PowerPoint Presentations
The funny thing about PowerPoint presentations is that the most interesting and compelling factor of any presentation is YOU!
We no longer use the chalk and blackboard days as our grandparents.
And we've progressed through the white board and Over Head Projector to proceed to the dizzy heights of technology with PowerPoint transitions exploding onto the screen and wowing the audience with special effects.
But as the presentation, and in particular PowerPoint Presentation, continues to become more widespread, we believe something central to communication between presenter and the audience seems to get lost along the way. It seems as if somewhere between the screech of chalk on a board and the mouse pointerclick as the next line of text appears. We human seems to have become secondary to the show itself. Well after all, isn't that in essence what a presentation is? ... a show?
At its most basic level, you as the presenter have a few things to do and one of them is to keep your audience engaged and motivated by what you have to say, and the relevance of your comments, arguments, and ideas.
Imagine the scene...a darkened board room and that post-lunch feeling has already settled in. It's Friday afternoon, half the audience have already mentally vacated the room. The other half are thinking about the next meeting, and mails that need to be sent before they can tie up for the weekend. The projector powers up, and up pops the opening agenda slide. To most audiences it's almost like an offer of a warm bed and a cup of cocoa. No need to think. No need to interact. Just sit back switch off and enjoy the show.
The sad thing that most presenters forget during their PowerPoint presentation is that people can read much faster that you as a presenter can talk.
So does this have any consequence on your PowerPoint presentation? Yes, absolutely! Keep your slides short, and give your audience time to read before you speak. It's a well known fact that us humans aren't particuarly good at multitasking. We all wish we were, bad sadly we're not. So audiences generally can't do two things at once.
Above all, do avoid that sure fire sleep inducer of putting your speaker notes on the slides and then reading them to your audience for this truely is the cause of 90% of all presentation suicides!
PowerPoint is a marvellous invention, but it's only a presentation tool, or aid if you will...Perhaps nothing more than a very trendy blackboard. As a presenter, remember it is you your audience has come to see and listen to. Not your slides to view. Every successful presenter nows this and every successful PowerPoint presentation is created to appreciate this.
Professional PowerPoint organizations such as 123PPT.com provide assistance, help, and advice on creating high impact PowerPoint presentations.
Author:Angela Houston, Delaware.
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