A presentation can quickly turn into a formal matter in Indonesia. Be sure to officially invite all the participants you want to attend the event, but don’t be surprised if more people show up. Some people may just be curious or want to get a personal impression of you. There may also be a constant coming and going during your presentation or one of the participants may use the time for a short nap. Don’t let this irritate you!
Colours and graphics
As far as the means of presentation of your presentation are concerned, you can really run riot with the colours of your PowerPoint slides. Indonesians love colourful presentations. There is nothing special that you need to keep in mind when choosing the colour.
Don’t skimp on the graphics either. Your presentation should actually include more graphics than text. It is quite common in Indonesia to depict very complex facts with the help of a complicated graphic. You will show off your competence if you include many technical details!
Detailed explanations
Even if you have put a lot of effort into creating your PowerPoint presentation, don’t forget that being the speaker, you will be the centre of attention, that what you explain is much more important to Indonesians than what is written on the slides. Therefore, be prepared to explain everything in detail and to speak for a long time. As mentioned before, you can impress your audience with details.
Repetitions
As Indonesians communicate indirectly, information is not clearly and plainly stated. However, if a point is particularly relevant, it will be repeated several times. So if you want Indonesians to grasp the importance of a concern, then you have no choice but to present the relevant points in context and to repeat them over and over again as well as to summarize them again at the end. This may seem strange to you, but to Indonesians, the number of repetitions shows the importance of a topic. If you want to make sure that your Indonesian partners understand everything, it is best to repeat it several times, but always in a different way and with different slides.
Questions
People will hardly ask any questions during your presentation. Indonesians often only present questions in more informal situations, e.g. during a meal afterwards or during a coffee break when there are only a few other listeners.
Accompanying documents
By the way, you should make your presentation available as a PDF file afterwards. If your presentation refers to upcoming decisions, you should also make a protocol with the most important points or next steps. A presentation itself has no binding character for Indonesians.
