PPT - Powerful Presentation Techniques

Presentation Preparation

ComputerWorld Editor Maryfran Johnson has an interesting article about the importance of preparation when developing a presentation.  For some speakers she found that practicing out loud in advance of their presentation was in part the key to their success as presenters.  Other speakers she found liked developing and practicing their big themes then going for a more extemporaneous approach to their presentations.  Regardless of approach the key was to take the time to be prepared.  

New Article "Avoiding Death by PowerPoint"

Shalu Wasu at Tickled by Life gives you "12 outrageous ideas to make your presentations absorbing" in his posting "Avoiding Death by PowerPoint".   I liked his listing from his first two point - there are no rules and have your own flexible guidelines to the 12 he elaborates on.  Here is the summary list:

1. don't use too many words
2. get personal
3. don't use templates, consider PPT a canvas
4. strip down the fluff to the essential message
5. provoke the audience
6. encourage co-creation
7. don't hide nervousness
8. don't over-prepare
9. you are the presentation
10. communication is the sharing of emotion
11. never give out handouts before, give them later
12. don't stick with your story, make the story sticky

For other tips on PowerPoint see my PowerPoint and Presentation Skills resource listing.

Presentation Nibblets - PowerPoint and Audience Interaction

In a recent Business Week article "How Your Audience's Brain Works", Carmine Gallo, author of Fire them Up, provides some tips for presenters generated from his discussion with John Medina, a molecular biologist and author of Brain Rules.  In the article he covers three tips:

• the 10 minute zone out when audiences stop listening
• the boredom factor
• the importance of visuals

Meanwhile over at Fast Company, Nov 2008. Dan Heath and Chip Heath cover "How to Avoid Making a Bad Presentation".  Among the tips about presentation killers that they reference are the following:

• While "show don't tell" is important don't go overboard with the clip art or stock photography just for "decoration not communication"
• "Presenters needs to be comprehensive" can lead to too much information or TMI or as the authors say "great presentations are mysteries, not encyclopedia entries"

Good Presentation on Death to Bad PPT

Alexei Kapterev has put together a good presentation that is available on SlideShare providing some guidelines to making your presentation more effective. He suggests focusing on 4 items -

1. Significance
2. Structure
3. Simplicity
4. Rehearsal

The slide show provides a quick view of 61 slides that you can watch here.

| View | Upload your own

Hat tip to Seattle PI, The Biz Bite blogger Whitney Keyes post "How to Give a Great Presentation". 

Presentation Slide Guidelines Podcast

Jean Luc Doumont presents a useful podcast on the IEEE web site offering 3 simple guidelines for effective slides.  His 3 simple guidelines are the following:

1. Do slides right or not at all
2. State message in title of slide, develop body as visually as possible 
   
   Interestingly he suggests using up to 12 words in your title and up to two lines of title text typically including a verb.  As he says it's the "so what" not the what.  He also suggests limiting the corporate or organizational logos to the title and conclusion slide to reduce the visual clutter.  These art two suggestions that I could argue with him given the presenter's objectives and .
3. Be concise verbally & visually or as he states "suppress, suppress"

Happy slide preparing!

Hat Tip to Margaret McDonald and her article in the Coloradoan.