Blog

Recently,  I attended a presentation (PowerPoint was used)  on a topic which really interests me. The speaker really knew his stuff and he was able to communicate a somewhat difficult and mysterious subject matter in such a way that everyone could understand it and benefit from the information.

Here’s the bad news. The PowerPoint practically killed his presentation. Nothing happened that we have not all seen dozens if not hundreds of time before. In fact, just about every presentation I see and work on almost always will do more harm to the outcome of the presentation than good.

Wow. I know, it is a big statement and one I will stand behind 100% Think about it. How many times have you sat through a presentation where the presenter turned his back to you and read what was on the screen? Or there was so much information or content, you had no idea what do look at or where to focus your attention.

Did you get that last part? Focus Your Attention! Think about it. Recall the last presentation you attended where the presenters brought up a slide with 4, 5, 6, 10 bullets and they all came on the screen one after the other. The presenter was just beginning to talk about bullet one and where was your attention? I would bet you were reading bullet 10.

Can you really read a string of text usually abbreviated to some extent and also listen to the presenter? Are you focused on the presenter? Not likely.

We all love to blame PowerPoint. There are been numerous books written such as “Death by PowerPoint” and “Could PowerPoint Be…Satan?”. But is it really PowerPoint’s Fault? That would be blaming Word for a really poorly written paper. PowerPoint is just a tool. Okay, they don’t help much, but it is still a tool.

Here are 8 tips to help you deliver better presentations now.

1. Rehearse, Rehearse, and Rehearse. So many executives wing their presentations or prepare them on the plane. This leads to reading the slides and not truly engaging the audience.
2. Presentation slides are not speaker notes! If you read the slides to your audience, you might as well give them the hand outs and send them to play golf.
3. Limit the use of text and bullets.  We think in pictures.
4. Keep it simple!  If you must use bullets, no more than 3 bullets per slides and no more than 5 words per bullet.
5. Bring up one point at a time. This allows you to control what the audience is reading. If you bring up all the bullets at one time, the audience will read to the bottom of the list while you are still talking about your first point.
6. Make slides big and bold. Think driving down the freeway at 65 miles an hour and reading billboards. Each message is clear and concise.
7. Use large fonts. I personally avoid anything smaller than 32 points.
8. Use animation sparingly or when you want to emphasize a particular point.
9. Avoid the trap of having a unique slide up for every part of your speech. Use your logo, theme slide or be daring and simply put a black screen up with nothing on it at all.  Watch what happens, your audience will be surprised the first time, but they will turn their attention to you everytime.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool and when used properly can really be a benefit.

Stay tuned, I will be writing more on this topic over time. We will also be launching and “Ask the Professor” blog where you can submit your questions and even your presentations and I will respond on this blog.

I would love to hear from you. Feel free to comment!

Warm Regards,

Robert Grossman
President & Executive Producer
Focus Creative Group

Phone and Fax: (800) 651-8430
www.focuscreative.com