Presenters need to be credible. You can do everything you like on your stage to improve your connection with the audience, make them positive about you and engage with you. But to truly come across as a credible speaker you need to demonstrate your expertise in your subject.

You can do that in several ways. One is obviously by speaking about the subject, as you do in your presentation. Another is to invite interactivity so that you can answer questions and lead discussion on your topic. A third way of establishing speaker credibility is to have some handouts available.

These help confirm your expertise and act as a permanent reminder of what you said. However, there are handouts and there are handouts. Simply giving out a copy of any slides you have used does not do the trick. Indeed, studies show that these actually work against you. They remind people of what they did not remember in your presentation, confirming in their mind that you did not get your message across.

The best handouts are those which add to the presentation. These can be in the form of checklists, reports, white papers and so on. Something in depth usually helps, focusing on one aspect of your talk. In other words provide a handout that is "extra" material. Also, people like these handouts to contain web site addresses where they can go for even more information. So, handouts like these add to your credibility and make it even more likely that your messages get across.

Labels: performance

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