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Steve McDermott is a fearless speaker. Whenever he speaks at the London Business Forum (LBF), there's always the possibility he might kill himself. In 2005, he arrived at LBF’s "Inspiration in the Square" by sprinting up a wet flight of steps, losing his footing, turning a complete somersault and crashing heavily onto the stage. In any other profession, he'd probably be a liability. But, as he repeatedly tells his audiences, it's how you deal with slip-ups, and not the slip-ups themselves, that matters. And besides, it's actually very difficult to cock up a speech seriously unless you say something downright offensive.

In this presentation on presentations, McDermott began, logically enough, by emphasising the importance of beginnings. One of the most effective ways to build immediate rapport with an audience, he suggested, is to ask them a question. In particular, McDermott said, your initial questions should be designed to get a unanimous "yes". This way, you'll be more likely to get the same response to more difficult questions later on - questions that promote your most complex advice and views.

People assume that for public speaking to be good, it has to come off perfectly, McDermott said. But the reality is that everyone makes mistakes, and often a speaker will encounter problems through no fault of his own. "When things happen you can either ignore them or use them. I think it's better to stop and use them." He explained our fear of public speaking is rooted in the idea that we may lose control and thereby embarrass ourselves. So, to mitigate this fear, we must plan for the worst, working out how we would regain control under different circumstances.

You should brainstorm all the stuff that could go wrong and how you would handle each situation, he suggested. For example, how would you react if the computer running your PowerPoint presentation broke down? Or if someone arrived late and disturbed everyone else? Or if you forgot what you were about to say? "I have strategies for each and every one of those," McDermott said. "So, I can look forward to them." Indeed, he said, "I pray for a mobile phone to go off, I pray for people to turn up late."

“How many PowerPoint presentations, according to Microsoft are going on every day?” McDermott asked. The answer is an astounding 30 million and ubiquity is therefore a key problem with the application. If you're pitching to someone who has already seen a dozen other PowerPoint presentations the same day, they're not going to be impressed. Equally, we tend to try to use all the features of PowerPoint in a single presentation simply because we can. It's rather like putting 13,000 tracks onto an iPod simply because it has the capacity. Yet these bells and whistles tend to be more intrusive than useful.

To demonstrate the point, McDermott projected a PowerPoint slide onto the screen behind him that was packed with information about the application itself, illustrated with bland, generic images from fictional business meetings. "We've always got to have a bit of clip-art [like] that bloke with the exclamation mark over his head!" McDermott said. "I want to kill myself already." You have to remember that PowerPoint is just like any other visual aid - a complement to your speech. Besides, he said, there's no harm in telling the audience that you've forgotten what you were talking about. It's yet another way to prove that you're human and get them on your side.

McDermott believes that we should only give our audience a handful of points to take away. Research shows that, on average, people will only remember three things from an hour-long presentation. You should decide in advance which key points you want the audience to remember, because if you don't, "they'll pick something else."

McDermott’s three things that he wanted the LBF to remember were: “State, Stories, Structure.” Stories, he suggests, are a great way of ensuring the presenter feels comfortable and in control. "You need to become a great story-teller, particularly of your own stories," McDermott said. By sharing information with the audience in the form of a personal narrative, "you don't have to worry about the memory bit [and you can] reveal lots about who you are." It's significant that no one else can tell your stories for you - by delivering information anecdotally, you personalise it, make it more memorable and connect with the audience on an emotional level.

Provided you devise and practise the right safeguards then you can't fail to become a better speaker, he concluded. "There is no failure, only feedback."