If you are searching for public speaking ideas you should first choose a presentation genre. As with movies, there are drastically different types of speeches.

There are four main categories of presentations. Many speeches will cross into two or more genres. For example, a sales presentation about the benefits of mutual funds may be informative in that it may talk about the broad financial benefits of equity ownership. However, it may also be persuasive as the speaker tries to convince the audience that their mutual fund company is superior.

Here are the four main types of presentations:

1. Informational Presentations
2. Persuasive Presentations
3. Inspirational Presentations
4. Entertaining Presentations

To come up with public speaking ideas, first choose the genre and then create the presentation content.

Public Idea: What is the Point of the Presentation?

Over and over again you must ask yourself what is the point of my presentation? This is also known as answering the “so what” question. To stay on course you need to prepare a focused presentation. The natural tendency is to ramble or to bounce around various tangents.

To combat this tendency, write out a mock review of the presentation from the audience’s viewpoint. For example, suppose you were giving a presentation on remedies for tennis elbow. Put yourself in the shoes of somebody in the audience and pretend to write a review of your presentation. In this case, the review might be as follows: “From the tennis elbow remedy presentation I learned that this type of tendinitis is common with tennis players as well as with hairdressers. I was able to list the symptoms of tendinitis by analyzing the type of pain in my elbow and the length of time that the pain persisted. Finally, I can now list the physiotherapy exercises that can treat tennis elbow.”

Notice how this exercise helps you answer the most important question of all – what’s in it for the audience? Why should they bother listening to your presentation? How does your talk help them with their desires and fears? Every presentation must be created for the benefit of the audience because the audience really only cares about their problems.

Once you write out the specific purpose of the presentation from the viewpoint of the audience you will be able to clearly answer the dreaded “so what” question. The key public speaking idea is to keep your presentation focused and speak for the audience’s benefit.