Just a while ago, i received a very good comment on a post about presentations. I decided to highlight this fanstastic comment as a guest post. Many thanks to Terry for the contribution.
Terry Gault is a Communications Trainer, Coach, and Presenter.
I think everyone in business has been in this situation: an important but overly boring presentation, which makes it hard to pay attention and absorb the information.
Here is my advice if power-point must be used:
1: Close Outlook. Close Outlook when you are showing PowerPoint slides. Otherwise, email alerts pop up.
2: Slideshow Mode
Always use the slideshow mode: it makes your slides easier to see.
3: Standing in projector beam
Always avoid standing in the projector beam, as it is distracting.
4: Bullets as hooks
Think of the bullets on your slides as hooks. By that I mean that the bullet should remind you of your talking points but also incite curiosity in your audience. Use questions, alliteration (repetition of consonants) or juxtaposition of ideas to intrigue the audience. For example:
· Why Automate Processes?
· License to Fail
· Magnet Markets
· Customers: Faithful or Fickle?
· Plan or Wing It?
· Tragedy or Triumph?
5: Use more images
Incorporate images and negative visual space. Break up all the linear text on your slides with stories, examples, images & metaphors. Otherwise, you are not engaging your audience’s right hemisphere, the brain’s center of imagination. That’s when our minds start to drift, in spite of the fact that the data may be important for us to learn and understand. Use more imagery coupled with metaphor. The image search engine that I use is image.google.com. You can save the image files you find to your hard drive and insert them into PowerPoint. Use files that are between 30 – 100K for good clarity without bloating your PowerPoint file.
6: Simplify text
Most PowerPoint slides are loaded with way too much text. Distill your slides down into simple bullet points with 4 or 6 words per bullet max. Instead, think of the bullets as hooks.
