Life­Hack has just started what I hope will become an infor­ma­tive and use­ful series enti­tled Pre­sen­ta­tion Mas­ter­class, cour­tesy of Rowan Manahan.

Audi­ences are so del­uged with adver­tis­ing mes­sages and radio jin­gles, with phone calls, voice­mail, email, SMS and IM, with… stuff in their per­sonal lives that unless you, the pre­sen­ter, are wow­ing them with every word, you will lose their atten­tion in a mat­ter of seconds.

I am always striv­ing to improve my pub­lic speak­ing and my pre­sen­ta­tion style, so this series is a wel­come addi­tion. I just hope it con­tin­ues to be as good as the intro­duc­tory article.

As a start­ing point, I rec­om­mend some detox to clear your body and mind from a life­time of expo­sure to sucky pre­sen­ta­tions. I strongly rec­om­mend that you expose your­self to some great presenters:

  • Check out Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Guy Kawasaki, Steve Jobs, and Dick Hardt on YouTube.
  • Have a look at some of the wiz­ards on TED.com – Rives, Hans Rosling, Bar­nett Thomas, Lawrence Lessig and Ken Robin­son all stand out, but there are reams more on this invalu­able resource.
  • Go over to Com­mon Craft and have a look at their ‘plain Eng­lish’ tuto­ri­als on aspects of Web 2.0

The one com­mon theme that emerges from this tremen­dous diver­sity of pre­sen­ters, top­ics and styles is RESPECT. By every word and deed, they demon­strate absolute respect for both their audi­ences and themselves.