Through out my professional career and biz school I have come across many power point presentations. Some good and some bad experiences have prompted me to write this blog. With many years of experience in writing and presenting to large groups, here I discuss how I think good presentations should be written and how a presenter can maintain an active and engaging flow of content.
I think there are two key features to a successful powerpoint presentation: one, ‘the look’ and two ‘the content’. You could have great content, but if the look is not friendly or appealing to your audience, rest assured they will probably have a grocery list prepared by the time you finish your presentation.
I think a presenter (assuming he/she is the one writing the presentation in powerpoint as well), should undoubtedly follow very simple, but often ignored steps. With my experience, professionally and in biz school, I can tell you that these ‘four’ steps mentioned below, if followed to the ‘T’ will help you develop a great presentation flow.
While many steps below are a great fit for professional presentations, I think the same can be easily modified to fit your requirements at the college or university.
4 key steps to creating a successful presentation. The goal here is to lay a foundation for your audience and build on it.
1) I call the first section: WHY? Always start with an overview of why you are presenting.
2) The WHAT? section. Include what you are going to present. You want to ensure that your slides are clear and that you are presenting your thoughts/ ideas in single line sentences, rather than a whole paragraphs.
3) HOW? This section should cover: how are you going to accomplish what you just presented. And hopefully the WHAT and the HOW meets your clients, professor’s or team’s requirements.
4) Always include a WHEN? section. This is more like a timetable of when you will accomplish all that you just promised. This section may or may not apply to you depending on the scope of the presentation.
Now that you understand the general flow to make your presentation a success, don’t forget that before you drive off to do your presentation you include an ‘AGENDA’ slide up front. This slide should cover everything you will be presenting.
Couple of other quick checks before you present. Make sure you double check the consistency in your text box positioning and text fonts. There is nothing worse than having text boxes or text fonts jumping all over the place as you move from slide to slide.
As a rule of thumb, try not to have ‘a lot’ of text on one slide. If you do and you are basically reading off that while presenting, ask you’re self, why am I here? If your intention was to have a presentation in which you were just going to just read off of your slides, you could have just given a printout to your audience so they could read at their convenience, possible try to fall asleep faster at the night. They don’t need to sit through the grueling minutes in those very uncomfortable chairs to listen to something they could have just read on their own.
My best experiences, presenting and listening to presentations, have been when there were couple of lines per topic, per slide and the presenter was engaging me (and other audience members) with his/her knowledge and insight.
Suggestions above are based on my personal experience and are my personal thoughts. I am sure there are many resources available online that you can leverage to create a compelling presentation. I strongly suggest you review those as well.
Just remember, you need to cater your presentations to your audiences needs, not your own. Good luck!
I think there are two key features to a successful powerpoint presentation: one, ‘the look’ and two ‘the content’. You could have great content, but if the look is not friendly or appealing to your audience, rest assured they will probably have a grocery list prepared by the time you finish your presentation.
I think a presenter (assuming he/she is the one writing the presentation in powerpoint as well), should undoubtedly follow very simple, but often ignored steps. With my experience, professionally and in biz school, I can tell you that these ‘four’ steps mentioned below, if followed to the ‘T’ will help you develop a great presentation flow.
While many steps below are a great fit for professional presentations, I think the same can be easily modified to fit your requirements at the college or university.
4 key steps to creating a successful presentation. The goal here is to lay a foundation for your audience and build on it.
1) I call the first section: WHY? Always start with an overview of why you are presenting.
2) The WHAT? section. Include what you are going to present. You want to ensure that your slides are clear and that you are presenting your thoughts/ ideas in single line sentences, rather than a whole paragraphs.
3) HOW? This section should cover: how are you going to accomplish what you just presented. And hopefully the WHAT and the HOW meets your clients, professor’s or team’s requirements.
4) Always include a WHEN? section. This is more like a timetable of when you will accomplish all that you just promised. This section may or may not apply to you depending on the scope of the presentation.
Now that you understand the general flow to make your presentation a success, don’t forget that before you drive off to do your presentation you include an ‘AGENDA’ slide up front. This slide should cover everything you will be presenting.
Couple of other quick checks before you present. Make sure you double check the consistency in your text box positioning and text fonts. There is nothing worse than having text boxes or text fonts jumping all over the place as you move from slide to slide.
As a rule of thumb, try not to have ‘a lot’ of text on one slide. If you do and you are basically reading off that while presenting, ask you’re self, why am I here? If your intention was to have a presentation in which you were just going to just read off of your slides, you could have just given a printout to your audience so they could read at their convenience, possible try to fall asleep faster at the night. They don’t need to sit through the grueling minutes in those very uncomfortable chairs to listen to something they could have just read on their own.
My best experiences, presenting and listening to presentations, have been when there were couple of lines per topic, per slide and the presenter was engaging me (and other audience members) with his/her knowledge and insight.
Suggestions above are based on my personal experience and are my personal thoughts. I am sure there are many resources available online that you can leverage to create a compelling presentation. I strongly suggest you review those as well.
Just remember, you need to cater your presentations to your audiences needs, not your own. Good luck!
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