Consider:

Most business presentations are about giving actionable insights. Consider what the audience should be taking away from the presentation and how they should be using that information.

What is your core theme and how long can (or must) you speak for? A good tip for making your message memorable when presenting is to follow the rule of three:

When writing your speech, keep your sentences short and, where possible, avoid words of more than two syllables. You may be surprised at how difficult reading your copy out loud is compared to reading it in silence. Use inclusive words, such as "us", "we" and "our" to develop engagement with your audience. This will also help to control your nerves. "Hello, we are here today to consider..." is a much better opening than "I am here today to tell you about [X] in the next 30 minutes".

When planning for the duration of your speech, aim for 2.5 words per second. This allows for slow (but not too slow), clear delivery, pauses for effect and sips of water. If you tend to speak too fast, try to feel the air pass through your throat as you speak. This tends to slow your speech down and makes your voice "project" better. Consider whether you feel more comfortable using bullet points in your talk as an alternative to a written speech. The former has the benefit of developing a natural flow to the presentation and may make it less formal, but it's a matter of personal preference.

Visual aids are great for bringing a presentation alive and making your points last long in the audience's memory. However, avoid the temptation to use them as a crutch and ensure that they are accessible to everyone in the audience. Avoid too much text on slides as it will probably be too small for people at the back to read and will distract the audience from what you are saying.

When using examples, make sure that they connect to the point you want to reinforce. People read or listen, so you are either showing pictures and adding a few comments or you are talking, and the slides are reinforcing the comments that you are making. Remember who your audience is. For example, if you are presenting the legal team budget to the CFO, use bar charts, graphs and pie charts, rather than just bullet points and text.

It's only when you rehearse a presentation that you can test it for flow, ease of delivery, quality of content, timing and relevance. Don't worry if you have not covered absolutely everything. Sometimes it's good to hold information back as that provides material for a Q&A session, if your slot allows for one. The dry run also gives an opportunity to build drama into your presentation by factoring in inflections in your voice, body language and pauses to emphasise key points.

Arrange a preparation call (sometimes two) to make sure that your panellists:

Summarise this back by email ahead of the call as a detailed running agenda.

If you can help to select the panel, then avoid people who will not prepare and share. They tend to overrun other peoples' time and content, and to veer off the topic; all of which lets you, the other panellists and, critically, the audience down.

Meet with the panel ahead of the session to remind them of the running order and, if relevant, discuss any themes emerging from earlier sessions. Always try to attend the sessions before your own slot or at least the introductory and immediately preceding sessions. Referencing them during your session helps show a consistent theme to the event. Ideally, the conference organiser will have shared much of the material with you in advance.

Start the session by briefly explaining how your panel understands the topic. Most session titles are loosely framed to allow the panel to speak freely but this can lead to a range of expectations among the audience. Setting out your stall at the beginning will avoid any ambiguity arising from the session title. You could open with an icebreaker question asking for a show of hands. This will wake people up, test potential engagement and give you an early insight into the needs of the audience. It could also give you a hook for panellist contributions.

Position yourself so that you can see the other panellists and they you. This allows you to use non-verbal cues unseen by the audience if panellists are overrunning or becoming boring. Similarly, pre-agree a code word such as "interesting" that will allow you to politely talk over the top of someone to move them on. For example:

You may, as the chair, have to paraphrase a panellist's contribution if they have answered in a vague or rambling way. Again, put a positive spin on it, while making it more concise for the audience's benefit:

Prepare some comments that show, subtly, you're as expert as the panel on the subject matter. This will help you bridge contributions between panellists and move seamlessly onto the next topic.

Watch some of the sessions before your own to get a feel for how the audience engages with the Q&A session. If they're quiet, aim to run to within five minutes of your allotted time and, if there are no questions from the floor, have one or two of your own prepared. Ensure that you have pre-agreed them with the panellists so that they do not get caught out. If the audience is talkative, try to allow up to ten minutes. Finally, prepare a three to four sentence summary to close the Q&A and to conclude the session.

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