Accounting & Bookkeeping & Small Business Forum

[Guest]

I am to give a presentation on Small Business Accounting. I have chosen to talk about the benefits of accounting to small businesses.
Can anyone give me any pointers on how to keep the audience attention. This is my first speaking engagement.

Thanks

[Guest]

It depends upon the audience. If it's small business owners, emphasize the benefits that you learned in Module 4. If it's to high school graduates, emphasize the benefits of working in Accounting.

[Guest]

Nellie, I recently gave a presentation to a group of small business owners. My presentation was centered around the importance of (good) record-keeping, giving tips and the like. To keep their attention, I gave them all handouts. The handouts followed along with my presentation and with each section required them to write down the information that was crucial for them to remember. Because the info was not spelled out for them, they were given cause to pay close attention. At the end of the presentation, I handed them an evaluation. I have to admit that the usefulness of the materials received the lowest rating. I've decided that that may have been because I left so much of the work up to them. In other words, if someone did not sit through the presentation, the materials would have been useless to them. So, in short, perhaps an idea would be to stay away from either extreme. Create presentation materials that are somewhat interactive, but also include general information. That's one idea at least.