Presentation Common Sense, is uncommon

Do you think eye contact with your audience is common-sense? How about presentation timing? For example, if you have been allotted a 30 minute speaking slot, would you think it is common sense to manage the timing of your presentation to be about 1/2 way through your slide show after 15 minutes, and finish before your 30 minutes are up?

Well, apparently common sense is not that common for many presenters. I attended a presentation on Wednesday where the presenter kept a lot of eye-contact with the projection screen. He explained so much to the screen that in the audience we felt excluded.

Do you pay attention to your eye contact? Are you really looking at your audience and speaking to your audience, or focusing on the projection screen?

At the halfway mark we were about 30% through the slideshow. The presenter used the old standby line which is a hallmark of all poor presenters "I won't read this slide to you" as he skipped through a few slides to get back on time.

What??? (I just shook my head in disbelief)
If you don't intend to read the slides to us, or we don't have time for them, why are they in the slideshow? Did you not practise this slideshow, at least once, before you took the platform?

Do you ever utter words like this "We won't cover this slide in this presentation" and then skip through it? Well, from today, don't do this anymore. Only put slides in the presentation that you intend to cover in the live presentation. Then rehearse so that you know your timing.

Do you want to show your audience that you have Presentation Common Sense?