American Business Presenters
By Graham Davies

Americans are exposed to high pressure presentations at an early age: their so called “show and tell” presentations at school. I think that toughens them up.

In general, Americans are better presenters. They are:

1. Well-prepared
2. Confident
3. Concise

Here, 1 leads to 2 which leads to 3.

No presentation has ever failed because of too much preparation. If you know you haven’t prepared well enough, you are right to feel less than confident. And, if you are confident you have selected the right material, you will be appropriately brief.

America is the home of the sound bite and the 10 second commercial. Americans know that they cannot keep the attention pf a business audience for long.

Some European presenters say, with a sneer, “American presenters are too slick, too polished.”

Frankly, this is just jealousy. European audiences have sat through too much PowerPoint Prozac. They would love to see some American Polish.