Even when slides are visual, using animation to control the rate of flow of information to the audience is beneficial. Instead of putting all of the information on the slide up at once, and trying to present the first part of the slide while the audience is reading ahead, animate the slide.

Present using animation by seamlessly blending what you say with what happens on screen. Ideally, the audience ought not to know if the presenter is taking cues from the slide, or speaking and then advancing the slide.

When a presenter makes eye contact with the audience, they feel compelled to look back. Yet, at the same time, the audience want to read the quote for themselves, and this desire typically wins out. The audience ignore the presenter, and read for themselves.

Presenters should refrain from reading quotes aloud. Instead, turn to the screen, and read silently in your head. When finished, look back at the audience. The audience will look at the presenter when they finish reading, at which point the presenter can continue with the presentation.

“A quotation is what a speaker wants to say, unlike a soundbite which is all that an interviewer allows you to say.”

Tony Benn (b. 1925)

1. Build the slide with heading and client logo.
2. Explain the relevance of the quote.
3. Build the slide by bringing in the actual quote. Turn to the screen and silently read the quote to yourself. The audience will be slower than you.
4. Turn to the audience, and when they indicate they have finished reading by looking at you, talk about whom the person who gave the quote is, and why their opinion counts.

Use graphs in PowerPoint to justify your conclusions. If you want to discuss figures in-depth, use a handout.

Construct the graph to help make your case. Eliminate unnecessary detail and consider switching to a comparison frame to help make your point – for example before/after, without/with, or competition/us.

1. Build the slide by bringing in the axes. Explain what the slide will show, and how.
2. Add the first data set (e.g. ‘before’, ‘without’, ‘competition’) and explain it.
3. Add the second data set (e.g. ‘after’, ‘with’, ‘us’) and explain it.
4. Add in the comparator (e.g. illustrate the gap in performance) and explain it. Use dfferent terms to that which appear on the slides (e.g. from “$12 million more per annum” to “$1m more each and every month”), as this helps reinforce the point.
5. Draw a conclusion.

Present process slides by controlling what the audience look at, and when. Instead of putting up the entire process diagram at once, bring up parts of the process from start to finish. The problem with putting the entire process up at the start is that the audience can just block out the presenter and try to work everything out for themselves.

Present the slide to the audience by talking through the process, with what the presenter says helping to explain the moving visuals on the slide.

Once an entire process has been presented, it is possible to then zoom in on parts of the process diagram to talk in more detail about them.

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A common technique for presenting the capabilities of a company.

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