Travelling to Present

five top business presentation tips for travellers
bluebell woodlands

There are many reasons why people travel for business. One commonplace purpose is to deliver a presentation. This might be to try to secure a potential new client, update colleagues at a different location, bring on-board new partners or deliver a keynote at a conference (or anything else!) Presentations can be an important part of the purpose of travel.

Our partners at Square1 Marketing recently shared their tips around presentations as a performance. With this in mind, we’ve put together some top tips for those travelling to present…

1. Rehearsed

Practicing a presentation is important. Rehearsing, either alone or with a stand-in audience, is a good way to ensure you get the best handle on the content you’re going to deliver. Consider your presentation as a performance and follow this through by ensuring you “know your lines” before you travel. If you’re staying away before your presentation, a hotel room can be a good place to practice!

2. Rested

For those travelling before presenting, ensure you leave adequate time to rest. If you’re travelling to an office a few hours away, a cup of tea or a glass of water and a quick sit down in a quiet room (or even in the car if need be!) may be enough to gather yourself.

But if you’ve travelled internationally, make sure you plan in enough time to feel rested and comfortable before you head in to start your presentation.

3. Relaxed

All the rehearsals and resting should hopefully allow you to relax during your presentation. It’s important to remember to breathe! Try not to rush what you want to say, and make sure you leave spaces during your delivery. As well as forcing you to breathe and slow down, it’ll also give your audience time to digest what you’ve said and potentially respond.

Pausing at the right time can also allow salient points to land impactfully with your audience, just as they would in a good drama or stage play. Remember – presentations are a performance!

4. Confident

All of the above tips will hopefully ensure you feel confident about your presentation. Confidence in your own performance is key to the audience buying in to what you’re telling them. A lack of confidence may weaken your presentation and either make it seem like you’re unsure of what you’re saying or that you don’t actually believe in it yourself. And if you don’t believe in it, why should your audience?

5. Adaptable

This is where the performance becomes a little more like improv. As long as you are confident (see above) then deviating and being open to the audience should be something you aim for. Whether that’s simply being aware of how your audience is responding and tweaking your delivery accordingly or inviting direct discussion and being agile enough to move from one area of your presentation to another, you’ll gain kudos, demonstrate how well you know your topic and make your presentation far more memorable.

Further presentation support

There you have it, five top tips for those travelling to present. For many more great presentation tips, visit the Square1 website.

And if you need any further support, Square1 offer presentation coaching as part of their brand and marketing service.

NHS COVID PASS App

 

IMPORTANT - if you're using the NHS Covid Pass app as proof of your vaccination status, please ensure that the name shown on the app is exactly the same as how your name appears on your passport.

Under a pilot scheme held by British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Heathrow Airport, around 250 fully vaccinated passengers on selected flights from New York, Los Angeles, Jamaica and Athens earlier this month presented their COVID status using paper or digital formats before boarding a plane. 99% of their documents were verified as authentic, with just two passengers rejected.

NHS Covid Pass app

In one case, there was a discrepancy between the name on their vaccine card and the name on their passport. Another involved someone who had been fully vaccinated less than 14 days before travel.

 

To help you navigate the changes of business travel, we’ve created the brand-new Traveller Toolkit. This invaluable online resource is packed full of easy-to-use guides and checklists for every stage of every journey. We detail exactly what you need to know and do before, during and after your trip.

You’ll also find innovative and interactive virtual trips, which walk you through each step of  being at the airport, on the train and in the hotel. You can even check the travel restrictions and health status of your destination with our comprehensive COVID-19 Country Tracker, updated five times daily to ensure you have the very latest information to help keep you and your travellers safe.

Travel is changing. But with common sense and a good TMC behind you, travellers should have the confidence to once again take to the skies. It’ll soon be business as (un)usual.