Looking to up your presentation game for 2023? Ahead of conference season, we know just how crucial it is to perfect your presentation skills – so, today, we’re sharing all the secrets to the perfect Pocket Gamer Connects presentation!
Whether you’re a speaker for our upcoming show in London this month or another conference this year, or merely curious about what it takes to create a top-tier conference presentation, we have all the details for you today. Check back at this handy guide for any time you need help in creating a winning presentation. We have all the battletested secrets to make sure your presentation stands out from the crowd, so you can have a super engaged audience who’s left thinking about what you shared that day.
Want to hear other top-tier, impactful presentations live this month that will leave you wanting more? We’ve got just the opportunity for you to listen to over 250 speakers deliver high-quality, expert presentations that will keep you in your seat, eager to learn more about the future-gazing insights they’re sharing. Our leading mobile gaming industry conference is returning to London this January 23rd to 24th for our biggest show in PG Connects history yet! We’re welcoming over 2,000 attendees from the games industry to The Brewery in the heart of London to network, discover, pitch and learn from over 250 of the industry’s top thought leaders from around the globe across 32 diverse topic tracks spanning a variety of topics. We would love to see you there! Head over to our website and book your ticket today if you haven’t already.
Without further ado, here are some tips to help you be confident when delivering your next talk. These will help you plan the perfect solo talk. After 30+ conferences hosted all around the world, we’ve seen our fair share. So with PGC London on the horizon, we’re sharing our advice for speakers so that you can prepare a talk that will definitely keep games industry audiences riveted.
1. Avoid making it a sales pitch
The number one piece of feedback we receive from attendees at Pocket Gamer Connects events is that they dislike salesy presentations.
This is your chance to be part of a world-leading conference programme, influencing people from across the ecosystem and setting the agenda for the games industry's future. Don’t waste it scrolling through your standard business deck.
This is not a sales meeting. If all you do is click through your sales pitch deck and focus entirely on the benefits of your own product, people will switch off and leave. Obviously, we all have something to promote, and we come to conferences to be a spokesperson for our company. But you have to slip that in subtly, not get on stage and say, “Buy my stuff.”
The best presentations are useful, informative, and even funny – and slip in a company message along the way. People will be more likely to remember you if you help them out rather than if you tell them how much you want their business.
2. Include facts and figures
People will sit up and watch if your presentation contains useful data.
Make sure you include facts and figures in your presentation, please, because people will pay attention if you reveal something they can use as ammunition in their next board meeting. Case studies, trends, tips, financial records – these are the things that make people notice. Do you have an exclusive you can reveal on stage or new data that has not been presented before? That kind of thing makes an impact.
It makes you look like an expert if you can highlight and share new industry details the audience can cite in their reports from the event.
And for bonus points, you can take that even further…
3. Deliver actionable advice
If a person learns just one tip from your content, they will consider the whole experience a success. Try to give people something they can use to impress others or improve their life. They’ll love you for it.
It's important to remember that the audience is looking for actionable advice when attending lectures. So what are the takeaways from all that lovely information you’ve shared?
Give people examples of how they can use what you’ve told them to get ahead in their business. Share your own experience of how you put your insight into practice.
As with all good communication, people want benefits, not just a list of product features. Explain to them the benefits of acting on your insight.
4. Make your presentation visually appealing
Please don’t fill your slides with text and then read that same text aloud. Yawn.
Slide shows are a visual medium. You can bring decks to the event that include graphics, charts, photos, illustrations – even video.
If you put 20 bullet points on the screen, people will zone out. Put a chart with useful information on it, a flowchart they can follow, or even an amusing picture from your office, and your audience will stay engaged.
Graphics are the key to making your presentation more engaging. They make it easier for people to understand what you are trying to convey and get them interested in your topic. They also help you put together a cohesive story that flows well and is easy for people to follow.
There are plenty of places to get stock photos and charts, even if your in-house team can’t create them for you.
5. Watch the time
Your solo talk will be scheduled for 20 minutes, including audience question time. You are advised to plan carefully and rehearse it so you know how long your talk will run for.
If you speak for far too long on the day - or finish speaking way too soon - the audience will be nonplussed, and you will place other speakers on the programme at a disadvantage.
We will try to make a clock visible from the platform, and there will be a host in the room you can look to for cues. But in case those things fail you, please have a watch or a phone handy to see how long you’ve been talking. Running over means people may miss their lunch, and they won’t thank you for it.
Running under is also to be avoided! If you’re new to presenting, adrenaline can make you gabble. If you race through and finish in just 10 minutes, the next speaker may not be ready, and everybody will be left with egg on their face.
It’s important to have enough material to last about 17 minutes, with just a little time at the end for one or two questions.
However…
6. Don’t rely on audience participation to fill time
It’s a good idea to leave about three minutes at the end for questions from the audience. People may want to ask you about what you’ve told them.
But please don’t depend on it. Sometimes there will be a few hands in the air, but not always. Many presentations don’t invite much interrogation. We host conferences all over the world, and some demographics are more reticent than others.
Nothing makes an event organiser’s heart sink more than a solo speaker who has prepared only five minutes of information and then says, “I thought we’d run this as more of a conversation!” and then expects the audience to fill the remaining 15 minutes. They probably won’t. If you’re here as a speaker, you should expect to talk confidently for the majority of your allotted time.
Curious folk can always follow up with you later.
7. Include your contact details
It’s wise to include a final slide that encourages further communication. Remind people of your name – ideally the same format as your profile in MeetToMatch – job title and company.
Give us your website and at least one social media account. Potential business partners may photograph your final slide in order to follow up later, so maybe put your photo, logo and slogan on there too.
Networking is the number one reason people attend events. It's about meeting new contacts and potential clients. So let people know how to find you, and ensure that details are large enough, easy to read, and on screen for long enough for people to note them down.
Book your ticket now!
Now that you know all the secrets to the perfect PG Connects presentation, we know you want to see them in action. Don’t miss over 250 leading speakers delivering thought-provoking, brilliant sessions at our show this month. There’s a front row seat calling you, so head on over to our official conference site and make sure you secure your seat while you still can!
