gilest.org

Know how you’ll end your presentation
stop, don't fade out

(16 September 2024)

“…so, yeah. Um. That’s it.”

Those few words are the worst possible way to end your presentation. They’re also a surprisingly common way for people to end their presentations.

When I’m coaching people with an important presentation, we often spend some time thinking about the ending.

I mean the end - the closing section of the talk, where you make it clear that the end is approaching. And the end end: right down to the very last thing you say before you exit the stage, or hand over to the next speaker, or whatever it is.

Regardless of what’s on that final slide, know the last words you’ll utter. Have an ending in your head, and use it. Audiences love to be told what to do - so proactively tell them that your presentation is over, and that they can stop paying attention now.

A good reason for doing this is that people in audiences hate the uncertainty of a vague, rambling ending. They feel uncomfortable, not knowing whether or not they should start clapping, or not knowing whether or not it’s ok to start heading towards toilets or coffee. There’s a tangible tension in the air when a speaker is obviously near the end of their talk, but fails to clearly signal when they’ve reached it. No-one wants to clap too early - that’s rude. But no-one wants to clap too late, either - that’s rude too. Sometimes it reaches the point where everyone in an audience knows that the speaker has run out of things to say, but no-one wants to be first to show that they know it. Not until the speaker themselves has declared themselves done.

It’s up to you, as the speaker, to declare that moment, to give your audience the signal. The all-too-common, and all-too-hopeless “… so, yeah, um” is the worst way of giving that signal. What it says to your audience is “I’ve run out of things to say,” rather than the more confident and more concrete “This is the end of my presentation.”

Make sure you think about all of these things:

• What’s the final slide? It might well be a slide that says something like “Thanks for listening! Here are my contact details” - which is perfectly fine for a final slide. What will you say alongside it? You don’t need to say what’s on the slide - say something that drives home your key point, perhaps.
• You can use the end to circle back to the beginning. Make the whole presentation feel complete.
• Maybe you’re going to take questions at the end of your talk. So, again, make the switch to Q&A obvious. Say it out loud: “OK, over to you. Who’d like to ask the first question?”
• End with a joke, at your own expense.
• End with a smile, and a link to the website where people can find out more.
• Try to find out from the event organiser exactly what will happen next, and you can use that too. If there’s going to be a coffee break after your talk, you can end with that: “Thanks for listening to me this morning. Let’s all go and get some coffee.”
• Whatever you do: clearly, obviously, audibly: end.

giles (at) gilest.org

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