This time of year is the season of transitions: spring to summer, student to graduate, bud to flower, and more.
When it comes to presentations, every season is a transition season! Purposeful transition statements are critical for successful presentations. They are the bridges that tie your story together by linking concepts and ideas together and setting the audience up for what’s coming next. When done well, transitions also communicate that you are driving the presentation, versus the presentation driving you.
When should you use transitions?
- Between Slides
Imagine you have just presented a slide that explains your capabilities and you are transitioning to a slide that outlines your client list. Your transition might sound something like this:
Now that you have a sense of our capabilities, you might be asking, ‘Who has used our technology?’ We have been fortunate to work with many Fortune 500 companies.(advance to slide with logos of Fortune 500 clients).
- Between Main Points
Audiences appreciate when we let them know when we are closing out one agenda item and transitioning to the next agenda item. This helps the audience know where you are in your presentation and gives them a sneak preview of what is coming next.
We’ve talked about where we have been as a company. I would now like to address where we need to go as a company and, more importantly, how we will get there. What you will see is the focus moving forward will be on innovation.
- Between Speakers
Transitions between presenters is critical in a team presentation. Transitions are one of the secret sauces to a group of presenters coming across as a team.
With the causes of the problem covered, Gary is going to help us understand our options in terms of fixing the problem. You will see that there are two solid options for us to consider.
Key point to remember with any transition: Say transitions BEFORE advancing to the next slide, main point, or speaker. Then you are really driving the show.
Put these transition tips into action for a successful presentation – in every season!
