There are so many ways in which we can create impact in a presentation, and let's face it - it can be quite exciting to prepare a presentation using different visual supports and effects. They might keep an audience on their toes, and it often demonstrates that a lot of thought has gone into this performance.

However, when you put them together as a cocktail, the overall outcome can become unpalatable, and like any good cocktail, it has to be tasted a few times, before it really works. Put in slightly more or less of something, and the whole drink changes.

Using colourful slides can be a great asset, as can the use of video, audio and the inclusion of other people, either from the front or from within the audience. However, the more bits and pieces that are included, then the more notes and prompts seem to be required, and so a lectern might appear as a support for all the notes!

There is of course nothing wrong with any one these, or even a combination of some of these. But where do you want your focus to be, and where do you want your impact to come from? 'Bits of this and that' may encourage us to think about where the emotional argument is coming from in our delivery, and how we make the business case for something powerfully and coherently. At times, it will undoubtedly be the 'bits of this or that' which will create your impact.