This blog post is about presentations and successfully presenting to an audience. Arne and I visited the IPAN event yesterday in Amsterdam. Subject: Twitter. Dutch Twitter guru Erwin Blom gave a presentation and he proved once again that he’s good at it. It was a very enjoyable experience. I think everybody who was there will agree. It made me think: why was this so good?
I have come to 5 key ingredients for a good presentation.

Relevance
What you talk about has to be highly relevant to the audience.
This is a no-brainer, but too often a presentation fails on this ingredient.
A good presentation must have a key message and this message has be relevant to the audience. Erwin’s key message yesterday was “Twitter is like a bar where you can interact with friends anytime of the day. Listen, laugh, learn and tell your stories, whenever you feel like it.”

Passion
Erwin is very passionate about Twitter and the usefulness of the service. He smiled, laughed and walked around ‘on stage’. He made me feel good and excited. His enthusiasm positively contributed to the delivery of his key message: Twitter is a useful and fun social tool!

Knowledge
The speaker must have a deep understanding of the subject he/she is presenting.
Erwin really understands Twitter, the features of the service and – more importantly – why people use Twitter. It was a pleasure listening to him and this definitely had to do with his knowledge.

Interactivity
Involve your audience!
Erwin Blom knew many people in the audience yesterday at the IPAN event. This helped his presentation. Erwin could say something about another Twitter user and directly point him out. He added a personal touch and that was appropriate, useful and in line with the contents of his presentation. Well done Erwin!

Humor
Make ‘em laugh!
People want to have fun and enjoy themselves. So don’t just deliver a bunch of facts and put cool looking graphs in your slides. Entertain your listeners!
When the audience laughs, you know they are having a good time. And this is a success indicator when presenting. Erwin made everybody laugh a lot.

What do you think? Are these indeed the key 5 ingredients for a good presentation? Leave a comment, tell me your thoughts!

Links for the Dutch
IPAN
Erwin Blom’s presentation at IPAN
Erwin Blom personal blog (dutch)
The Crowds (Erwin’s new company)

Links related to good presentations
Presentation Tips for Public Speaking
Garr Reynolds/Presentations
Business Presentation Skills Training Tips
Slideshare - good presentations
Hans Rosling (TED; this will blow your mind)