How do you end a presentation? I absolutely hate Thank You slides. Some people feel the need to end a talk with Thank You slides but a black slide and a spoken “Thank You” is much better, in my opinion. A graceful conclusion is very important if you want to make a big impact.
The slide below is bad for several reasons: it says Thank You, uses a horrible font in multiple colors (Word Art, I assume) and has crap clip art in the form of crayons. I have no idea whose slide it is but it’s so generic and so many people use these horrible slides it really doesn’t matter.
My advice? When you get to the end of your presentation just say Thank you for your attention or Thank you and leave it at that. Use a black slide to end your presentation then it is very obvious to the audience that you have reached the end of your speech. Try it, lose the chintzy slide and start improving your presentations.
Addendum: I have just noticed that the Impact Factory agrees with me that the End is just the beginning. What you say last, and how you say it, is the most important part of your presentation. They run courses on presentation skills and have a page devoted to the ending. Their link is here.
I have written an update to ending a presentation which is posted here.
Daily News About Design : A few links about Design - Sunday, 31 May 2009 13:43 // May 31, 2009 at 9:47 pm
[...] Thank You slides – avoid them [...]
GarykPatton // Jun 16, 2009 at 9:04 am
Hello. I think the article is really interesting. I am even interested in reading more. How soon will you update your blog?
admin // Jun 16, 2009 at 9:41 am
Hi Gary – thanks for contacting me. Which article do you mean? I try to update fairly often but sometimes pressure of work stops me. I also need to think of some good topics to cover so if there’s anything you want to see, let me know.
Cheers
Drew
admin // Jun 24, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Why does that matter?
morag chisholm // Nov 14, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Good to talk to you and thanks for all the practical advice..will follow most of it.
OK to say thanks in the middle of a sentence? LOL M
morag chisholm // Nov 14, 2009 at 6:03 pm
2nd go Good to talk to you and thanks for all the practical advice-most of which I’ll follow.
OK to say ‘thanks’ in the middle of a sentence? XM
Linda Medland Davis // Nov 17, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Dear Mr. Provan, We are adding your book Public speaking in easy steps to our library collection and would like to correctly cite your name in our library catalogue. Are you the same Drew (i.e. Andrew) Provan as the haematologist, author of Oxford handbook of clinical haematology? We defer to the names file of the Library of Congress (Washington, D.C.) for non-Canadians and Drew Provan is already in use for this individual. To distinguish multiple authors who otherwise share the same name, libraries regularly add year of birth and/or middle name/initial to an author’s name. Can you help us? LMD, Cataloguing Librarian, Edmonton Public Library, Edmonton, Alta., Canada
admin // Nov 17, 2009 at 5:14 pm
I am the same Drew Provan (Dr, rather than Mr) as the Oxford Handbook of Clinical Haematology. I have written several books, mainly medical, but recently I have written 2 public speaking/presentation books and an iPhone book. I never use “Andrew” but always “Drew”. Best wishes
Drew
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