Effective presentations - the devil is in the detail

People often forget that audiences are generally very perceptive, and will notice and pick up any fault or thing that just seems out of place. This could be as simple as unpolished shoes, misaligned graphics on your slide or simply clutter in the front of the room which isnt part of your presentation. So why is this a big deal?, well audiences have a habit of putting two and two together to make five, with subliminal conversations going like 'he has scuffed shoes, he cant be doing that well, or he doesnt care about his appearance, if he doesnt care or not doing well then surely system x must also be a losing system that is poorly constructed, and so I wont buy it'. Sounds a bit elaborate, but these conversations happen all the time in the audiences minds, so look carefully at what makes up your environment, and change it for the better.