How can you effectively present data in a business meeting?

Are you presenting data to just inform? Or are you presenting data to convince venture capitalists to invest in your idea? Are you presenting data to solve a particular problem? Establish exactly what your purpose for presenting said data is. This will determine how you package it, how much data will be in your presentation and other elements to incorporate such as a story to persuade and create a 'pass-along phrase'. Just remember not to let data do the presentation, you are the presenter!

Presentation of data must be analytical in a very precise and communicable manner. It must be direct and must be fact and figures.

Knowing your purpose also includes knowing your presentation, your data, and the context of what’s being presented. Too many times have I seen a presenter fail to know basic details about their presentation, let alone the times people have forgotten key facts about their subject. Rarely will there not be questions at presentations of any value, so being prepared to support your statements is fundamental to a solid presentation.

Focus on what ‘only you’ can do. Know what your audience wants from you? What is the single most important takeaway from your presentation? Tell a story and take the audience on a journey with you. Be engaging and interesting. Minimal slides and text. Rehearse and ensure your message is clear. Inform, inspire, or motivate.

It always starts with the WHY for your audience. Why is this important to them (your audience)? Why now? Why will what you share help them achieve a targeted goal or desired outcome? Once you understand the needs of your audience, then shift your focus to what outcome you want for your audience. Ensure there is common ground and alignment. This determines whether you present to inform, persuade, or inspire them. Then, find the data and evidence to support the story you want and need to tell your audience.

Understanding your audience is like having a secret decoder ring. Speak their language, decode their needs, and voila! You're their data superhero. - Dive into demographics, preferences, and their familiarity with technical jargon. - Use relatable examples and tailor your data's complexity to match their expertise level - Understand the speed readers or prefer a leisurely stroll through the graphs and figures. Get to know their data-digestion habits. Remember that audience isn't just a crowd; they're your co-pilots on this data-driven adventure.

When I built courses in the government space, I would meet with subject matter experts to find out what information needed to be placed in the course. Typically, their answers would be, "all of it...they need to know EVEYRTHING!" While it may be important for the subject matter expert, the audience is never going to remember all of it...especially if they don't have context for WHY they need to know it. So, in selecting the data, ask yourself..."If my audience could walk away with only ONE thing from this presentation, what would it be and how does my data support that one thing?"

The whole idea of presentation is to present to the audience. So catering towards their need will interest them and make whole presentation beautiful

What does your audience want from you? You must inform, inspire, or motivate them to achieve ‘x’. Don’t baffle with detail- less is more. Create time for questions and follow up sessions. Plan ahead and understand what your audience needs from your presentation. Keep it short and succinct. Avoid tangents.

Knowing your audience's interests, needs, expectations, and who are the decision-makers is important. Understanding their familiarity or experience with the topic is important as well. Most importantly, how well do you understand their social styles and how they like to receive information? For example, are they more analytical and like to see the details, or are they more creative and strategic thinkers who want to understand the big picture versus in the weeds with spreadsheets and graphs? This determines how you present data and information to your audience. For many presenters, this can be challenging as it requires you to flex your style to appeal to your audience which may differ from your conversational style and delivery.

Formatting is invaluable to tell your story instead of data. You need to magnify or emphasize key points on your charts and slides. Allow the audience is view and understand the data with a simplified slide. Do not add a chart with tons of text and graphics. This will become distracting. Instead, use the minimal approach to capture the main idea and drive home the point. Along the way, time your dialogue so that you can share more content and information to move the story forward. Keep your presentation style consistent and on brand. It may seem 'boring', but it actually allows the reader to know what to expect, where to look, and how to follow along in an engaged manner. Additionally, color choice is important so that is it visible.

And as a rule: (a) Do not read your slides because it telegraphs a lack of preparation (b) Keep the slide deck to ten slides because it shows you have distilled the key points, and nothing more is necessary.

Avoid overwhelming your audience with too much data. Use simple and clear visuals like charts, graphs, and tables to make your data easily digestible. Tools like Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, or more advanced software like Tableau can be very helpful.

Effectively presenting data in a business meeting involves strategic planning, engaging information and clear communication. Keeping the audience interested and engaged during the presentation is very important. Utilizing pictures, tables, graphs, and animations to simplify complex information is essential, helping the audience grasp important insights quickly. I recommend organizing the presentation as a narrative, focusing on the topic's objectives, background, identified problems, proposed solutions, and supporting statistics (if necessary). Finally, summarize the key takeaways and provide important resources such as websites or references for further information. Encourage audience interaction by inviting questions or discussions.

Format should start from the medium. Before anything else the question to answer is: how is this presentation going to be delivered? For example, a big white screen in a conference room, where the furthest member of the audience is 40 meters (130 feet) away means you need to be very careful on how you visually present data.

It's not enough to just choose a visual. You need to make sure your data is represented clearly, and that only the *important* data is on there. For example: You may choose a graph. Make sure to highlight where you want people's eyes drawn on the graph to make it easier to interpret the data that's in front of them. Use text to further enhance and reinforce what the image is saying. For example: "Q3 shows strongest revenue to date"

Visuals: Not Just Pretty Pictures! We can't explain quarterly sales with interpretative dance. Use visuals wisely! Charts for trends, graphs for patterns, & save interpretative dance for the office holiday party. Data Presentations: More Spice, Less Spreadsheet Think of your data as a blockbuster movie. Charts :heroes, graphs :sidekicks & tables: loyal companions. Keep spreadsheets for the sequel. Choosing Visuals: Like Picking Outfit for a Date Choosing visuals is like picking an outfit for a date. Tables for details, graphs for romance—make your data swoon-worthy! Visuals Unleashed: From Charts to Charisma Unleash the charisma of your data! Charts for the heart, graphs for the brain. Perfect love story your business meeting deserves.

The key to making any presentation Relatable, Memorable, and Repeatable is sharing the presentation as a STORY. Why? Because Data Tells & Story Sells. When you present dont just tell, sell your ideas. How? By presenting your insightful and compelling data, using a story.

If you are only thinking of which type of visual should I use to present my data, you’ve already lost a portion of your audience. When you have not considered which format resonates most with my audience you’ve forgotten Law #5 in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which says “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” You may create the presentation, but should never forget whom you are creating for, your ideal customers, so make the style you select in the ideal format for them.

This is more like: what visual way of representation should you use based on two things: 1. The type of data you want to present and 2. The purpose of showing that data. For example, if you want the audience to react emotionally consider stepping away from the traditional bar/line chart and try something more daring.

Storytelling is a very effective way to interact and capture an audience, regardless of the subject. When it comes to presenting data, the audience is often interested in learning from data and using it for their own purposes. So as a presenter, come up with a story that relates the data to their specific situation. It will create energy that makes the data meaningful and lead to greater collaboration.

Frame your data within a narrative. This makes your presentation more engaging and helps your audience understand the context and significance of the data. Explain what the data is, why it matters, and what actions or decisions it should inform.

Tell a storey was the number one idea that pops into my mind when thinking about presenting data. Data literacy is usually know, but when you manage to tell an emotional storey that connects to the heart you win.

Linear storytelling can be very beneficial. Where we were. What's happened so far. Where we want to get to. What next. Additionally don't over tell. A story should be to the point, without information overload. You want others to leave with a clear understanding of the current status, and proposed status of the topic discussed.

Use slide sorter view to build your story or the flow of your presentation. It helps you to think about how to navigate from one slide to the other. You can try to interchange slide order and get your presentation flow smooth.

You need to start with a very clear photo that attracts the attention of your audience, then utilize the photo to make the description of your data. This is to creates a memorable point of reflection that is balanced across the different categories of participants. End with an appealing summery of your data in a graph format.

Break the ice for the opening few minutes. Make others comfortable and relaxed to take in the information. Allow for 10 minutes extra in time slot. During this time, thank people for listenting/attending and ask if anyone has any questions or would like you to revisit any of the shared information. If not, everyone is happy that they are out a little earlier than the anticipated slot.

When possible, give real-life examples that tie into the topic and knowledge you are presenting. This serves two purposes; on one hand, it shows that the presenter has real applicable knowledge of the presented topic and not just abstract and theoretical advice. On the other hand, it gives the audience an anchor to connect to the topic on a more relatable level. Showing that the knowledge you are presenting is applicable in real life gives more gravity to your expertise and more heft to your story. In my experience, it engages interest and sparks questions and discussions. Depending on the topic, the simplest examples will do the trick.