Ever wonder why we often times enjoy sitting in the dark playing with our phones and laptops, or just get that sudden urge to fall asleep once someone goes up to start their PowerPoint presentation? Well, its simple- WE GET BORED! By no means am I a pro at mastering this communication tool- but I do know, it's hard enough to try to listen to a topic that is of no particular interest to you, and to have boring slides does no more good.
Avoid creating these PowerPoint SINS:
- Creating crowded slides
- Not connecting with your audience
- Reading directly from your slides
- Turning off the lights when presenting
Robert Graham of GrahamComm suggests these rules to master your presentation:
- Remember that You are the presentation. Use your slides as a complement to you, not the other way around.
- Keep your slides simple, intriguing and readable at a glance (the more visual, the better). Cartoons work great.
- Use the 6x6 Rule: No more than 6 lines with 6 words per line.
- Plug your computer in. Don’t count on your battery being charged.
- Disable your screen saver and wireless connection. There’s nothing worse than an inappropriate instant message, pop-up ad or R-rated photo appearing in the middle of your talk.
- Speak to people’s eyes, not the visual. Avoid the tendency to speak to the screen, your notes or your laptop. Your main objective is to connect with the people in your audience–NOT overload them with content.
- Pause (stop speaking) to let your listeners digest each slide. Don’t fight for your audience’s attention. When they are done reading your slide, they’ll look back at you and you can resume speaking.
- Bring backups and hard copies, because things always go wrong. I do several things to hedge my bets against the inevitable disasters:
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- Email my presentation to the meeting planner
- Bring my own laptop with the presentation loaded
- Bring a backed-up copy on a flash card
- Bring hard copies of the slides
- Embrace The “B Key.” This could be the big take-away from this article, so pay attention. There are times when you no longer need the slide that is showing (when someone asks a question, during an aside, when telling a story, or otherwise addressing a topic unrelated to the slide). This is a great time to black out the screen so that the attention once again is on you. Hit the B key on your keyboard, and your screen will magically go black. When you are done, touch B again, and the slide will reappear. Or hit return, and it will go on to the next slide. I did a workshop with a group from Microsoft a few years ago, and they didn’t know this trick!
- Practice using your slides. Go through your talk–out loud–and know what you are going to say for each bullet or slide. Under the “Slide Show” tab, there are tools that allow you to time your talk while practicing and view the upcoming slides. Practice your talk out loud several times before ever showing it to an audience
Source: http://www.grahamcomm.net/articles_09.html
The power of COLORS
Use these colors to keep the attention of your audience!
RED & ORANGE to inspire your audience.
YELLOW to get their attention- It will bring a piece of sun into your presentation and you’ll receive a positive attitude in return.
GREEN has positive associations among people all over the world
PURPLE will put some mystery and sophistication into your presentation.
GREY & BLACK great for presenting technology
BROWN is associated with stability
Now, go and make your next presentation fun & interesting!
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