Presentation Skills and Communication Skills Training | The Importance of Presentation Handouts
Handouts are one of the most underused tools for ensuring retention of presentation content. Most presenters feel an obligation to provide tangible takeaways. The good news is that PowerPoint makes it easy to print presentations. The bad news is . . . that PowerPoint makes it easy to print presentations. As a result, most presenters just print out their presentation in black and white and give it to their audience.
That’s not really a problem. But if you just print your presentation, you’re throwing away a great opportunity.
Here’s what happens. Participants “forget” approximately 90% of everything you said within 24 hours. This “forgotten” information is actually put into the long-term memory. That’s why a good handout is so important. It will help your audience remember.
Since your handout is equally as important as your presentation, you should co-create them. When you’re researching your topic, you come across information that you decide not to put onto your slides. You may use these nuggets in your script—or you may just leave them out.
You should add this information to your handouts, along with the key points of the slides. Doing this helps you to be and appear more knowledgeable about your material. You can also add resources that you come across in your research, such as Web sites, magazine articles, company materials such as white papers, and case studies. These resources add value for participants who want to know more about a specific part of your presentation.
It’s OK to include the thumbnails of your slides in the hand- out, because they serve as a visual reminder of how the content was organized and presented. When you include the slides, you help the participants retain the information they’re learning about that particular slide.
Handouts
If you’ve prepared handouts, you have to decide when you should hand them out. There are at least six options, each with advantages and disadvantages.
Set them out on the seats before the presentation.
Advantages: easy, most convenient for the participants, least disruptive
Disadvantages: takes time when you should be setting up and getting ready
Set them out in one or several piles near the doors.
Advantages: easiest
Disadvantages: some participants might miss them as they enter
Hand them out to participants as they arrive.
Advantages: opportunity to greet one on one, convenient to close the doors at scheduled start time
Disadvantages: takes time right before start, sometimes frantic as participants arrive in clusters
Ask someone to hand them out as the participants arrive.
Advantages: easy, allows you to use the time to set up or to mingle
Disadvantages: no opportunity to greet participants
Distribute as you’re covering the sections or points to which the handouts refer.
Advantages: timely, not distracting during earlier part of presentation
Disadvantages: disrupts the flow, takes time away from your presentation
Pass them around at the end of the presentation.
Advantages: not a distraction, you can refer forward to them during presentation
Disadvantages: participants take notes that would be unnecessary if they had handouts
If you distribute handouts before you start or during the presentation, make sure they help, not hinder. Tell the audience when any points you’re making or information you’re providing is not on a handout, so they give their full attention to you.
When you want them to refer to a handout, indicate the page and the section, then verify that all members of your audience are focused on the right part of the handout.
Otherwise, you’re sabotaging your efforts.
