You may have come across a situation that you are asked to present a topic and you get a time-slot that is too short. Maybe you realize that the timeslot is too short when asked, but you may also come to this conclusion when you prepare for the presentation / start practicing.
When you get a timeslot of 25 minutes and you take 45 minutes it is rude if you don’t agree upfront to take the extra time. By taking more time you can get the speakers after you in trouble as
you are using their time. Also you may get members of your audience in trouble as the may need to leave at the end of the scheduled timing and therefore miss part of the presentation(s) if it
takes more time than scheduled. What to do? First align with the organization and see if you can get more time to present. If this is not possible you may need to see if you can shorten your
presentation. Think about:
• Summarizing some matters.
• Reduce the number of examples to be given
• Ask your audience to do some pre-work (reading of a document upfront, so during your presentation you don’t have to spend a lot of time on this)
• Make reference to documentation that you request your audience to read after your presentation so you don’t have to elaborate on this during your presentation
• Reduce the scope of your presentation
• Split your presentation in multiple parts and use multiple sessions to present
Be always clear towards your audience about the scope of your presentation and how in-depth your presentation is going to be. This will avoid disappointment. If the time provided to you for your
presentation is really not going to work for you it is obviously possible to refuse to present. However the better answer is to do take the opportunity to present and be clear to your audience
about the scope of your presentation and time constraints. If you frame this correctly and when you get your audience enthusiastic about the topic that you are presenting, they will probably ask
you to come back for a longer session. Read more about this in the book that is part of the
Public Speaking Kit. Compile your own Public Speaking Kit with all you need to further improve your public speaking skills.