Scripts: The root of all presentation evil!

Don’t use speaker notes.

Don’t write scripts.

Don’t wear white socks.

Why? Because you will come across as a dork!

Occasionally when presenters use a script they end up concentrating on it more than on the audience, which is a recipe for disaster. Presentations need to be dynamic and audience-centered. A script, almost by definition, prevents dynamism by compelling you to follow it. Therein lies the real problem.. » More »

Tags: effective presentation, expert presenters, killer presentations, presentation, Presentation Theory, Presentations, presenter, script, Scripting, Visual, visual information

Click: from Presentations With Visuals to Visual Presentations

I am traveling home after a grueling week of UK pinball, meaning I have spent three days this week in London and therefore made 6 trips up and down the country. Today’s trip to the big smoke was to rehearse a bid team for an m62 STAT. Their presentation is on Monday and today was the final dress rehearsal stage of the process. As sometimes happens the team had decided to remove the clicks in the presentation, feeling that it would be too distracting for the audience for them to constantly be clicking during the presentation. This happens a lot. Making the shift from old style bullet point presentations (Presentations With Visuals) to modern visual communications (Visual Presentations) is difficult; but on the whole, worth the effort. » More »

Tags: effective presentation, expert presenters, killer presentations, point presentations, PowerPoint, presentation, Presentation Theory, Presentations, presenter, Visual, visual communications, visual information, visual presentations, visuals

Directed Attention 4. Iconography

Iconography is perhaps used least at m62, generally because it’s a bit tacky. It is usually where you apply arrows or symbols to draw attention to an object. Think of Monty Python’s “Hand of God”. . .

Warning symbols, Danger Signs, Stop signs, Crosses, Ticks (checks) all allow us to direct the audiences’ attention. » More »

Tags: attention, effective presentation, graphic device, Iconography, information flow, PowerPoint, presentation, Presentation Theory, Visual, visual information

Directed Attention 3. Contrast

The human eye is not a brightness measuring device. It cannot tell the difference between 1000 ansi lumens and 1100 ansi lumens. Sure, you can tell the difference between a dark room and sunlight but that’s contrast not brightness. When you increase the brightness of your laptop screen what you are seeing is the increase. If I showed you one inside and one outside and asked you which was brighter, you would probably pick the indoor one since it is likely to have a higher contrast between the screen and the ambient light. (Unless you have a Mac, with the clever little gismo that adjusts the screen levels for the ambient light… fiendishly clever).

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Tags: animation, attention, expert presenters, graphic device, Highlight, PowerPoint, presentation, Presentation Theory, Visual, visual information

Directed Attention 2. Motion

Animation in PowerPoint is a skill. We want to direct the audience’s attention to the relevant place in the slide at the right time. We don’t want to distract the audience but using animation can help to engage them, and focus their attention on an object, work or area of a diagram. Listing all of the rules we have about animation would take too much time to record in a blog post, but here are the general ones: » More »

Tags: Animate, animation, attention, audience, audiences, effective presentation, killer presentations, motion, picture, PowerPoint, presentation, Presentation Theory, Visual, visual information