I work with software engineers; these days, most of them are in the millennial generation. I don’t have any difficulty presenting to them, and prefer an using a high-level agenda to power point. But, my colleagues all bring their laptops to all meetings, and take notes on them rather than within the PP presentation.
Everyone giving out PPT tips (good as they are) are missing something important - what is this presentation about, and what do you want them to walk away with?
On a busy day they are not going to walk away remembering 30 bullet points, no matter how many slides they are on.
Some examples which may or may not be relevant to you
- we’re a great place to work because
- the most important issues in this field are … This may not be what you have been
taught, but it is what matters in the real world. - the way to succeed in this industry is …
I gave a presentation that got perfect verbal scores from the attendees (I get to see them.) The reason was that I structured the presentation as a mystery, where the mystery was laid out on slide two and not resolved until the second to last slide. That kept their attention. This won’t work for you, but it just shows that you need to think about the presentation in an unconventional way.
ETA: The other most important thing is dynamism and speaking skills. You are giving a performance. Boring speakers are boring even if their slides are perfect. You might not be able to do much about this, but you can think about it.
Google a CGP Gray video or other educational YouTube video. Mimic them.
Ditto on more images, less text. Move around if at all possible. Include something interactive.
Ditto on both. Beware of cutesy images. They can get you into unexpected trouble. And I once had a student use his phone to take a photo of a slide to send to his aunt. Which was stupid, since I posted them, but he was paying attention.
Science behind this method:
https://blog.slideshare.net/2015/08/31/the-scientific-reason-why-bullets-are-bad-for-presentations/
I regularly guest lecture at a few university’s. College kids don’t need you to talk down to them or try to use their lingo or buzz words. I speak to them as if they were peers in our office.
When doing presentations I have found it best to just know the topic. KNOW IT. Don’t rely on the presentation. Use the presentation more as a guide to what you are going to talk about. Make it interactive. Let the students interrupt you to ask questions, as you are going, don’t save them just for the end.
Twenty slides seems like a lot for half an hour for ten people, especially if you are leaving time for Q&A. How busy is each slide so far?
Avoid spelling and grammar mistakes.
I don’t have time to read all responses but the first thing that popped is 20 PPT slides for 30 minutes. Too many slides. This age group bores easily.
The PowerPoint is not the presentation. YOU are the presentation. If you show a bunch of slides their eyes will glaze over looking at the slides. The PPT should support you, not the other way around. Cut back to 6-10 slides, make them talking points and not your message verbatim. Don’t fall into the trap of writing everything on slides then reading them.
Even better, don’t use slides with bullets. Use images. Illustrate what you’re talking about instead of printing it.
Latest rage is the 20x20 presentation, although that is a 6-7 minute presentation. But it’s a good concept. Look at some of the great examples on that site.
I used to teach presentation skills in a corporate training program at CSC, a large system integrator.
P.S. Regarding OP, the reasons are not obvious. I never heard of a top-secret presentation to college students.
Embed video clips into the presentation. Make the relevant, of course, but it’s great to break up a dry topic with a clip of The Office or even The Flintstones.
Please please PLEASE do not show a slide then read verbatim off that slide. Its demeaning, boring, and useless. If the slide has text, talk about it, add to it, but don’t just read it. Most people can read just fine, but a paragraph or a sentence isn’t going to give them the background on the information. That’s where you come in