How to Distill a Presentation

One of the hardest tasks when putting together a presentation is figuring out what to edit. At the start, all the information seems necessary. However, an audience can only take in so much. If you overwhelm people with too much information, they start to tune out. Therefore, in order to keep your audience’s attention, it is critical to know how to distill your message.

To help you edit, here are three questions to ask yourself:

1. What do I want the audience to remember?
Too many tangents are hard to follow. Many presenters want to impress their audience and stuff too much information into their presentation. In one sentence, answer the question, “What do I want my audience to remember?” Knowing this statement will help you clarify your message and delete unnecessary information.

2. Will the presentation make sense without this information?
Whenever I am working with a client on a presentation, I always ask them, “Do you need that?” This question helps people distill their message, as well as edit the images on their slides. Remember, wanting to talk about everything and needing to, are two different things. If a piece of information is critical for your overall message, then keep it. If it’s not, get rid of it.

3. Can I remember this without my slides?
Once you’ve done your first round of editing, go through the presentation and see if you can remember the content without looking at your slides. If there is a section that is too hard to recall, this is a good indication that you have included too much information. Because, if you have a hard time remembering your presentation, then your audience will too. Go back through and see if you can make additional changes to distill your message even more.
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When you are crafting a compelling presentation, editing is critical.

​Author: Bri McWhorter
​© Activate to Captivate, LLC

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