In light of the recent round of investor relations presentations, a new report into public attitudes towards public speaking and presenting has revealed that 67% of people would put presenting or public speaking in their top 10 fears.

Presenting skills aren’t confined to the financial arena, either – of the 2,000 respondents to the survey commissioned by Article10 Presentations, 75% believe that good presentation skills can positively impact on career success.

Just under half of those surveyed acknowledge that they don’t prepare properly for presentations because of their nerves, and the biggest source of concern was looking stupid in front of an audience.

PowerPoint still dominates the list of most popular presentation tools, but Lyndon Nicholson, co-CEO of Article10, comments that the programme isn’t being used to its full advantage: “Over a third of us rely on PowerPoint slides, but we don’t take time to ensure that the content is relevant and presented in a way that makes it easy for the audience to absorb. Smart businesses are placing as much emphasis on the look and feel of their presentations as they would any other part of the comms mix.”