Secret Men’s Presentation Tips
Are you a man?
Do you present to women?
Did you know there’s a single, vital element of your presentation that you’ve probably never considered?
One that’s never mentioned in the presentation tips books.
And if you get it wrong, it can cancel out all the good work you’ve done with graphics, scriptwriting and vocal practice.
It’s shoes.
At the risk of turning this post into some kind of Sex In The City scenario, try this experiment. Catch any domestic flight in Australia, sit in an aisle seat toward the back. And observe row after row of blokes in perfectly acceptable suits, yet wearing terrible, bargain-bin, scuff-toed, curve-heeled, semi-synthetic business shoes.
Anecdotal research suggests that most women in your audience look at your shoes before your PowerPoint, and that can mean Game Over.
‘Untrustworthy,’ was a word I heard more than once at a recent conference when the subject came up during the cocktail hour.
Decent shoes can be bought from stores in most cities, along with handy stuff like polish. Deal with it, and the focus goes back to your presentation style.
We’ll cover comb-overs another time.
Ian Whitworth believes passionately in the power of live communication, without the buzzwords and bullet points. He works as a creative director and principal of agency A Lizard Drinking. He is also one of the founders of audiovisual company Scene Change. Ian is an ex-professional presenter and long ago, ex-audiovisual technician. For non-presentation stuff, try @ianwhitworth. 
