The greatest of ideas and products can fail to get off the ground due to an ineffective pitch or presentation, and to avoid this the following steps should be taken:

• Plan the Presentation

Put a lot of thought into what you are going to say and equally important, who your audience are. The most important thing is to consider what the purpose of the presentation is, and what it is your audience are going to want to hear!!

• Use Visual aids effectively

Visual aids can be extremely effective in conveying a message, but too often they are overused and the mesage becomes distracted, cluttered and confused. Use diagrams , graphs etc. to illustrate a point or tell a story instead of text, but beware, too many "bombs" and "lightshows" etc. can easily distract.

• Don't panic!!!

Hard as it may be, you must try to overcome nerves before you present. Try not to just launch into the presentation, a couple of words while you are setting up or opening the Slideshow can really help. Try to control the speed of your speech, a nervous presenter will always speed up too quickly. Try to connect with your audience, make eye contact, you will often be surprised to see a friendly face looking back!!

• Be confident

You must give the air of being fully confident in what you are presenting, otherwise how are you going to convince your audience? Make sure that you are absolutely clear on ALL the content in your presentation AND the running order, there is nothing worse than seeing a presenter looking visibly confused as they flick on to a new slide. Try to use verbal links between the slides, helping to "tee-up" each slide.