Presentation Delivery using Mind Maps

Okay presenters. You know the quality of a presentation begins with you – a clear sense of purpose, your ideas well organized, the use of language that is appropriate, and a plan to engage.

Did we mention finding an exciting way to entertain your group? You’ll definitely want to approach your delivery with entertainment in mind too.

Here’s one way to think about it. Have you got a good story to tell? Do you have a case study or two that can visually excite an audience and get them involved? Something they can relate to? That’s what you’ll need to kick start your presentation.

Delivery Approaches Using Mind Maps

To give a presentation from NovaMind mind mapping software, you can:

• Use NovaMind Presenter, a mind map with animated zooms to allow an audience to explore all portions of your map with you,
• Print out the map to use as your notes,
• Set up the mind map on your laptop for you to see,
• Project the mind map on a screen for all to see,
• Export to PowerPoint or MS Word for notes using the built-in tools,
• Print your map out as a poster

Best of all, you can also print the mind map out without text on the topics and hand these maps out to your audience. These are often referred to as "conversation maps" since these maps tickle the interest of your audience by purposely leaving out content to make room for their contributions.

Because a variety of presentation options exist, effective delivery depends on making an active choice. Be guided by your audience and focus on the questions they are asking. Because you can see the whole presentation at a glance, it’s easy to spend more time on one topic because you can spend less time on areas that the audience are already familiar with.

Presentation Delivery: Getting it Right

Delivering a presentation well means handling tactics as well as technical information. There are three simple steps to delivering a great presentation.

Start by stating the topic – the mind map’s title. Then go around to the innermost topics to give an introduction and tell people what to expect from the presentation.

Next, for each of the innermost topics, go through all its sub-topics to give the details for that topic.

Finally to wrap up your presentation, go around the innermost topics again and let that be your summary.

As an example, if I were giving a presentation from this sample mind map above, I would start off by saying something like this:

"Today, we are going to find out all about host-beneficiary relationships. We will be discussing what they are, and aren’t as well as see how they work, who the beneficiaries are, and any obstacles we’ll face in setting them up and operating successfully. We will give you information on how to find appropriate partners and initiate relationships that have the right tone. And we’ll give you the tools to be able to make this a reality for you. Does this sound like something that would be useful for you to know? …"

Try it! Your mind mapped presentations will captivate your audience and you will have gotten it right!

Final Considerations in Sensational Presentation Delivery

Use this checklist to make sure you are taking advantage of the power of mind mapping:

• Have the topic in front of you in the center of your mind map, so you are less likely to go off on tangents
• Have the main points in the first level topics, so when you go down to the detail levels, you are still conscious of the main point you are making.
• Set up your presentation so it’s all there, in one place-no more getting lost in your notes.
• Make sure there is a visual association through the topic lines and colors between related topics, adding clarity to your presentation.
• Pace yourself through the presentation. Look to the topics and sub topics to see how many things you have covered and what is ahead of you to do.
• Keep reminding audiences visually where the information fits in.
• Let the mind maps work for you so that you can maintain the eye contact and focus on generating even greater rapport.
• Rely on your visual anchors to your current topic, because visuals will provide a clear picture of where to go to next in your presentation.
• Stay with your passion and let the wholeness of your map do its work.

For further information, please see the articles on presentation preparation and presentation delivery.

Tagged as: presentation delivery