation, are there any references to another customer? Check carefully for this!

Frame the content. You’ve heard it a million times, but it’s no less true: Start and finish strong. Think about your opening and closing. When you’re pressed for time, focus the majority of rework on these areas. These should be very tailored to your audience.

The Mandel Blueprint ® and SCI-PAB ® methodologies can help you with this process.

Don’t forget about delivery. In last minute situations it’s easy to let nervous energy prevail, rush through your delivery, and not focus enough on your audience.

Before your presentation:

• Get familiar with the technical bits, like the projector, computer, Internet connection, and microphone (if you’re going to be using one).
• Think about where you might move around to best engage the audience, but not block their view of the screen or visuals.

During your presentation, remember to use appropriate:

• Eye contact
• Voice (Speak with confidence, don’t talk too fast, and use pauses .)
• Good posture

We’ve all been there (and we’ll probably find ourselves there again).  As stressful as they can be, last minute presentations don’t have to be mediocre clones of ones you’ve given before.

In just a little bit of time, with a little bit of effort, minor tweaks to content and delivery can have a huge impact.

Steve Mandel

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February 9, 2024

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Everything You Need To Know About 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint Presentations

Would you like to deliver a perfect presentation? Who wouldn’t! Here is an overview of the 10/20/30 Rule for making your presentations polished and perfect.

What's Inside?

What does the best presentation look like? We may not have an answer for that, but we have a clear answer for how a bad presentation looks. Think about a presentation that goes for over 30 minutes, goes over 15 slides, and is still counting, and the speaker reads texts on the slides. Is there anyone even still listening? Most of the audience fell asleep, looking at their phone or daydreaming at this point. 

So, what was wrong with this presentation? What should the speaker do for their next presentation? Here is the 10/20/30 Rule! This rule will be your guideline to avoid horrible presentations. 

We prepared a comprehensive guide to create and deliver effective presentations by using the 10/20/30 Rule! If you want information about the 10/20/30 Rule, how to apply it to your presentation, its benefits and downsides, and some helpful tips from us for your next presentation, keep reading! 

Presentations in Our Life

Presentations are a ubiquitous part of our lives. In many settings, we can be asked to give presentations, convey information, share ideas, persuade others, or, as a recent trend, just for fun! In school, work, or maybe in your daily life, in a PowerPoint party , you may be asked to give presentations. 

What to Consider While Preparing a PowerPoint Presentation?

• Topic and Purpose
• Organization of the Slides
• Design of the Slides
• Delivery Style

You should choose your topic carefully. After choosing your topic, it is important to clearly describe your purpose for giving this presentation. Are you informing, persuading, inspiring, or entertaining? Knowing your purpose will shape your content and approach. Thus, it will create a roadmap for you to follow.

You should organize your slides. Of course, the title is the first slide, but what else comes after? You should outline your topic and organize your slides accordingly. The slides should keep up with the flow of the presentation and support the presenter.

Your slides shouldn't be dull. The slides should contain attention-grabbing designs. Otherwise, you may subject your audience to Death by PowerPoint. In other words, you will bore them to death with your presentation .

There should be a set time limit for delivery. The last thing you want in a presentation is to run around in circles and repeat. You should try to keep it as short as possible, of course keeping in mind the goal for your delivery. Remember that people's attention span is limited. Thus, giving a longer presentation than it should be is never a good idea. The last thing you want is for the audience to stop listening to you.

Your delivery is the most important part of the presentation. You may spend hours on your presentation design, but in the end, you are the one who will present it. Be sure to practice beforehand. Prepare your presentation according to the time limit and focus on your pronunciation. Practice for a smooth delivery. Try to be natural and confident when presenting!

Although you should consider these points for your presentation, you can also apply the 10/20/30 rule for your presentation. This rule almost covers all the main points of a presentation to be perfect! Capture your audience and deliver your point flawlessly!

What is the 10/20/30 Rule?  

  The 10/20/30 Rule refers to a presentation formula for the best and most effective presentations. This rule provides a valuable framework, emphasizing the importance of organization, time management, and legible text. According to this formula:

• You should have 10 slides
• The presentation should last 20 minutes
• The slides should have at least a 30-point font

10/20/30 Rule

The 10/20/30 rule was coined by Guy Kawasaki , who is one of the early pioneers of Silicon Valley, now working as the chief evangelist of Canva . Back in 2006, Kawasaki was working as a venture specialist. After seeing enough presentations, which was a lot, he was able to analyze what makes a presentation better or worse than others. That’s when the 10/20/30 rule was born!

Here is Guy Kawasaki explaining the 10/20/30 Rule in a minute:

Who can use the 10/20/30 Rule in the Slides?

Kawasaki created this formula based on his experiences as a venture specialist. Therefore, this formula can be used for marketers. Presentations are different from advertisements . Presentations should be visually engaging, informative, and supportive of the presenter in times of need. 

The 10/20/30 rule idea can be used for any presentation made with the purpose of reaching an agreement: a pitch deck , making a sale , raising capital, and so on. 

However, if you have other aims for your presentation, you can still take the key points for your presentation. It is important to understand that this rule focuses on the structure of a presentation. This includes the organization of the presentation, time limit, and design of your presentation. Whether you are a student , teacher , or worker, you can consider using the 10/20/30 rule for your presentations.

10/ 20/ 30 Rule for Your PowerPoint Presentation

10 slides is more than enough.

No more than 10 slides! As Kawasaki points out, the human mind is only able to comprehend 10 concepts in a meeting. If you have more than 10 slides, some of them are bound to be forgotten. Some may be forgotten before you even finish your presentation. It is important to use your slides as supporters and add key points only. You should prepare your topic and slides accordingly. 

Actually, Kawasaki also shared an outline to follow on a marketing presentation. By following this outline, you can deliver every important detail in your marketing presentation.

a. This slide should include your name, company name, contact information, and other information needed.

2. Problem/Opportunity

a. In this slide, you can explain the problem in the market and your solution to this problem. You should be able to explain what needs your product or service addresses and how.

3. Value Proposition

a. You should highlight the values and benefits of your product for the customers in this slide.

4. Underlying Magic

a. In this slide, explain the technology behind your business model. Depending on your product or service, you can keep this part shorter or longer. 

5. Business Model

a. Explain your plan to generate revenue and profit. After all, you are looking for an investment or agreement, so you should highlight this part! 

6. Go-to-Market Plan

a. In this part, explain your market or sales plan. You can show a roadmap for revenue goals, target customers, activities to achieve your goals, and some problems you may experience.

7. Competitive Analysis

a. In this slide, present your strategy that involves examining and analyzing your rivals in the market. In this way, you learn about their offerings, sales processes, and marketing strategies. In addition, add your stronger corporate strategies to gain market share.

8. Management Team

a. Highlight your team and their work! You may want to focus on your management team’s experience, skills, effectiveness, and knowledge of the product. 

9. Financial Projections and Key Metrics

a. Provide a set of financial statements for your business idea. Your future revenues and expenses should be presented in an estimated timeline. Present a budget plan! 

10. Current Status, Accomplishments to Date, Timeline, and Use of Funds.

a. In the last slide, you should talk about the current progress or developments in your business, achievements that you accomplished, a timeline for your future achievements, and how you plan to use the investments that you seek. 

While the 10/20/30 Rule provides a structured framework, you may want to adapt some parts of the outline for your presentation according to your topic. But in the end, it is more ideal that your outline should be similar to Kawasaki’s. 

20 Minutes is Ideal For Your Delivery

No longer than 20 minutes! People have a very short attention span; this includes your audience, too! Even if everything else in your presentation is perfect, a longer presentation will tire your audience, like a class that is longer than it should be. The longer your presentation gets, the more your audience will get distracted, tired, or bored. Similarly, you will become tired, too. That will make you more prone to make mistakes and repeat yourself.

Most TED Talks are 20 minutes or less, mostly around 10-ish minutes. This shows that you can get your point across effectively in 20 minutes, so don’t hesitate! It may seem short, but because they are fast-paced, they become more engaging. The important part is to get your point across and make your audience understand you!

You may be given more time to present. However, you should still keep your presentation to 20 minutes and leave your remaining time for questions, discussions, and comments. This will also prepare you for any hiccups out of your control. For example, people can arrive late, and there may be problems with the computer and projector. Because of these problems, some of your designated time can stolen. Even if you are given an hour, keeping your presentation 20 minutes will give you an advantage.   

30 Point Font is Better

No smaller than a 30-point font! Font rule is a very important part of the 10/20/30 Rule. Your presentation shouldn't have any small text. If you have texts that are usually in 10-point fonts, then you probably have chunks of text in your slides and will read from them during the presentation. As most of us have experienced, those presentations are very hard to listen to! After all, the audience can read faster than you speak. Therefore, the audience is ahead of you, and after they read, there is no need to listen to you. 

The purpose of 30-points is this: because it is a large font size, you won't be able to fit all the information you want to deliver. Only key points and main ideas will be in your presentation! As it should be! You can add key points and get support from your slides when needed.

Also, a smaller font means that it will be harder to read for your audience. So, rather than being supporting material, it captures your audience as they try to read the small fonts. What's ideal is for the audience to listen and pay attention to you and maybe take a quick glance at the presentation.

If you think it is a too strict rule, Kawasaki also proposes another idea. If you can, find the age of the oldest people in the audience. By dividing it into two, you will have your ideal font size. For example, if the oldest person in your audience is 50, then your font can be 25 points! 

It is up to you to choose your font size. However, we recommend 30 points!

Why Should Apply Kawasaki’s Rule or Not?

As with everything, there are ups and downs to using this formula for your presentations. Consider these for your presentation to decide whether to use the 10/20/30 rule. Keep in mind that some benefits can outweigh downsides and vice versa. You can analyze it according to your own audience and the context of your presentation.

The Benefits of Kawasaki’s Rule: 

There is an apparent structure Kawasaki’s Rule provides. With years of use, this formula has proven to be accurate and useful. The rule is specially designed for marketers, so the structure fits perfectly into a marketer's presentation. However, everyone can adapt the 10/20/30 rule for their presentation, as it focuses on the structure of the presentation.

Focused Presentation: 

With 10 slides and 20 minutes, 10/20/30 makes your presentation more concise and focused. A concise presentation shows your mastery of the topic. There is more virtue in getting your point across with fewer words rather than talking for hours. The aim is to give your information in a shorter way to make your content easier to understand. Also, it will be easier for your audience to remember what was said in the presentation afterward.

Response to Your Audience’s Needs:

10/20/30 is prepared by Kawasaki from his experiences as an audience. Thus, it is no surprise that the rule focuses on the audience's perspective more. With this audience-centered approach, keeping it shorter makes your audience more engaged. It is also easier to remember a short presentation afterward. 

The Downsides of Kawasaki’s Rule: 

Remember that this presentation rule was from the 2000s. So, some problems are addressing issues that are out of date.

Time Management Problems:  

Kawasaki points out that 20 minutes is enough for a presentation. However, sometimes it may not be. The 10 slides Kawasaki proposes can take longer than 20 minutes, and this is highly likely. So, for the sake of keeping up with the time limit and being brief, some valuable information can be missed. 

Furthermore, Kawasaki advises that even if an hour is given, the presentation still should be 20 minutes, and the rest should be left for the audience's questions. But trusting the audience's questions is always risky. What if there are no questions? Your presentation will be short and brief. 

Advanced Technology: 

We now use more high-definition projectors that are able to show smaller texts in better quality. In addition, presentation platforms have become more online. In a video-conference, a 30-point font size is unnecessary and not visually satisfying. Also, a 30-point font does not leave much space for a creative and unique design for your slides.

Some Tips For Your Next Slide

Technology and tools:.

Stay updated with the latest presentation tools and technologies, like Decktopus. Decktopus is a modern presentation tool that offers a range of features for creating visually appealing and engaging slides with the help of AI. Decktopus is easy to use and quick to create slides you want to show in your next marketing presentation. With Decktopus, it is impossible for your slides to not take the attention of your audience.

Having visually appealing and supporting slides is important! You may capture the audience with your speech, but you also should capture them visually! Use creative templates, designs, and graphics! You can easily create decks with various templates and visuals on Decktopus! Take a look !

Storytelling:

Storytelling is an art and a dynamic tool for presentations! By sharing your story, you can make your presentation more memorable and engaging. You may want to create compelling narratives that draw in your audience and make them resonate on an emotional level. Storytelling makes you and your product more relatable for the audience. The audience becomes invested in your story and begins to care about you and your product.

Body Language and Delivery:

As we said, delivery is the key part of a presentation! Your body language gives underlying messages about your confidence and expertise. Practice non-verbal communication before your presentation. You may practice in front of a group of friends to get their advice! Don’t forget the most important ones: maintain eye contact, use gestures effectively, and project confidence!

Handling Questions:

Think about possible questions and your answers before your presentation! You may develop a few strategies for handling questions and addressing unexpected challenges during your presentation. Familiarize yourself with possible questions and objections against your claims, and come up with well-thought-out answers before your presentation. It is important to answer all the questions asked to show your expertise and mastery of the subject. You may conduct a Q&A session after your presentation, or you can take questions during the presentation, depending on the flow of your presentation.

Make It More Interactive:

Creating an interactive presentation will certainly increase your audience engagement and make your presentation more memorable. You may want to get your audience’s attention by adding their input to the presentation. For example, you can conduct a live question and answer session during your presentation and add the input of your audience to the narrative. Similarly, you can create a spontaneous survey or poll, to make your presentation more engaging. You can use some tools in your slides or simply ask people to raise their hands. Remember that most of the TED Talks start with a question!

By incorporating these additional ideas into your presentation, you can create and deliver effective presentations not only in marketing but in various contexts and settings!

How to Start?

Try Decktopus for creating your next presentation. You can follow the 10/20/30 Rule easily with customized slides! 

Decktopus is a presentation assistant that helps you create presentations. Once you answer enough questions about your slideshow, it can also build decks for you. After you answer the questions about your audience, how long your presentation will take, what your presentation is about, your aim, and your template, Decktopus will create a deck for you with images, titles, logos, writings, etc. Because you’ve given detailed information about what you want to present, you don’t have to change many things.

For your practice, you can use Rehearsal Mode in Decktopus ! You can rehearse and adjust the time for your presentation. You can still make changes that are needed after your practice!

In addition, Decktopus has many templates ! These will make your presentation more visually engaging and look more professional. As with the concept, let’s say you will make a presentation about marketing. Decktopus has over 15 marketing presentation templates! You can choose any template that goes with your concept or product!

Decktopus has you covered for your next presentation! If you want more information about how it is used, you can look at this video: 

In the fast-paced world we live in, effective presentations have become a vital skill. Whether you're a student, teacher, entrepreneur, or professional, the ability to convey your ideas clearly and persuasively can open doors and drive success. 10/20/30 Rule by Guy Kawasaki, born out of years of experience, offers a structured approach to crafting presentations that capture your audience's attention and deliver your message.

Effective presentations are not just about slides and bullet points; they are about your audience, sparking their interest and leaving a lasting impact. While presenting, storytelling, visuals, slides, engagement, and confidence are equally critical components you should consider.

So, for your next presentation journey, keep Guy Kawasaki's 10/20/30 Rule in mind. With practice, preparation, and a deep understanding of your content, you'll be well on your way to delivering presentations that inform, inspire, and engage.

In the end, presentations are not just about the slides; they're about the connections you build, the ideas you share, and the impact you make. Whether you're giving a sales pitch , a classroom lecture, or a TED Talk, the art of presenting is a skill that can empower you to achieve your goals and leave a lasting impression. 

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How To Prepare For A Last-Minute, 10-Minute Speech

Just 10 or 15 minutes, you think. Not nearly enough time to do justice to the topic, but plenty of time to make a complete fool of myself if I don’t organize my thoughts carefully.

Last week I was sitting at the back of a large conference room watching an excellent presentation before about 100 managers at a global professional services organization. As the speech continued, I noticed a rather senior looking individual sitting close by who was scribbling furiously on the back of a piece of paper. It didn’t appear as if he was taking notes on the actual presentation, so I was curious what he might be doing. The speech at the front of the room continued, and several minutes later the presenter mentioned to the audience that he had just invited a colleague to speak on an important topic immediately before the next coffee break. The pieces came together in my mind…clearly the older gentleman next to me was the last minute guest, rapidly preparing the notes for his own upcoming presentation.

We’ve all been in this situation before: minding our own business at a meeting or a conference or a even an office holiday party . Shortly before the program begins, the chairman or organizer sends us a note saying something on the order of:

“It’s great that you are attending this meeting! You know, I was thinking about the plan for the day and it would be such a help if you could speak for just 10 or 15 minutes on [insert topic of your expertise.] I know its kind of last minute, but you’re a master at this material and I’m sure everyone would really appreciate the value of what you have to say.”

Need to quickly prepare a great speech? Download Ariel’s Focus Sheet for Speechwriting template .

You graciously accept (what choice do you really have?) and now, depending on the context and the topic, you have to manage a certain low level of anxiety for the next few hours until the moment comes to give your speech.

As I sat in the back of the room I found myself very curious to watch the unfolding drama before me. (At the same time, I was secretly relieved that it wasn’t me who had been recruited.) When the gentleman’s moment finally came, I was impressed at how well he handled it. Three things stood out, which strike me as worthy of remembering:

1. Prepare your notes—but don’t use them!

There is nothing wrong with writing out your speech. The mistake many people make is to then read the words right off the paper. That’s where you lose your audience. What made this speech work so well was the impression we got in the audience was that he was speaking spontaneously, which lent a certain credibility and aliveness to his words.

2. Paralysis of integrity

Don’t get caught in what an old teacher of mine once called the “paralysis of integrity.” In other words, if you hold too high a standard for yourself with regard to saying it exactly right, you risk losing your ability to engage your audience. Trust yourself and your experience with the topic at hand. You would not have been invited to speak in the first place if they thought you needed your notes!

3. Pretend you are chatting with a friend

The most important piece of advice I give my clients is that the larger the audience, the more important it is to relax and create the appearance of intimacy. Remember, it is physiologically impossible to make eye contact with more than one person at a time—so think of a 100 person audience as a series of simultaneous 1-1 conversations…like a chess master playing many games at once. Everyone in the group will feel that you are speaking to them and to them alone.

Do your employees need tips on how to give presentations with impact? Learn about our offerings here .

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Presentation Expert Tip: The 10-Minute Rule

August 8, 2014 / Blog, Experts, Presentation Science, Rick Enrico Blog, Tips & Tricks 10-minute rule, Carmine Gallo, presentation expert, presentation tips

Attention spans are getting shorter and shorter these days. While most of the bored audience members won’t literally leave their seats to walk out of the room, they can easily check their phones under the table. What would a presentation expert do to get the show back on track? Brand communication expert Carmine Gallo says it’s as simple as re-engaging your audience every 10 minutes .

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During presentations, audiences mentally tune out because they’re not given chances to fully digest what they’re learning. Gallo suggests creating soft breaks in your presentation after every 10 minutes. Give the audience a bit of a mental break with something fun and engaging.

To put this presentation expert tip into practice, consider these things to reel in your audience back:

Demonstrations

Show off what you can do before anyone’s attention starts wander off. Yours might be the best product in a specific market, but the audience won’t care if you’ve already lost their attention. Do your demo during the main part of the presentation. This will make it more relevant and impressive.

Demonstrations also work for other types of presentations, not just pitches. Michael Pollan’s presentation at Pop!Tech is a great example. His goal was to make people more critical of their food choices. In order to drive home his point, he used a few props to demonstrate just how much crude oil goes into making a double cheeseburger. View his presentation here .

As Carmine Gallo puts it, today’s world is a “multimedia environment.” Powerful visuals dominate our lives, from the videos we watch on YouTube to the billboards we come across during our commute. But for some reason, few presenters think of incorporating this multimedia frenzy to their PowerPoint presentations.

Adding videos to your slide is an easy way to create soft breaks. Make use of testimonials, expert interviews, or your company’s ad campaigns to give your slides an engaging dimension. You can also make use of videos to tell your company story.

Just think of Tokyo’s pitch to host the 2020 Olympics . The team made use of several videos to enhance their presentation. The videos they chose gave their pitch a more human element, as well. The entire presentation had four different videos showcasing Japan’s young athletes.

Audience Participation

Another way to incorporate soft breaks into your presentation is by encouraging audience participation. Sometimes, presenters tend to focus too much on their slides that they forget about the people they’re addressing. Step away from your deck once in a while to pose a question or ask for opinions. As we’ve mentioned earlier, it’s all about being creative. Come up with questions that will make your audience pause and think.

In her TEDx talk, linguist Anne Curzan discussed how new words make it to the dictionary. Her topic was already interesting in itself, but she made it more engaging by involving the audience. Not only were her questions relevant to the points she made, they also made the audience laugh.

Other speakers

There are some things you can’t do on your own. From time to time, that includes presentations. For presentations that are particularly long, try to get the other people in your team involved. That way, your audience can hear from a set of different voices and perspectives.

Take a look at Apple’s product launches. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook would easily hand off the mic to other players in their team, giving the audience a chance to learn more about the new products from those who played an active role in developing it. Here’s a quick clip of Tim Cook and Craig Federighi introducing iOS 8.

Activities might not work for all presentations, but they’re perfect for seminars and workshops. Break up your training sessions into small, 10-minute segments by incorporating some creative activities. Try to come up with things they can do that will also test their comprehension.

This is good for you in two ways. Not only will you keep your audience from getting bored, you can also test the effectively of your presentation and adjust accordingly.

These are just some suggestions presentation expert Carmine Gallo enumerates to help you with the 10-minute rule. All of these tips serve as a way to re-engage your audience with elements that some presentations lack.

The most important thing you need to remember is that people tend to drift off quite easily. If you want your presentation to succeed, you have to work hard to keep everyone’s attention on you.

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10 Tips For Impressive Presentations To Senior Leadership And Executives

• Posted on February 7, 2022

10 PRESENTATION TIPS TO IMPRESS SENIOR LEADERS

Tip 1: prepare, tip 2: begin with the end in mind.

• What do you want this audience to feel when they’re done?
• What do you want them to know when you’re done?
• What do you want them to do, when you’re done?

TIP 3: BE CLEAR AND CONCISE

Tip 4: tell stories, tip 5: keep slides minimal.

Provide extra information in your slide notes

TIP 6: CHANNEL NERVOUS ENERGY INTO USABLE ENERGY

The best way to feel confident is to practice.

5 to 7 full rehearsals

TIP 7: PRE-PRESENTATION WARM UP

Breathe low and slow.

WARM UP YOUR BODY

Warm up your mouth, tip 8: have vocal executive presence, tip 9: commanding the space.

Presentation power posing

TIP 10: AUTHENTIC SPEAKER PERSONA

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Ten simple rules for giving an effective presentation

Everyone has to give presentations at some point. Whether pitching a new product, presenting at a lab meeting, or giving a talk at a conference, the ability to give an effective, engaging, and persuasive talk cannot be understated. Unfortunately, these skills are rarely taught formally in school. I’ll present ten simple rules that will help reduce your anxiety and make your presentations as effective as possible.

1. Have something worth presenting

This is probably the most important rule, which is why it’s Rule 1. If you don’t have something worth presenting, you shouldn’t be asking people to spend an hour of their time listening to you. Thankfully, you were probably invited or asked to present because you have something worth presenting. 

What does it mean to have something worth presenting? Related to Rule 4, you should have one key message that you want to impart to your audience. It could be a new fact, a proposal you have, an argument you want to make, or a call to action. Whatever it is, it should be genuine, novel, and something you’re excited to tell people about.

2. Organize your presentation

In fifth grade, we learned that essays should have an introduction, body, and conclusion, and every body paragraph should have a topic sentence, evidence, and a concluding sentence. This is still a great organizing principle for your presentation. How do you organize a verbal talk, where your audience can’t go back to listen to your introduction again? I like to have an outline slide where I talk about how my presentation will be structured. On subsequent slides, or at various points in my talk, I’ll reference this outline with a phrase like “We’ve talked about bananas and apples so far as examples of very popular fruits. Now I’ll switch to talking about durian, which is significantly less popular.”

3. Show rather than tell on slides

I can’t tell you how many times I have seen slide decks where every slide is stuffed full of words and pictures — even from the most seasoned professors. While it may be tempting to have everything on your slides (maybe to refer to during your talk: see Rule 6), people will pay attention to what’s on them than to what you are saying. Instead, use slides as they were meant to be used — visuals to accompany your talk. Often, the best talks will not even have titles on their slides, just a figure or a picture or a phrase to make a point. 

4. Less is more

Your goal in giving a presentation is to leave your audience with one key message. A year from now, if asked what your presentation was about, they should be able to recall that message. Try to hammer in the key message over and over again, and present evidence and logic that point to this conclusion. It will be tempting to try to provide as much new information as possible, but a recent study [2] showed that when hearing stories, people enjoyed familiar stories more than novel ones, probably because they already have an idea how these stories are structured. The easier you make it for your listeners to follow your talk (by streamlining your message), the more they will enjoy it and remember it a year from now.

5. Plan to take less time than allotted

Relating to Rule 4, it is essential to plan your presentation with some amount of buffer time. The first 10 minutes allotted to your talk might melt away as a result of a previous presenter running late or various tech issues. People might interrupt your talk to ask questions. The last thing you want to happen to you is to be rushed because of factors out of your control. Instead, if you’re allotted an hour for your talk, plan it for 45 minutes. Also, do not underestimate how much your audience will appreciate it if you let them out early!

6. Be aware of your facial expression and eyes

Your audience is the people sitting in front of you, not the projector screen behind you. People naturally pay attention when someone is looking directly at them while talking. Conversely, they will tune out if your eyes are not on them. To keep people’s attention, make eye contact with different parts of your audience periodically — focus on one person in each “sector” of your audience. Look back at your slides briefly to point at something with your pointer or gesture at something, but don’t read off your slides or have your body turned towards the screen. Finally, bring a smile and lots of excitement. If you are excited about your topic, at least part of your audience will also be excited — but if you seem bored and uninterested, no one will be engaged. 

7. Use hand motions and movement to your advantage

Related to Rule 6, gestures and movement are a very effective way to engage with your audience. You can point at parts of your slide, or make hand gestures to make a point, or set out the organization of your talk. People also naturally pay more attention to someone who is moving than someone who is standing motionlessly behind the podium. If possible, get out from behind the podium and use the entire stage to your advantage! Moving purposefully also has the added effect of making you feel more confident, and the audience perceiving you as more confident because you aren’t “hiding” behind the podium.

8. Pause frequently, speak slowly, and remember to breathe

One of the most underrated skills in communication is pausing. When used correctly, pauses can have dramatic effect by underscoring a point that you just made. I think the longest intentional pause I’ve heard in a talk is 5 seconds, which may sound like an eternity when you’re onstage but certainly is not for the audience. You can also take advantage of the power of pauses by simply pausing whenever you feel the need to regroup your thoughts, instead of using a filler word such as “like” or “um”. Many studies have shown that pauses signal competence, while filler words signal lack of competence. 

When you do speak, speak clearly and slowly, and enunciate. The easier the listener’s job is, the more likely he or she will understand and retain your message. Many novice presenters make the mistake of speaking far too quickly, 

9. Practice, but do not memorize

Whoever said practice makes perfect was absolutely right with regards to presentations. Practicing out loud (to your dog, significant other, or anyone else — or even the mirror!) has the benefit of helping you assess whether your sentences are understandable, or whether they’re too wordy or awkward. Practicing is also important for building effective transitions, developing phrases that are concise and powerful, and trying out gestures. Even the most experienced orators and speakers practice and look to others for advice and suggestions, so don’t be shy and grab a friend to listen to your talk!

When you practice, time yourself and make it as close to the real deal as possible. For a public speaking class I took in college, I practiced in front of the mirror so that I could have a virtual audience. Others film themselves to watch for tics, awkward moments, or other things to add or avoid. Be careful about sounding scripted — your talk should (in most settings) be natural and conversational.

10. Practice one more time than you think you should

The more you practice, the better your talk will be. That extra practice round will build even more confidence and help you sort out those last-minute problems. 

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15 powerful ways to close your last minutes of a presentation

Usually, speakers pay particular attention to the beginning of their speeches. And it’s obvious. Hundreds of articles have been written about the importance of the first impression and the ability to catch an audience from the first sentence. Meanwhile, although every skilled speaker should know how to start a presentation, at the same time, it is equally important to know how to correctly end a presentation so that all efforts are not in vain. Why is it important? It’s obvious that you should leave a positive impression, be remembered, and bring listeners to the desired actions. In this article, we will learn how to do it.

Here, we gathered 15 effective methods that will help you find out how to end a presentation correctly so that be sure that your message is kept in listeners’ minds. When using one of the below-mentioned techniques, you’ll definitely find the right option for your presentations and will be able to create attractive and memorable projects.

A call to action

Do not leave an audience in limbo. Take the initiative in your own hands. After all, your work had some specific goal – so outline it. Tell attendees what they have to do next and how it will help. Encourage your listeners to contact you by leaving contacts, filling in a form, asking additional questions, getting details, ordering products or services, purchasing a product. 

The main thing to remember is that your last words must clearly call them to make a certain step. Otherwise, they’ll be uncertain and your speech is in vain.

Quote the words of a famous person, tell a catchphrase – this will always be appropriate for both speakers and listeners. A common mistake of this method is the choice of the wrong quote, which illogically ends the presentation.

In this case, it is important to find the right expression that will contain the main message of your speech. Thus, even if attendees don’t remember all the details of a presentation, they’ll at least recall the last quote.

A compelling story

This is one of the best and more effective methods to end a presentation. The main thing is to find the right story. It can be your own experience or just a story that will demonstrate the practical use of your message. Or at least it will help build an analogy and remember your topic.

An impressive photo, illustration, or infographics

Visualization is an important part of a speech. You can place a memorable photo on the last slide of your visual material. It is important that the chosen visual element is associated with your speech.

Contact information

To draw a line, speakers can display their contact information. Let the last thing a public sees in your presentation be contact information. Indicate the following: your name/ company name; phone number; E-mail address; a website; links to social networks; your photo and/or logo.

A contradictory example

British writer Ken Robinson successfully used this technique. He managed to draw everybody’s attention by speaking about viruses while the topic of his report was education system reforms. His vivid contradictory comparison with viruses made everyone remember his speech. 

A picture of the future

Outlining the future is an option that is not suitable for any topic. It will work perfectly in the case of new technologies if a speaker outlines an idealistic society.

A picture of the future will also come in handy for presentations on ecology topics. In this case, you can outline two pictures:

• What will happen if humankind continues the same route – scorched wastelands, lack of greenery, suffering animals?
• What happens if we act reasonably?

The essence of this method is an emotional impact. It is necessary to touch the inner core of every attendee, to show the possible benefits or unpleasant consequences of his/ her actions. Nevertheless, it can serve as one more way to use other words for concluding a speech.

A dialogue with an audience

Invite listeners to take part in a short survey or a poll. For example, a psychologist talks about harmful co-dependent relationships and at the end asks an audience to mentally answer “This is about me” or “This is not about me” to three short statements:

• “I often think about what my partner thinks over now.”
• “I can’t go about my business when my partner is not at home.”
• “I actively follow the page of my partner on social networks.”

And then the psychologist says: “If at least two of these statements are true for you, you are in a dependent relationship.” This technique involves each listener, and after that, you can call for action, give your contacts, offer psychotherapy to those present and their friends. A similar method of involvement can be used both at the end and at the beginning of a presentation.

Jokes or funny stories

Humor performs three important functions at once:

• It leaves a pleasant “aftertaste”.
• It causes an audience a personal affection for the speaker.
• It helps simplify perception and remembering of a presentation. 

But, like any conclusion to a speech, the joke should be appropriate for a problem that the speaker develops.

The connection between the beginning and the end

The beginning and end of a speech should always be connected logically. But in order to attract attention, you can connect both parts of your speech with the help of an illustration that evokes strong emotions.

For example, a speaker talks about relaxation techniques, and at the very beginning shows a picture or gif that depicts an exhausting cat. It is torn between screaming kittens and fish, which it should catch in order to have some food.

At the end of a presentation, there is another picture – the same cat that basks in the sun, kittens play in the distance, and fish splash in the water, and so close that it is enough to raise a paw. But the cat is resting. This image would not be remembered so much if there was no picture at the beginning of a presentation.

A rhetorical question

This is one of the standard methods of how to end a presentation. But, despite its prevalence, it does not lose relevance. A rhetorical question is able to leave a certain “aftertaste” after a speech, tune in attendees to certain thoughts and make people think over a particular topic. 

Make a compliment to an audience

In fact, a banal compliment can significantly attract your listeners, leave a good impression about a speaker. Aren’t these perfect presentation endings? Say something like this: “It is an honor for me to speak before you …”; “I have never spoken to such a pleasant audience …”; “Being here with you is the best pastime for me …”; “You are the best listeners …” etc.

If you deliver a speech, for example, at a conference or seminar that takes place on Friday night, wish everyone a good weekend. This will shake up an audience after your presentation, set them up in a positive way.

This is the best way to end a presentation. Inspire listeners. Just because every person naturally likes to hear words of approval and support. Thus, you will make an attendee make the first step. Thus, you’ll be sure that your speech causes action and is helpful. 

Summarizing

In the 21st century, every person daily processes a huge amount of information. That is why the perception of new data is significantly complicated. Simplify your speech due to the use of a summary. If during a presentation you spoke about several important things – at the end, recall what was discussed. Describe the key points of your speech.

What should be avoided

Many speakers advise avoiding a FAQ section as the final part of a presentation. It is recommended organizing a Q&A section as a pre-closing part of a speech. As if it is the final part, then listeners can get bored.

Slides with “Thank you for watching” will ruin all your speech even if it is brilliant. Forget about this slide and never even recall it!

Visualization as a useful tool of speech delivering

Nowadays, visual material serves as an indispensable (or even obligatory) part of any speech at a seminar, meeting, or conference. It adds vividness to speeches and simplifies topics consideration. Thus, it is important to properly choose the final slides for your speech. Not only words but also visual materials play a key role. Thus, it is possible to choose slides with quotes, contact information, funny illustrations, or infographics. The main rule is that their stylistics should be properly chosen. Colors and decorative elements should match your logo or brand.

For this reason, we have something to offer you! We suggest getting acquainted with a website that will significantly simplify the above-mentioned task. If you want to know how to end a  PowerPoint presentation  vividly, you should visit  this website . Below, you’ll find some links to the slides that can be used as another way to say some words in conclusion.

On the site, hundreds of slides and premade packs are waiting for skilled speakers. The resource is a real library of useful templates for different types of business and marketing presentation, or other digital projects and reports. There are available elements for different software. What is more pleasant is that many of them are available for free! Click on the link and start searching for the necessary element.

• Templates for PowerPoint >
• Templates for Keynote >
• Templates for Google Slides >

As you see, the mood with which listeners will leave a hall and the message that remains in their heads depend on few last sentences of your performance. Therefore, do not underestimate the importance of how to end a presentation and speech. We hope that the above-mentioned tips will be useful for you and help make speeches more memorable and vivid.

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8 Tips You Can Use to Make Your Presentation Longer

Last updated on May 31st, 2023

Striking that perfect duration for your presentation can be tricky. Your presentation should be brief so as not to bore your audience and to take advantage of the attention span , but it should also be thorough so you can fully deliver your message. There will be times when you’ll need to have a longer presentation than what you had planned, and it can be daunting to prolong the session on the spot if you don’t know what to do. Remember, a long presentation doesn’t mean a wordy presentation.

Let’s say you were forced to use a specific time frame for your presentation. As an example, let’s assume this is a 60-minute presentation. But when you realize you’ve prepared a presentation that you can deliver in 30 minutes, what would you do to cover the timing requirements and time constraints? While we already covered how many slides for a 30 minute presentation , in this article, we’ll share eight tips you can apply to make a presentation longer, some you can do before in preparation, and others you can use during the presentation. But first, let’s talk about why you might need a longer presentation.

What are some reasons you might need a longer presentation?

You don’t want to look unprepared. When not done properly, a presentation that is too short may give off the impression that you do not know a lot about the topic you are presenting, or that you did not exert enough effort in creating the presentation. This, even if you have delivered a message effectively and already said everything you needed to say. By having a long and effective presentation, you can show that you are capable and knowledgeable about the topic. It is not the idea to talk for the sake of talking, because if that is the case a wise decision would be to be honest with your audience and cut the presentation beforehand. But in some other situations, this is not the case, and you need to use all the time that you have available for the presentation.

Recommended reading: 75+ actionable topic ideas for your presentations in PowerPoint or Google Slides

You want your audience to feel engaged. Studies from military training have shown that there is a certain balance you should strike when delivering a message to make sure your audience connects with you and understands your key points. Too short a presentation usually does not give the audience enough time or information to fully embrace the topic.

Your presentation time was changed at the last minute . When you’re presenting as part of a panel, you always have to be prepared to adjust the duration of your speech in case you have to accommodate a change in schedule. If you have been asked to fill in for another presenter, you’ll have to find a way to stretch the presentation to make it longer .

What is the ideal length for a presentation? It will depend. Is the presentation you are creating a speech (not a workshop)? In those cases, ideal length may vary between 10 and 20 minutes. However, in some situations you may want to make your presentations longer in time.

How to make a presentation longer (8 Actionable Tips)

Before the presentation.

It is best to design your presentation to already be substantive beforehand so that you can take up as much time as needed to present your topic. Here are 4 tips and strategies to use when making your presentation:

Over-prepare

If you have been asked to present for 20 minutes, make sure to prepare enough content for at least 25 minutes. A common standard is that you should always be ready to speak 25% more than you were asked to do. It is much easier to be over-prepared and just cut the less important points from the presentation than to add points that you weren’t prepared for.

Layout a timed schedule for your presentation.

Plan out your speech by knowing how long you take for specific portions of the presentation. This includes your introduction, all the key points, your closing remarks, and any engagements you have prepared like a Q&A portion from the audience. This allows you to have a more detailed estimation of the duration of your presentation, and you can see which parts of your speech you can choose to stretch or insert additional information. This action requires a proper planning, and define the presentation structure beforehand. Alternatively, you can work in a presentation outline first.

Design your PowerPoint presentation purposefully.

Having a visual aid like a PowerPoint presentation is a must in any professional setting, and you can harness it to lengthen your presentation and make it more substantive. By including a graph or a data set to your slides, you are giving yourself a short break from constant speaking.

To help you in designing effective presentations, check out our roster of the best free PowerPoint templates , as chosen by the editor.

Present facts and quotes

A million dollar tip to make your presentation longer is to include new facts and why not, quote slides. Adding facts to your presentations not only will help to transmit the Logos part of the Rhetoric triangle (Logos is an appeal to logic, and is a way of persuading an audience by reason), but also help to lengthen your presentation a few seconds.

Similarly, presenting quotes from famous characters (they can be from different areas, such as politics, sports, public speaking, etc.), you can motivate your audience and keep then engaged. The audience will dedicate a few seconds to reasoning about the quote, what it means, what it tries to say and also about the personality or character who said it, remembering different stories. This will of course help to stretch your presentation a few seconds more. Using a free quote slide for PowerPoint can help you to achieve this with no hassle.

Vary the elements of your presentation.

When appropriate, you can add more types of media into your presentation. A short video clip or an impactful image is a great thing to incorporate. Not only do they lengthen your presentation, but they also spice up your speech and make it more engaging.

If your presentation is too short, you can apply the 10/20/30 rule for presentations, in which there should be no more than 10 slides, the presentation should last no more than 20 minutes, and there should be no text smaller than 30 points. This way, you can extend your presentation to a 20-minute length.

During the presentation

Making a presentation longer while you’re already at the podium is all about adapting and taking control of the time. Here are 4 tips that you can employ to make your presentation longer, during the presentation:

1. Speak slowly yet deliberately

Your nerves when public speaking can cause you to speak in a rush or in a panic. Take control of your voice and speak more slowly and include short pauses when making a point. By speaking slowly yet deliberately, you effectively lengthen your speech, and you also help your audience grasp your message much easier.

2. Stress out and repeat key concepts

When presenting, do not shy away from repeating the main points of your message throughout the presentation. By repeating key concepts, you hammer them down so that your audience remembers them and takes them away after the presentation. Stressing out main points is also one of the tips in making a brain-friendly presentation.

3. Add in your reserved examples, stories, and anecdotes

If you’ve done your over-preparation, this is the time when you can include the extra information you have exceedingly prepared and incorporate them into the speech. However, make sure that what you add is still related to the topic and adds substance to the speech. Remember, a long presentation does not mean a wordy presentation.

4. Enrich your presentations with videos

Adding videos to your presentations or embedding a video into your slides and playing it during the slide show can help you to make your presentation longer. However, this technique must be combined with other ones. If you embed a video in your PowerPoint presentations, make sure that it resonates with the topic and speech, and try to keep the attention span in mind. Videos longer than 3 minutes may make your presentation too boring unless the video is engaging enough. Please be sure to use this technique with caution. Additionally, consider that when using videos, the estimated number of slides may vary because each video is generally presented in a slide. So, for instance, if you rely on a specific number of slides for a 10-minute presentation , understand that using videos would require fewer number of slides.

Engage with your audience

Audience participation is a great strategy to use when you’re playing for time and need a longer presentation. There are many ways you can engage your audience throughout the presentation. You can say that you are open to questions during the speech rather than afterward in the Q&A session (Questions and Answers). You can also ask a question, and ask for simple input from the audience like a show of hands.

Final Thoughts

When you need to explain your topic thoroughly and intensively, long presentations are the way to go. However, keep in mind that longer presentations have to be engaging so as not to lose the interest of your audience You can use the 8 tips and techniques that we have mentioned above to help you deliver longer presentations that remain effective and dynamic, so you can nail your presentations every time.

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The 10-20-30 rule for presentations

The ‘Power’ of PowerPoint

If you’ve had a desk job, you’ve probably used PowerPoint because it’s been the go-to package for presentations for YEARS. Quick question – how many of the presentations do you remember? Do you remember them because they were eye-wateringly good or a total snoozefest and ugly to boot? Chances are the majority of them were simply mediocre and unmemorable.

So, it’s likely that you don’t remember much about them at all? It’s a shame really because PowerPoint is a great tool… in the right hands. So, what’s the formula for a great presentation? Guy Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule states that a presentation “should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points.”

10-20-30 rule for presentations

10 slides – think about your audience, ten slides is a digestible number and should be plenty for your key messages. If you need more you might want to reconsider what you are pitching and break it up into more bite-sized chunks.

20 minutes – if you have a presenting slot of one hour, you need to leave time for people to arrive late and leave early, as well as time for questions.

30 point font – presenters often try to put as much content as possible on their slides including the full script of the presentation! Because of this the font size is often so small that even those in the first row have to squint. As well as suffering from eye strain the audience cannot read and listen at the same time. So you have divided their attention between you and the slides. You should know your material inside out and only have key points on the slides. Your purpose is to talk through them in more detail.

Is the 10-20-30 rule still relevant more than 10+ years later?

Well, for one thing, although still leading the pack PowerPoint is no longer the only presentation software in the game. Google Slides and Keynote are just two of the available alternatives. The way we present is also different. In the last 18 months or so with remote working becoming prevalent. With these things in mind, it’s interesting to examine whether or not Kawasaki’s rule is still a thing in 2024.

The state of 2024

We see a lot of presentations here at Presented and I can confirm that presenters are still stuffing all of the information into their decks. We advise on messaging to highlight key information and using infographics instead of reams of text, but the trend still seems to be more is more. AND we rarely work on decks with less than 30 slides, let alone 10!

Is it just me or does 20 minutes seem like a lot to ask of an audience nowadays? Thanks to the titanic rise of social media over the last decade, short videos (see TikTok with its three minute limit) have become standard. Audiences expect fast-paced content and for it to be both engaging and entertaining. In principle the rule still applies, keep it short , although for 2022 I’d revise 20 minutes down even further. Literally strim your presentation down to the barest of necessities.

Here’s a word for you – accessibility. We tend to think of it as relating to disability but here we should think of it as making our slides accessible to as many people as possible. So, use a nice large font if you are presenting in front of an audience. Go and sit at the back as a test. Can you read the words on the slide?  If not, pump it up, even if it means editing your wording down (especially if it means that, actually).

The 10-20-30 rule for presentations in 2024, yay or nay?

Weighing up the impact of how things have moved on in the last decade the rule still applies, with some slight tweaks. Short and snappy is key both in terms of the number of slides and the length of time you are talking. Size still matters, although for virtual presentations 30pts might be a bit excessive, so consider your method of delivery.

It’s just a guide folks, but if you are new to the presenting business you could do a lot worse than follow Kawasaki’s 10-20-30 rule for presentations. Or better still, contact us do it for you !

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