There’s another way. Presentations don’t have to consist of six bullet points to a slide for thirty slides. Just because everybody else reads from their slides, it doesn’t mean that you have to. Delivering a presentation can be fun for the audience, and the presenter.

Be proactive about becoming a better presenter. Presentation skills are essential in today’s business world. Set out to become a better presenter by reading about effective presentations, watching and copying interesting presenters, and identifying and replacing bad habits. It will help your career, and it will help those who have to watch you present.

Begin with Objectives in Mind

Why are you delivering a presentation? If you are only presenting because it’s what usually happens, or if you could just as well send a Word document, then save everybody’s time and don’t present.

Start developing each presentation by setting clear objectives: What do you want your audience to do as a result of your presentation, and when by? What do you want your audience to think following your presentation? How will you measure whether your presentation has achieved its objectives?

Effective presentations are those that help the presenter achieve their objectives. Without objectives, what is a presentation for?

Put Essential Things First

In an effective presentation, the audience will quickly understand what the point of the presentation is, what any jargon means, and why the presenter is worth listening to.

If the audience aren’t sure why they should bother listening, or can’t follow what is being said, they will disengage. Instead, set out your credibility early, ensure you define your terms, and state benefits up-front.

In practical terms, this can mean delivering a presentation that seems somewhat back-to-front. Establish credibility, and then state your conclusions, before spending the rest of the presentation justifying your conclusions. For the audience this structure is far easier to follow.

Think “What’s in it for Them?”

Most presenters talk about themselves, the features of their products, and give details that few other people would care for.

Why should your audience listen? What will they learn? How might they benefit? An effective presentation is written for the audience, not the presenter. Effective presenters talk about their audience, the benefits their audience will receive, and edit ruthlessly to ensure detail that will be considered boring is excluded.

Seek First to Understand, then to Present

Don’t “show up and throw up” when delivering a sales presentation or seeking investment. Sure, if you are launching a product or delivering a conference keynote presentation you might want to launch straight into your presentation, but even then, find out as much as you can about your audience in advance.

If you manage to get a meeting with a  potential client or investor, do your homework. Utilise contacts, social media, and company websites to identify interests and “hot buttons”. Tailor your presentation to take advantage of your research.

Presentations should be part of a two-way dialogue. The best presenters are always looking to see how their audience responds, in order to identify objections, shape needs, and advance discussion.

Create Synergy

Interactive presentations are often more effective. Why? Because the audience is engaged, because the audience’s interests can be more directly addressed, and – quite frankly – because they stand out as a bit different. Interactive presentations involve the audience by:

Setting puzzles to get the audience thinking

Allowing the audience to set the agenda

Listening to what the audience has to say

Effective presentations often include elements of interactivity to benefit from the synergy produced by involving the audience.

Sharpen Presentation Skills

Effective presentations take hours to prepare. But presentations can’t deliver themselves. Effective presenters spend days practising. Become a great presenter doesn’t happen overnight. So, go on a presentation skills training course. Video yourself presenting. Ask for feedback. Organise coaching. But most important  of all, keep trying to become a more effective presenter.

So, here we have a summary of the best new features of PowerPoint 2010 in our opinion, with a brief explanation of how to use each function, and an example of how it could be used to make a presentation effective. With advanced new functionality, PowerPoint really is making it easier than ever to create presentations that are impressive, engaging and memorable.

Interface

Fully-bespoke ribbon

PowerPoint 2003 had the ability to ‘float’ various menus and embed them wholesale into the working space, as well as the ability to create a new toolbar and populate it with favourite commands. PowerPoint 2007 lost some of this flexibility in favour of neatness – grouping commands into ‘tabs’ in the ribbon and allowing the user to customise only the uppermost toolbar. PowerPoint 2010 has improved on both and made customising the workspace extremely flexible. You can now create, name and illustrate your own tabs from scratch, and populate them with whatever commands you wish. This allows the user to create a completely personalised interface with all the tools you commonly use.

Smart tabbing

Clicking on a photo, shape or chart automatically brings up a specialised ribbon tab dealing with that specific type of graphic. This means that all the specialised tools for editing a photograph are available to you instantly, without even having to look in the standard or customised menus – and then they disappear when you move off the photo to do something else. This makes everything much more accessible and tidy, making PowerPoint feel more and more like a sophisticated design tool.

New colour schemes

Maybe this is too shallow of us, but the new black colour scheme looks fantastic…

Drawing and Formatting

Alignment on-the-fly

A boon in the style of Flash design packages, smart guidelines automatically pick up the positioning of objects around the one you are drawing, resizing or moving. Move or draw a shape near to another shape and construction lines appear, helping you to snap the position of the new object to the original. This virtually eliminates the need to use the align tool to line up objects. A serious timesaver.

Autoshape formatting

All the fancy new object styles from 2007 are there, including glowing edges and soft focus effects, along with a neat new gradient tool that allows multiple stop-points when creating gradient colour washes. In a few clicks it’s now possible to create the kind of objects that previously demanded a fair bit of fine-tuning in Photoshop.

Bespoke shapes

The freeform/edit points tool was always useful for creating custom shapes, and it’s still here, but now there’s no need to painstakingly draw each outline. The new Shape Union, Shape Subtract, Shape Intersect and Shape Combine tools let you merge shapes together or use them as cookie-cutters, so you can create any shape you desire and format it to look like a real-life object. See our PowerPoint 2010: Shape Union and PowerPoint 2010: Shape Union Subtract tutorials for examples of these tools at work.

Instant screengrabbing

If you want to import screenshots of a webpage or other application, you can now do it within PowerPoint without having to ‘Print Screen’, paste, crop and resize. Simply open the application you want to screengrab, click Insert > Screenshot within PowerPoint 2010, and PowerPoint shows you a preview of the windows you have open. Click the one you want and you get a perfectly sized screenshot aligned to the slide and with the desktop edges already trimmed off.

Very neat indeed. Check out the tutorial here.

Video

Importing

PowerPoint 2010 can now cope with many more movie file formats. Previously, WMV was a dead cert; AVIs, ASFs and Quicktimes were a bit of a cross-your-fingers affair; and other formats were pretty much foreign to PowerPoint. Now you can safely insert all popular movie formats, including MP4, MPEG and Flash video – you can even paste in the link of a webpage that contains a clip, and PowerPoint will download it and insert it onto the slide. New video editing controls everything you may need to do to your clip without using any external software, and you can also have video controls on the slide, so that you can pause or track the clip as it’s playing in Slideshow mode.

Video formatting

Video used to automatically jump to the top layer of the slide and play in a flat panel. No more! You can apply the same 3D and rotation effects to a video clip as you can to an Autoshape, allowing you to skew, stretch and morph the video frame to your heart’s content. You can even have multiple clips playing at once on the same slide, with 3D settings applied to the frames so they are facing one another, with subtitles or other graphics appearing over the top of them. Very cool. If you fancy yourself as an artistic director, apply different colour tones and lighting treatments to give a dramatic effect.

Video Bookmarking

This impressive feature lets you place markers on the video to use as animation triggers. For example, if you have an interview clip, you can bookmark key points in the clip and link them to animations – when the interviewee mentions an outstanding member of staff, a headshot of the person flies out of the movie and onto the slide. Use this for adding illustration to a video narrative, or for creating rolling captions or subtitles. Click to see our PowerPoint 2010: Movie Editing tutorial.

Sharing

Web-based sharing

If you can’t present in person, there’s now no need to either set up a webconference; convert the presentation to a flash file and host it on a webpage; or send it out on a CD. Using your Windows Live credentials (any Hotmail account), you can log into the new Broadcast Service and play your presentation over a web browser. Alternatively, save the presentation to your virtual storage area on Windows Live and allow it to be downloaded by your colleagues, or for collaborative work, publish it to SharePoint to track changes made by others.

Create Video or CD

The much loved Pack and Go is included here, which automatically burns your presentation to a self-running CD and includes all your linked files and videos. And at long last, the ability to create a video from your presentation. Simply, just ‘Save As’ a wmv file, and PowerPoint converts your presentation to a video. Or for more specialised use, the backstage area gives you options to render out the video for HDTV, web or portable devices (sadly, not for the iPad, but we’re working on that).

The software features a variety of different design templates, a bank of example questions, and a simple interface that means that quizzes can be edited quickly and easily without requiring any familiarity with PowerPoint. In addition, the quiz will calculate a final score for the user, revealing this at the end of the quiz.

Usability

The software can be downloaded from the website (it costs $99), and there is a trial version available for free. Once installed, a toolbar appears within PowerPoint. From this toolbar, users can create entire quizzes – without doing any editing on the PowerPoint slide itself.

Usability is easy, as all functions are handled within the PowerQuizPoint menu, rather than on the slide itself. However, difficulties did arise when adding and removing questions within the quiz, as the changes interfered with the scoring system. This is particularly evident when different templates are used within one quiz. Users looking to make these changes may wish to edit the presentation as a whole, rather than to do so question by question.

Features

There are a range of pre-designed quiz templates that can be used to create a quiz. Some templates are simply abstract designs, but there are some more creative ones, including one based on a popular television program, and one based on a teacher’s chalkboard (complete with animated writing chalk!). The designs themselves are well executed, and the animations are smooth. Unfortunately, there is no option to personalise these templates, which means that it is impossible to adapt a template for a specific purpose, for example to tailor colours to match a specific brand.

Some modifications can be made on the slides themselves; text and font formats can be changed, whilst the user can insert new shapes, images, sounds and even video and flash to the slide. This could be useful in a learning environment, for example if a teacher wished to explain an answer via the use of video.

Other functionalities from within the quiz are offered. For example, the presenter can enable or disable the option to retry a question if incorrect, or to skip backwards and forwards between questions as wished. The software also comes with a selection of questions in the ‘question bank’, which the user can select from to create a quiz, or add to himself once more questions have been created.

Saving the Quiz

The resulting file can be used within PowerPoint as a slideshow with no difficulties, or it can be saved and run as a Flash file. Converting the file is done via the ‘Publish Quiz’ button on the toolbar within PowerPoint. This process is not without its difficulties. The conversion, as with most PowerPoint to Flash conversions, is slow, but it also froze several times when it was attempted. The website FAQs indicate that this is a common problem, and provide some solutions.

Once a file has been successfully converted, it can be run outside of PowerPoint; sent to other users; or published on a website. This extra feature will prove very useful for those wanting to broadcast a quiz on a blog post, or for teachers and lecturers wishing to share the quiz with students over the internet.

Conclusion

PowerQuizPoint Maker is a useful automated solution for creating quizzes within PowerPoint, particularly with the added functionality of being able to calculate score.

The software is easy to use, and with a few clicks the user can have a fully-functioning quiz. Some improvements could be made, such as fixing the conversion difficulties, or perhaps giving the user the option to remove answer pages from the quiz. It is also worth checking the answers for some of the questions provided in the question bank – an answer about the use of Joules claimed that the term referred to the recording of heat, and not energy!

This software could be particularly useful for teachers and lecturers, or training presentations within a corporate setting. It clearly promotes interaction in an audience, and tests audience knowledge and understanding. Examples of use could be at the start of a presentation to ensure audience members are engaged, or at the end of a presentation to test material learnt. Asking audiences questions will get them involved and paying attention to presentation content, and encouraging them to think about what they are listening to means that they are more likely to absorb it into long-term memory.

1. Priority: The audience.

The most important thing to remember in any presentation is that the audience should be your main focus. Audience members are only interested in what they want to hear, not what you want to say. What will most help you to stress the importance of your message upon them? Yes, you have points to get across – but they need to be done in a way that the audience will want to hear them. Engage with them, and clearly demonstrate how your message is relevant to them.

2. Benefits, not features.

This mistake is one that many presenters make unknowingly. The prospect seeks a solution to a problem – and the presenter lists all the features his product or service has to offer. The sale is not made, and the presenter wonders how the audience failed to ‘get it’.

Customers buy solutions, not products. Stressing the benefit of each feature will make its usefulness far more apparent to the audience, meaning that the presentation is far more likely to result in a sale.

3. Keep them guessing.

Even with relevant content, not all audience members will be able to stay engaged. Keep the audience wanting to hear more, by using mystery and posing questions or puzzles. For example, present a problem, and ask the audience to solve it, before revealing the answer. For maximum effect, presenters can use Visual Cognitive Dissonance™ on their slides, whereby the visual does not make sense until the presenter explains it. The brain automatically seeks a solution to puzzles, so using these techniques ensures that your audience are listening to your every word.

4. Practise out loud.

Reading through your slides is not sufficient practice when preparing for a presentation. Unless you practise out loud, the first time you actually speak the words will be in front of an audience. You will notice things when you speak your patter out loud that you never would have noticed just reading silently. Actually stand up and deliver your talk using the voice and gestures that you would naturally when in front of an audience. The most important reason to practise out loud is to ensure that you get your timing right – nothing is more irritating to an audience than a presenter who overruns.

5. Use positive vocabulary.

Think about the words you are using. Weak words and phrases such as, “we think” and “we should be able to” will do a presenter no favours. If the presenter does not project any faith in his message, how can he expect his audience to believe it? You’re there to convince your audience. Use positive, definite phrases such as “this will lower your expenditures by half” or “this method is proven to be effective”.

6. Use ‘you’, not ‘we’.

People don’t like to hear other people talk about themselves. It is not interesting, and it is rarely relevant. What audiences like to listen to is a presenter speak about them. Don’t talk about yourself, your company, and your beliefs; instead, talk about your audience, their company, and their beliefs. Use ‘you’ throughout. This makes it easier for you to drive home benefits, and to demonstrate relevancy. And directly addressing your audience leaves you far more likely to keep them engaged.

7. Address your audience by name.

If you are presenting to a small audience and you know their names – use them. Of course, make sure you have permission to do so, and be sure not to leave anyone out; in this situation, it is easy to offend. Don’t overdo this, either; nothing can sound more grating in a small setting than one name being repeated over and over.

8. Don’t be afraid to interact with your slides.

A lot of presentation training coaches recommend that presenters should never turn their back on the audience. This is a reasonable piece of advice; no one wants to attempt to listen to the back of someone’s head. Yet, when visual aids are truly engaging, it can create a seamless and engaging effect if the presenter interacts with his slides. This could be looking back when something significant changes or appears on the screen; pointing to sections of a graph; or gesturing as icons move across the slide. Engaging with your content in this way will help your audience to absorb the information via dual channels, thus absorbing and retaining more information.

9. But don’t lose their attention.

Sometimes, you just want your audience to pay attention to you – but you have a really interesting slide on the screen behind you. How can you talk to them and ensure that they are really listening, while the diagram is behind you, bigger and more visually engaging than you are? Hitting the ‘B’ key will render the screen temporarily black, ensuring that your audience have nothing else to distract them, and that their attention will be specifically focused on you. When you are ready to return to your visuals, hitting any key will bring the screen back to life.

10. Keep it focused.

Yes, keep the presentation relevant to your audience – but make sure that you stay on track with your message. Ensure that everything you say and every visual you use is tailored to your presentation objectives. How does that sentence enforce your message? How does that phrase support your benefit statement? Any word that doesn’t work towards your objectives is wasted, and with a limited attention span, you want to make sure that your audience absorb as much relevant information as you can impart to them. Make sure you stay on track, and every minute of your presentation will be working in your favour towards your ultimate goal.

Most sales presentations fail to articulate a clear value proposition. Those that do often hide the reasons to buy at the end of a presentation, way too late to have any real impact. We’ll develop a clear value proposition, and use it to structure our sales presentation.

1. Start by brainstorming answers to the question: Why should our prospects buy from us and not from our competitors?
2. Then, ask how much your prospects actually care about each item on your list. Award marks from 1-10, where 10 is the most important and 1 is totally irrelevant to your prospects. Some items will represent requirements but not discriminators – things that suppliers are expected to have, but where little attention is paid once a hurdle is cleared. Don’t give marks to those items – they typically need to be mentioned in the introduction to a presentation, but not included in the value proposition.
3. Next, for each item on the list, ask whether your company has competitive advantage in the marketplace. Consider your offering judged relative to those sold by your most frequent or fierce competitors. If you are far better at an item than all of your competitors then give a 10. If you have a slight advantage award a 6 or 7. If you are no better or worse than your competitors award a 5. If you are far worse than competitors at something award a 1 or 2.
4. Map items onto a 10 by 10 graph. How much customers care should appear on the x-axis, and competitive advantage should appear on the y-axis.
   Value Proposition
   Those in the top right quadrant may have a role to play in your value proposition. Use them in your sales presentation.
   Critical Weaknesses
   Those in the bottom right represent areas of weakness in your offering. These items are valued by the market, but you under-perform. Either educate your customers to care less about them, or improve your offering.
   Wasted Effort
   Items in the top left represent wasted effort. Either educate your customers to value these items, or consider spending less time in this area, and talking about things in this area.
5. Once you have identified items that prospects care about, where you have competitive advantage, you have some strong ideas for your value proposition. Next, you need to make the audience believe you can deliver. Take each item in turn and justify your claims. Explain how you do things. Show figures measuring your performance. Use case studies and testimonials. Cite industry reports. Just make sure your claims are believed. Use your value proposition to structure your presentation, ensuring that the benefits that you offer are memorable and that your presentation is effective.

Technology is now sufficiently advanced that a presenter doesn’t necessarily need to be in the same room as his audience – or even speaking to them live. Here we have provided examples of the different options you can take, depending on the situation at hand.

1.. Video Conference

The first solution considered by many would be to set up a video conference with the audience. This way presenters can interact live with their audience, and even make use of gestures and facial expressions. Short of physical contact, presenter and audience might as well be face-to-face.

However, video conferences are a lot more complicated than they seem. They are typically very expensive with poor quality visuals, and can only feature a presenter – perhaps with some slides, depending on whether the remote audience can see them clearly. They also prove difficult to organise, as they require equipment and expertise at both ends. On the whole, arranging a video conference is something most businesspeople tend to do just the once.

2.  Virtual Presentation

The next most obvious solution is to conduct a virtual presentation, by which the presenter shares his slides or desktop with the audience and delivers his patter live. Presenting virtually via one of the software choices available proves to be a good solution, as they are cheap to run – until conference call charges are included. The downside is that there can be a lag in the animations, depending on the speed of internet connection. Other negative points include the likelihood of technical issues, and the reliance on good telecommunications and bandwidth.  Some of the packages do not support all animations, and the quality of graphics is often poor.

The most well-known options include WebEx, GoToMeeting, Live Meeting  and Glance. For details on each service, see our Online Meeting Software Review. Based on these results, m62 uses Live Meeting for these situations, as it has proved the most reliable in reproducing slides to their true form.

3.  Send PowerPoint

The next option to consider is sending your audience a file of your PowerPoint. Of course, sending them a normal PowerPoint file would mean that the slides were editable – something that no businessperson wants. The file can be password protected, or sent as a PDF, but the latter option would mean that animations are not enabled, making it much more difficult to engage the audience.

The lack of presenter in this option also means that Visual Cognitive Dissonance cannot be used, as slides have to make sense on their own. This results in a massive reduction in effectiveness. This practice is comparable to sending your audience a document to read: a presentation without narration is not really a presentation.

4. Send Recorded Presentation

The next step is to record the presenter delivering the presentation, and send that to your remote audience. Green screen recording (when the presenter is filmed and then superimposed on top of his slides) is the best solution. However, this option is expensive and really hard to do well. It takes many takes, and lots of time and effort to get it right.

The sister option to the one above is to video the presentation being delivered. However, it is really hard to get the quality right for this, and to show good presenter-slide interaction. The biggest issue is lighting, and an expert camera man or lighting engineer is needed for a passable effort. When done correctly this can work as a reasonable substitute for a green screen, but when done badly it verges on pointless.

5. Send narrated presentation

Sending a narrated PowerPoint is a much cheaper, easier, and quicker option. Here again, there are multiple technical options for the presenter. Narration can be easily recorded within PowerPoint (Slideshow > Record Narration), and then the file can be password-protected.

Alternatively, the file can be converted to video. In the past, this has only been possible via the use of technology such as iSpring – see our PowerPoint to Flash conversion software review. However, one of the new features of PowerPoint 2010 is that conversion to video can be done within PowerPoint itself. Converting a PowerPoint file to video from PowerPoint 2010 is easy, and with a few clicks the user can produce a slide readily playable in Windows media player. Not only that, but because the conversion is done within PowerPoint itself, all animations are shown correctly – something other options have struggled with.

6. Use a slide sharing website

The final option, and the one we would recommend to clients, is for the presenter to use a slide sharing website. These allow the presenter to upload a webcast to the site with recorded audio, for the viewer to watch any time, when it is most convenient for him. This option can prove extremely time and cost effective, as once the presentation is uploaded, it can be watched any number of times by any number of people. Narration can be recorded easily within PowerPoint, or online via a phone or microphone system. Audience members can then be asked to dial in to a conference call for Q&A sessions.

We at m62 use myBrainshark due to its performance and reliability. Most importantly, myBrainshark allows animation, while some of its competitors do not. For more information of the specific capabilities of myBrainshark, see our slide sharing websites review.

Conclusion

Remote solutions don’t have to be just backup plans – they are convenient in everyday situations too. They take away the hassle of preparing for and travelling to a meeting; they save presenter and audience time and money; and they are even good for the environment, as you are reducing your carbon footprint.

Of course, different techniques have to be used when presenting remotely, as there are different challenges when it comes to engaging a remote audience. We’ve produced an article on online presentation skills that provides tips and advice for presenters delivering a presentation over the internet.

So next time you are planning a presentation, consider alternative methods of delivering it. It makes sense to have backup plans for those times when travel and meeting face-to-face are not available – you never know when another volcano might erupt.

RIM has produced the BlackBerry presenter, a pocket-sized device that is beautiful and designed to be portable. Now presenters with a BlackBerry don’t need to carry a laptop everywhere to present, as PowerPoint files can be carried conveniently on a phone. The phone connects to the device via Bluetooth, and from here the presentation can be delivered using a television screen or monitor.

Specifications

The device requires the use of a Bluetooth-enabled BlackBerry phone running BlackBerry Device Software 4.6 or later. The device connects to an external display via either a VGA cable or an S-video cable, neither of which are included with the purchase.

The Device

The BlackBerry Presenter device is petite and stylish, easily small enough to fit comfortably in a pocket. It comes with a carry case to protect it from bumps and scratches. The device has only one button – the power key. A VGA port and S-video port are offered to connect to the device to a screen, and for power and updates there is also the micro USB port that BlackBerry now favours for everything. This is useful, as it means that the device is compatible with BlackBerry cables the user may already have.

The Presenter comes handily with different plug attachments, so that the device can be used in various continents abroad without having to purchase an adaptor. Also included is a USB cable to enable the software to be updated regularly via the internet.

Setup

First of all the BlackBerry Presenter software must be downloaded to the phone, which can be done from the BlackBerry website for free. It is then advised that the  Update Manager is downloaded to a computer to check for updates. Once the software is downloaded (which must be done from an Internet Explorer browser – the site, awkwardly, does not support Firefox), simply connecting the Presenter device to the computer via the USB cable provided and clicking ‘Check for updates’ enables the user to perform this function.

For use, the device must be connected to a television or monitor – we used a VGA cable which worked with no problems – and plugged in to the mains.

The instructions state that the PowerPoint file can be opened and presented directly from an email attachment, but this function did not prove available. In fact, the attachment must be downloaded and saved to the phone. This immediately presents a problem if the phone does not have a memory card, as the phone alone is unlikely to hold enough memory to save the file. At this point the user would have to purchase a memory card if he or she didn’t have one already. So this is another added expense – although nowhere near the price of the device itself.

Once the file is downloaded, it can be accessed on the phone via the BlackBerry Presenter application, from where the user can click ‘Present’. At this point the user must enter the 4-key passcode for the device, which is clearly visible on the television screen or monitor.

Features

This is the point at which the difficulties begin. The file is slow to upload to the screen. Smaller files load with a short delay, but larger files – particularly those including images and animation – take much longer. This would require the presenter to set up in advance, or to feel comfortable enough to talk at the audience for a while as they wait for the slides to load.

In the presentations themselves, the actual graphics are represented accurately. Animations are progressed at the swipe of the touchscreen or rollerball, replacing the mouse click easily. BlackBerry states that it supports “24 animations and 55 transitions”, but do not provide a list of these. Not only this, but including a lot of detail in one slide causes significant problems – certain elements of the slide simply will not show. BlackBerry’s advice regarding this is to reduce slide content. This can be detrimental to a well-crafted presentation, as it means that checks would have to be run with each presentation to ensure that each slide is fully compatible with the device. Not only can this mean removing important parts of a presentation, but it is simply not practical.

The user can select slides and even view speaker notes from the phone. However, this practice is clumsy and would involve the presenter looking down at his screen and playing with buttons for a while, as the screen remains frozen in front of the audience. The awkward way the user must scroll through the menu means that the presenter is unlikely to offer a smooth presenting experience. This functionality is a nice touch, but is unlikely to prove useful on a regular basis.

Summary

The device does what it promised to do on a basic level, and once setup has been conducted once, it is quick and easy to do so again. Presenters should just be careful to allow a few minutes before they begin to speak for the PowerPoint file to load.

The fact that the device doesn’t support all animations and images is disappointing, and so is the amount of time it takes to load. One can hope that these will be fixed in the future, and perhaps we will see significant improvements via updates. The error printed in the instructions was misleading and wasted a lot of time in the initial testing phase, and the resulting conclusion that a memory card must be used should have been included in the specifications.

With the hefty price tag (£129.99/$199.99), it can be difficult to see what the true value of this device is. Those who truly resent carrying their laptops around may feel that the BlackBerry Presenter is worth it, but for the majority of presenters, it is hard to see the positives. Significant improvements in reproducing slide elements would yield a better verdict, but for now the BlackBerry Presenter is an added cost with little extra benefit – and several disadvantages.

Unfortunately however, a large number of presenters feel that the small improvements they have made to their slides are sufficient, failing to realise that there is so much more that can be done with them. And so we see the same mistakes made time and time again – without the presenters realising that they’re doing wrong.

Perhaps the biggest problem is that people are still in ‘print out slide’ mode – except that now it’s not ‘printout’, but ‘upload to SlideShare’ mode. This approach has not been helped by well-known presentation books such as Cliff Atkinson’s Beyond Bullet Points – a book which recommends the reader to explain his presentation via his slide titles.

Thus presenters often design their slides to make sense on their own, expecting to just elaborate on them when in front of an audience. This idea has fuelled a whole range of presentation mishaps, which we’ve outlined below.

These are all real life examples of PowerPoint slides from perhaps the biggest perpetrator of bad slides – SlideShare.net.

Mistake #1: Asking Your Audience to Read a Lot

Slide 38 – How to Manage Sedation in Neuro ICU

Thankfully, this sort of slide is rare now. The worst visual aid is the one that’s not designed for a presentation, but as a document. The audience have come to listen to you – not to read. This sort of slide would be more useful when emailed as a document than projected onto a screen.

Enough complaints have been made about this practice now that there really is no excuse. The layout doesn’t matter – a lot of text is ineffective, whatever format it is in. And if you put text up but say something else – your audience will still read. And ignore you.

And aside from anything else – with that much text on screen, will they even be able to see it all properly?

Mistake #2: Bullet points

Slide 61 – Drupalcon Keynote – Open Source and Open Data in the Age of the Cloud

Do bullet points look exciting? Every presenter should know of the staleness of bullet points by now. There has been enough hype in the media, and enough books published, for the majority of people to understand that bullet points do not work. So why are audiences still subjected to this? Bullet points are not engaging.

The current craze is to remove the bullet points, placing each idea onto its own slide instead. While this is an improvement, it doesn’t matter where the bullets are – even if each point is on a separate slide, they are still bullet points.

Mistake #3: ClipArt

Slide 4 – Designing a Movie Trailer

Thankfully, this has seen a dramatic downturn in popularity, but the fact that we managed to find even one example of this is reason enough to provide a reminder. ClipArt is tacky and awful, does not aid audience comprehension in any way, and will just leave them distinctly unimpressed.

Mistake #4: Tacky Stock Imagery

Slide 10 – Death by PowerPoint

Does this really need an explanation? The picture looks unprofessional, and doesn’t aid the audience’s comprehension in any way. This isn’t the sort of picture you’d expect to see in the boardroom, or at a really good TED talk. In fact, this sort of image could really be considered as photograph ClipArt.

If you want to impress with your presentation, make sure that you use only the best visuals. Using humour is risky at the best of times, and this sort of silliness is unlikely to make a good impression.

Mistake #5: Complicated Diagrams

Slide 5 – Project ViResiST

Aside from the awful colours and the bizarre text bubble in the background, there is far too much going on on this slide. Throw up something like this and your audience will give up before they’ve started. Complicated diagrams are difficult enough to digest when perusing them at one’s own leisure: when put up on a slide with a presenter talking over them, the audience has even less chance of comprehending. There’s just far too much information here to digest – is the presenter really asking the audience to acknowledge all of these data points?

Diagrams should be simple, and should build so that each point can be talked about as it appears on screen. Putting everything up at once just renders the audience unable to digest the information, and can leave them so overwhelmed that they disengage entirely.

Mistake #6: Distracting Pictures

Slide 11 – Rise of the Marketing Technologist

This type of slide demonstrates what some presenters refer to as ‘the visual metaphor’. A metaphor or comparison is selected, often a well-known cliché or conceit. This is then pictured in the form of an abstract visual, and an image is found that vaguely portrays this. The image is most often big. And beautiful. So beautiful in fact, that audiences would happily have it on their walls. So beautiful in fact, that they could stare at it for hours, happily drifting off into their own personal daydreams…

See the problem?

Unless your visual aids are strictly relevant to your message – don’t include them. Visuals can be more distracting than you think, and encouraging your audience to think about something else while they’re supposed to be listening to you is never a good idea.

(Thanks to Olivia Mitchell, who wrote a whole post on this point.)

Mistake #7: Explaining the Point

Slide 33 – Shift Happens

The presenter who uses this method has realised that visuals can be seriously distracting when used incorrectly. So in order to ensure that the audience focus on the message rather than on the pretty pictures, he outlines the point of the slide. Great. Can’t ignore that, can they?

Well, no. Which is the problem.

If you put text on a slide, the audience will read this instead of listening to you. No problem, the presenter replies. I’ve only put up one sentence. They can read it, and then come back to listening to me.

But why should they? As far as the audience is concerned, your slide completely explains the point. They don’t need to listen to you – they already ‘get it’. Unless your truly spectacular presenting skills can drag the audience’s attention back, they may disengage – because if the slide explains the point, the presenter’s role is defunct.

Conclusion

So, when designing your next presentation, think about what will most help you to keep the audience engaged, whilst aiding their comprehension of your point. Think about each visual you choose: why are you using that particular slide? If it doesn’t help the audience grasp your point without distracting them – don’t use it.

Visual aids should work with the presenter – not against him.

More often that not, the loser always seems to be Bill Gates – critics claimed his slides were too cluttered, his manner too stilted, and his presentations were forgotten next to Jobs’, which were conducted with a more ‘zen’ approach. This of course led to Carmine Gallo’s widely acclaimed book, The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. Yet Bill Gates and PowerPoint deserve their fair share of praise too, and audiences are beginning to recognise this.

Gates’ talk at TED this year has been greatly acclaimed – watch the video on the TED website. Here we look at the things he does right – particularly the things that highlight Bill Gates’ own personal style.

Visual Aids

As has been noted by many, Gates’ visual aids are greatly improved this year. Rather than the complicated slides we have seen previously, Gates has taken a step towards simpler photographs and diagrams. He now uses images to illustrate his points, rather than text and bullet points. This eliminates the risk of the audience disengaging by reading from the slides as he speaks. While m62 wouldn’t normally recommend using photographs of the human face (they can be very distracting), in this case it works, evoking a sense of urgency in the audience to work for this charity.

We also see Gates using clear, simple graphs to illustrate his points. The slides are designed so that they don’t distract by having over-complicated graphs with too many numbers, or too much going on. They demonstrate the data effectively, and allow the audience to quickly gain an understanding of the figures.

Going over and above static images, Gates uses animation in his slides for explanation and emphasis. For example, he uses animation to show how the Traveling Wave Reactor works. The diagram and the graph progress together as he explains, demonstrating what is happening scientifically. His slides also use colour changes to emphasise important points, and to demonstrate to the audience where they are in the presentation. These animations help to make things clearer for the audience.

And, it wouldn’t be a Bill Gates presentation without the use of some ‘interesting’ props. In this case, he released fireflies into the audience to demonstrate energy, and to remind the audience of his stunt with the mosquitoes last year. This tactic keeps audiences engaged and interested – ensuring that they will remember. Bill Gates is a spokesperson for the fact that visual aids don’t have to be just slides.

Manner and Language

Gates’ manner is confident and relaxed. He uses natural gestures and a comfortable tone of voice, demonstrating that he knows his subject area whilst putting the audience at ease. Acting too stagey would look forced, and betray a presenter not fully prepared. Gates look easy, and the audience responds to this.

Gates makes a couple of light-hearted jokes, but does not aim to be a stand-up comedian. It can be difficult to make jokes in a presentation, as audiences vary, and a failed joke can result in an unpleasant atmosphere. Being comfortable enough to do this without taking the joking too far is a difficult balance to strike, but Gates does it easily.

He also manages to interact smoothly with his slides, speaking comfortably as they change behind him. He works with his slides, rather than taking his cues from them. This smooth demeanour shows that he has really practiced his presentation, and knows it well enough to know what changes will be made to his visual aids, and when.

Gates uses positive, affirmative vocabulary, such as “we need” and “we must”. This strikes a sense of urgency in the audience, and is much more convincing and persuasive than using weaker language.

He also manages to keep his presentation simple. With complicated scientific subject matter, it can be difficult to ensure that the audience stay on track. Gates uses clear, uncomplicated vocabulary, and explains complex and unfamiliar topics in a way that is easy to understand.

Content and Structure

The crux of his audience – the need to get carbon emissions to zero – is positioned at 3 and a half minutes. This is around the optimum time to deliver the most important argument, or value proposition, as audience attention levels are at the highest between 3 and 5 minutes.

Gates has clearly done his research and explains his evidence, justifying each point he makes. He is careful not to just make claims, and reveals where he has found each piece of information. This is important, as the audience will not believe anything that cannot be proved. Yet he still manages to keep the data interesting, by using emotion to keep the audience engaged.

Gates finishes by returning to his main argument – the need to reduce emissions to zero. This is a great idea as it will ensure that the main point lingers in the mind of the audience, and it also repeats the value proposition, thus further ensuring that it is completely embedded in the audience’s minds.

Q&A

Gates has enough background knowledge of his topic that he is able to answer the questions asked clearly and accurately. It is important to prepare for any type of question, and to have the details if necessary.

He also avoids the defensive stance many presenters take in question and answer sessions, but neither does he relax too much. Gates stays in presenter mode when answering questions – maintaining eye contact with the questioner, but still gesturing and projecting his voice and answer to the audience.

Gates doesn’t steamroll ahead on his theory, but admits when there may be a problem. In this case, he acknowledges that there is a chance his theory might not work. Particularly brilliant is his answer to the sceptics – that if nothing else, this theory will present cheaper options to the industry!

And above all, Gates uses his answers to drive home the benefits. Even in the questions about sceptics, he manages to point out the benefits for them. Every presenter should use question and answer sessions to link back to the value proposition, and Gates takes full advantage of this technique here.

How could he improve?

While Gates’ visual aids are much improved, he could still move away from using static images entirely, to more engaging diagrams. Images do not always demonstrate the point at hand, and can actually make it difficult for the presenter to keep the audience’s focus on himself.

More animation could be used to draw the audience’s attention to the right things at the right time. Often, his slides are put up fully formed: he could have them build as he talks about each point, ensuring that the audience are not overwhelmed with too much information. Slides that build really help to keep the audience engaged, particularly when the presenter is explaining something complicated. Using this technique more often would improve Gates’ presentations further.

Gates could reduce the text on his slides further, as he still uses full sentences here and there. When there is a lot of text on screen, there is a danger that the audience will read this instead of listening to him speak, and thus disengage. In order to maintain maximum audience attention, Gates should keep text to a minimum on his slides.

Conclusion

Gates is living proof that a presenter does not have to be born with the ability to make a presentation perfect. Yes, some people may have a natural skill in the area that others do not, but that is not the only – or even the most important – requirement. It is completely possible to go from being a mediocre presenter to being a good one, with better slides and hard work.

Bill Gates’ presentation skills have always been good, but the improvement in his visuals this year has really highlighted these. While using diagrams and animation more could really make his slides stand out even further, Gates’ enthusiasm and his relaxed but informative manner make for a great presentation.

Bill Gates vs. Steve Jobs? We’re team Bill.

How do you present to those at the highest level? Whether the audience includes your boss or a powerful prospect, you need to consider their motives. With such a big pitch at stake, it is important to really ensure that your chances are maximised. Above all, you need to be sure that your audience feel respected.

Below are some tips to help you prepare for an executive presentation.

Research

1. Find out how much your audience know about your chosen topic. If possible, talk to someone with contacts, or ask directly beforehand. If no information is available, assume they know nothing and give a very basic overview of your presentation before launching into greater detail.
2. Make the presentation relevant. What are the company’s current business goals? What will the audience be interested in? Link your presentation to their place in the market; a recent change in legislation – anything you can find that will be relevant to your audience. Senior executives will appreciate your effort and understanding, as well as feeling naturally inclined to listen to data relevant to them.

Content

1. Chief executives are often more interested in problem-solving and the overall health of the company. It’s safer to assume that they want the broad picture, so don’t spend ages discussing minute details such as design aspects unless specifically asked to, or unless you’re presenting to a specified audience or department.
2. Senior executives like high data intensity, but with clarity. Executive presentations should be supported with graphs, giving a broad overview of facts and figures. Ensure that you have all numbers to hand, as it is likely that questions will be asked.
3. Anticipate questions and prepare for them. Include relevant slides of data and graphs, where applicable. The information that isn’t included in your presentation can be revealed here. Choose what will be most relevant for a basic overview, and hold the details back unless requested.
4. Don’t include any information that isn’t completely sound. High-level executives are well experienced in picking holes in an argument. If there is something you’re not sure on, leave it out. It’s not worth risking your credibility.

Time Management

1. Senior management executives are busy people. The small amount of time they may dedicate to you is likely to be worth a great deal. Keep your presentation short; they’ll be grateful. Whatever you do, do not overrun your time slot. There is no surer way to annoy any audience, especially those who have important meetings that should have started ten minutes ago. Respect your audience’s time, and they will be more likely to remember you favourably.
2. Having a limited time slot means that it is especially important not to waffle. Not only is waffling unprofessional and annoying, but if you waste time on words that aren’t crucial to your point, you quite simply won’t get everything across that you need to. Be concise and to the point – if the audience want more detail on something, they’ll ask for it.
3. Make sure that you allow adequate time for Q&A at the end. This is the point at which you can learn what exactly your audience wants to know. Senior executives are likely to specify precisely what is important to them, so this could potentially be the most crucial part of your presentation.

The Presenter

1. Project a professional image. An important audience will want to be sure that you are worthy of their time and attention. Casual dress, malfunctioning equipment and a hesitant manner will not help to instil their trust. Walk in fully prepared, dressed smartly, and implicitly reassure them that you are credible.
2. Anticipate interruptions. Whatever you do, stay calm and remain polite. It is not worth risking a pitch for the sake of pride. Set out an overview, suggesting that they might find it more useful to ask questions at the end, once they have a better idea of the whole picture. If you are interrupted, deal with it there and then – you’re there to talk about what they want to talk about, after all.
3. In the same vein; be prepared to improvise. Executives are likely to ask tough questions, and ask to see something completely different to the slides you’ve prepared. It might develop that they’d rather talk about numbers, when your presentation has been focused on company morale. Be flexible – don’t expect executive presentations to be rigid.

Consider Attention Span

Different audiences have different attention spans, depending on a range of factors from passion of speaker and relevance of content to time of day and temperature of room.

All of our presentations at m62 are designed with two versions in mind – one that runs from the beginning to the end of the presentation in 20 minutes, and one that runs from the beginning of the presentation to the end of the Value Proposition in 5 minutes. The two versions are designed to be appropriate for both the CEO who may only have 5 minutes to spare, and for those who have the time to listen to the full presentation.

In the case of being given a longer time slot, it is important to adjust your presentation to audience attention spans. Experienced speakers may be able to tell when an audience’s attention is waning, but the average attention span for middle managers in a sales presentation is twenty minutes. If you’re going to be exceeding this length of time, schedule in a soft break to ensure that your audience stay on track. Watch this short presentation on the influence of attention span on presentation structure for more details.

Start Effectively

Starting a presentation effectively can be a challenge. On the one hand, many audience members will not be fully concentrating when a presentation starts. On the other hand, taking too long to get to the point will encourage the audience to disengage. There are two strategies to counteract this. Chip and Dan Heath think that part of the problem is that presenters have been taught to “Tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em, then tell ‘em, then tell ‘em what you told ‘em”. They recommend starting with a bang- something which can work well, as long as it is a big enough bang to avoid going unnoticed by audience members checking their phones. The danger with this method is that your audience may switch off quicker as you have manipulated attention span, thus meaning that they could miss the end of your presentation.

The other option, and the one we practise at m62, is to recognise that your audience will not be paying full attention at this time, and to use it instead to build credibility. This way, your audience will have made the Initial Purchasing Decision on content designed specifically to influence them positively, and should be in the ‘application hunter’ positive mindset for the rest of the presentation. In the case of the audience including the CEO, you may want to start with the Value Proposition and then present the first five minutes of your presentation. Under these circumstances, your audience are likely to require something different.

Audience Breaks

Kosslyn, in Clear and to the Point, suggests that presentations should be structured to allow for natural breaks. He argues that the audience should be given an overview of the presentation structure during the introduction, and shown where they are within this structure as the presentation progresses; and that topics should be introduced in relation to the audience’s prior knowledge and concerns. Presentations should end with a clear visual summary.

It is important to use attention span to structure the presentation and allow for breaks, so that your audience’s minds do not begin to wander. Asking a question or presenting the audience with a puzzle are good examples of soft breaks. Hard breaks may become necessary as the time spent presenting lengthens; allowing your audience to rise from their seats to get a coffee or take a toilet break will greatly increase attention levels when you return to presenting.

Understand the client’s problem

People can’t make a decision to buy until they think they understand what it is that they’re buying. Your presentation should detail what the audience will be buying, why they should buy it, and how they know you can deliver it.

Structure your presentation by setting out clearly your understanding of your client’s business problem, and then explain how your offering solves the problem that your prospect suffers from. At m62, we have found that positioning your value proposition – your key benefits – between 3-5 minutes is optimum, as that is when audience attention levels are at their highest. The rest of the presentation after this should be focused on justifying – reassuring your audience that what you promise can be delivered.

Position of Value Proposition

When structuring a presentation, be careful not to give the punchline too early. As blogger Jan Schultink points out – “in the first few seconds, people are ‘trying to figure you out’ and are not paying attention to the content”. Use the start of a presentation to build credibility and engage the audience. If you present your value proposition at the very start of a sales presentation, the audience might miss the most important part of your entire talk.

Presenting your value proposition when audience attention levels are at their highest ensures that your audience are more engaged with your most important message, and will be more likely to recall it accurately. The rest of the presentation can then be used to prove these points.

Organise for your Audience, not your Company

When delivering a capabilities presentation, most companies want to give an overview of all the products they offer. But, instead of presenting material in this way, try to see things from the client’s point of view – and organise material in terms of the problems you can solve for them, not your own company’s organisational chart. Start by picking the five benefits that will be most valuable to your prospect, and structure your entire presentation around these. This gives you a logical format to proceed with, and reassures your audience that you are dedicated to delivering what they want.

Closing Line

Close your sales presentation by suggesting the next step in the sales cycle, and asking for action. Don’t worry too much about finding that perfect line – as sales expert Joey Asher writes in How to Win a Pitch, “the fact is that “closing” is overrated. Despite what some sales books say, there are no magic words to convince a person to buy from you.” If you’ve proved that you can meet their needs better than their other options, and they see value, then they will buy from you regardless of how you “close”. If you haven’t, they won’t.

On the other hand, you ask the question in order to force the prospect into thinking about an answer. Even if the answer isn’t agreement, the prospect is considering the close. At m62, we actively encourage presenters to ask the question, if the prospect is in a position to answer. Presenters should be careful however not to press the issue if the prospect is unable to make a decision, for example if he has other pitches to see.

Support the Recommendation

Gene Zelazny, author of Say it with Presentations, follows the approach of his McKinsey colleague Barbara Minto’s Pyramid Principle. A presentation (or document) should start with the recommendation, then give an overview of the conclusions supporting that recommendation, and then, in turn, look at each conclusion and the evidence that leads to it. This is the approach advocated by m62 for sales presentations. The recommendation in a sales presentation is to buy, or to move towards the next step of the sales cycle. The conclusions supporting this recommendation are value proposition statements (e.g. ‘reducing costs’, ‘competitive advantage’). Then each statement must be proved, in turn.

Interactive Presentations

In their book Selling Visually with PowerPoint, Robert Lane and Andre Vleck make the case for non-linear, interactive sales presentations. ‘The standard way of using PowerPoint – a strictly linear movement from slide to slide from the beginning of a presentation to its bitter end – forces people to be lecturers rather than conversationalists.’ Better, they argue, to allow the audience to share in setting the agenda, using hyperlinks to move seamlessly between slides as required by the audience. This is a good way of ensuring that the audience feel involved and are only exposed to information that is relevant to them, but it can mean that certain important points are left out. A balance should be found between audience interaction and presenter control.

Peeky – 59p

Peeky is essentially a discreet countdown timer for presenters. Rather than constantly check a watch to ensure that he is presenting according to schedule, the presenter can simply set the timer on his device and leave it in his pocket, or on a table. When a specified number of seconds is remaining, the device will flash and/or vibrate a warning, informing the presenter when he should be moving on to the next slide.

The app draws inspiration from the Pecha Kucha and ignite formats, allowing the user to select those formats as defaults for their presentation. The aim of the app is, essentially, to ensure that you do not spend too long speaking on a single slide.

This can be a great help to those who waffle. However, the fact that the user is not able to set a specific time limit for each slide really lets this app down. Very rarely (perhaps only at the events mentioned above) will it prove useful for a presenter to spend exactly the same amount of time on each slide. The app could be greatly improved with this flexibility.

Should I download it?

In short, the app is simple, and does what it promises to do with no extras. At a low price, it could prove useful to presenters who struggle with timing, but doesn’t have much else to offer.

Presenter Pro – £1.19

Presenter Pro contains a wealth of information. With five instructive sections and one ‘rate me’ section, plus a quiz and randomised ‘tips’ that appear if the device is shaken, a presenter could certainly spend a while working through everything. Not only this, but the information is presented in many different formats – depending on the section, the user can watch a video, listen to an audio recording, or select pictures to view the information behind them. If the user finds any point particularly useful, he can save it to a checklist for quick viewing later.

The menu is split into five sections: Structure, Words, Gestures, Visual Aids, and Voice. The rather haphazard organisation results in several overlaps, and it does feel as though the whole application could have been simplified. Message and objectives are underplayed in this layout too – there are a few points in certain sections on the subject, but without its own section, content is not sufficiently emphasised.

The section on words contains what is probably the most useful advice in the application. Presenter Pro advises presenters to use simple, clear language that won’t confuse the audience, or make things sound more complicated than necessary. Presenters should also use stories to bring a ‘real’ aspect to the presentation – at m62, we encourage presenters to use case studies where possible to outline proof of how the benefits have helped companies in the way they could help the prospect.

The introduction to the ‘Gestures’ section reads: ‘Your gestures provide 55% or more of the impact of your presentation.’ There is no evidence to back this up, and the figure appears to be more than a little exaggerated. Is Presenter Pro really suggesting that an audience will be less influenced by your message and visuals than by the way your hands are clasped?

Gestures are not irrelevant, and using gestures correctly to emphasise your point and react with your slides can prove useful in maximising presentation effectiveness. But presenters should not be focusing all of their attention on their gestures, and certainly should not be spending the majority of preparation time rehearsing them. Spending too much time concentrating on specific gestures can result in the actions looking stilted and fake.

The psychological explanation under ‘Why are visuals more effective?’ (found in Visuals > Facts) is a good explanation, but has not been applied fully. The application of this research that Presenter Pro suggests does not allow for information to be absorbed via the aural and visual channels simultaneously, in the form of animated diagrams and charts. While pictures are better than text on a slide, the psychology can be used further to obtain better results. For more information on this, have a look at our visualisation examples.

In vein of this, the ‘great examples’ found under ‘Think in pictures’ are not the most effective ways of conveying your message to the audience. The visual metaphors used do not emphatically imply the text or message that has been suggested. Forcing your audience to think too much about the way your visual works does not make for an easy assimilation of information. The shot of barbed wire has nothing to do with alienation, and this author instead began thinking about farms and afternoons spent walking the dog in childhood. Visuals can distract as well as aid, and should be clearly relevant to the message – and the message only.

Should I download it?

Essentially, Presenter Pro focuses on what we at m62 refer to as ’soft skills’; body language, tone of voice, and nerve control. While these can be useful to fine-tune your delivery, practising these when delivering a bad presentation will not improve its effectiveness.

This app could be useful if you feel confident that your content and visual aids have been perfected, and you want some specific tips on how to improve your voice or the use of gestures. Perhaps it is not the place for beginners, however: inexperienced speakers may be tempted to focus too much on the finer details, and fail to devote sufficient attention to more integral aspects of presenting, such as messaging and audience engagement.

60 Presentation Tips from Ethos3 – Free

It is immediately clear that this app was made by a design company. The app looks good, and the way you interact with each tip is very neat. The app itself is simply a list of tips, which the user can either read in order, or select from the card-wheel.

The app contains some good tips, such as “make sure you’re using language that everyone in the room will be able to follow” and “pause”, which are great ideas to ensure that your audience remain focused. The advice to “eliminate the weak language from your presentation” is very useful, as is “stand to the left side of the screen”, which many advisors fail to mention. As the Western world reads from left to right, the presenter should stand on the left to ensure no interruption to the audience’s view.

It is odd how little the app focuses on visual aids, considering that it was created by a design agency. Ethos3 quotes that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. Pictures may be more effective than text in a presentation, but using them in this way is still not true visualisation (as explained above).

Should I download it?

The application contains some good tips, but a lot of common sense. Ethos3 reminds presenters to “smile” and “visit the restroom before you present” – advice that one would hope the presenter would already be aware of! The app reads like an ad for the company, for which it serves quite well, but otherwise it is just a list of tips that could be found anywhere on the internet.

CueMe – 59p

CueMe is an app for presenters to use when making their own notes. The application allows the user to colour code his notes, as well as changing the font and size. CueMe is designed to be simple and easy to use, with the added benefit of a timer to help the presenter stay on schedule.

The structure of the presentation format is not immediately obvious, but once it becomes clear the app is very simple to use. The functions utilise standard keys that an iPhone or iPod touch user would be familiar with, and one touch buttons make it easy to edit notes to make important points stand out.

The application also allows the user to input text directly from his computer. The process is a little awkward, involving visiting a URL on your computer browser, but is a great added piece of functionality that saves the user a lot of time in the long run.

When in presenter mode, there is a timer in the top left corner that flashes red when there are less than thirty seconds remaining on a section. This can be very useful for those who have timing issues, as it stops the presenter waffling. Different times can be set for each section (or each slide) enabling the presenter to have a very exact control over the schedule of his presentation.

Should I download it?

In all, the application is well designed, and should help presenters a great deal. While there is no substitute for rehearsal, organising speaker notes in such a way will enable the presenter to deliver a much smoother performance.

Prepare Any Presentation in 10 Minutes or Less – Free

This application promotes what it refers to as the ‘3-D Outline’ to presenting, which is essentially a table the presenter users to plan his preparation. The app contains notes detailing this technique and a video explaining it, as a phone-in caller is talked through his presentation live.

The issue with the ‘3-D Outline’ structure is that it is not audience focused. No consideration is taken of audience attention span, or of what they might like to hear. While the presentation is rightly focused on ‘objectives’, there is not enough emphasis on selling benefits in the rest of the presentation. Benefits are useful in all presentations – in every presentation the presenter wants the audience to do something at the end of it, and in order for them to do this, you need to tell them the benefits for them of doing so.

Additionally, the ‘How’ section is not fully explored. The approach sees each type of media separately, and doesn’t consider linking them together. The implication is that slides and presenting are not good for the audience. The app fails to realise that slides do not have to be awful, and that other forms of media can be included in the slides, instead of just text.

The worst piece of advice in the app is that on timing. Tony Jeary says, “Sometimes when you’re going through your presentation you think you need thirty minutes, but then you realise that you really need an hour.” He goes on to suggest that the presenter should ask for a longer time slot. This is poor advice for three reasons:

1. Audience attention spans wane after twenty minutes, so the longer your presentation, the more they will struggle to pay attention
2. Presentations should be all about the audience and what they want. If they’ve given you a certain time slot, you should respect that – people are busy!
3. Simplifying your information is the best way to better it. Anyone can present for an hour on a topic he is enthusiastic about; it is harder, but much more rewarding, to cut this down.

If your audience has given you a certain amount of time – stick to it. Even better: Allow time for Q&A, and finish early.

Should I download it?

The claim in the title is a little misleading. The preparation isn’t prepared in ten minutes – the presenter just plans how you’re going to prepare it. This claim is the presentation equivalent of drawing up a revision timetable for exams, and then expecting that table to get you an A.

The 3-D Outline is a reasonable place for the presenter to start when preparing for a presentation, but the process doesn’t really take the user anywhere. For a free download, the table can be useful – but, ultimately, there is far more to preparing for a presentation than that explained in the 3-D Outline approach.

Listen

As Joey Asher notes in How to Win a Pitch, a successful sales presentation should involve listening, as well as talking. Use active listening techniques to connect with your prospect. Listening isn’t the same as waiting to talk – so be patient, make good eye contact, use body language to demonstrate attention, clarify points where needed, and take notes as necessary.

Projectors

Don’t feel that you always need to use a projector. In a small room, with a small audience, projecting slides can feel overly-formal and impersonal. Sometimes presenting from a laptop screen is the most appropriate option.

Audience Trust

Ensure that you have your audience’s trust. Olivia Mitchell, well known blogger on presentation theory and practice, draws on the work of psychologist Robert Cialdini to explain the importance of social proof in sales presentations. People are strongly persuaded by what people who are similar to them do. So, to persuade an audience using social proof,  ‘find an endorsement from a credible expert that your audience knows and trusts, use testimonials from people similar to your audience, develop case studies of people/organisations that are similar to your audience, [or] use statistics to show how many people are using your product’.

Conversational Presenting

Olivia Mitchell also extols the benefits of what she calls ‘conversational presenting’. Present in a natural conversational style. One way to achieve this is to ‘talk to one person at a time… imagine that you’re having a one-to-one conversation with that person… [and] look for their reaction to what you’re saying before you carry on.’ Presenting in a conversational style actually helps an audience to take-in content better.

Presentation Style

Don’t stray too far from your normal casual conversational style when presenting. But at the same time, don’t make the mistake of thinking that only “natural” presenters can pull this off. As Carmine Gallo notes in The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, hard work is the key – ‘Steve Jobs is an extraordinary presenter because he works at it’. In other words, practice presenting in a relaxed style. Being “natural” is a skill that can be learnt.

Audience Imagination

Conservative campaign expert Frank Luntz knows a thing or two about persuasion (Vader or Skywalker – you decide…). In his book Words that Work, Luntz examines the role of language in persuasion. Sales people should not be afraid to ask their audience to imagine things – ‘the word imagine is perhaps the single most powerful communication tool because it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds’.

Personalised Communication

Ask rhetorical questions. As Frank Luntz also writes in Words that Work, ‘When you assert … the reaction of the listener depends to some degree on his or her opinion of the speaker. But making the same statement in the form of a rhetorical question makes the reaction personal – and personalised communication is the best communication.’

Audience Suspicion

It’s amazing what those writing presentations can glean from other disciplines, particularly those in related areas such as design, marketing, sales, and psychology. One website with a lot to teach about presentations is copyblogger. In one article ‘12 Tips for “Psychological Selling”‘, Dean Rieck explains why claims in any sales material must be backed up with evidence – ‘People are naturally suspicious. It’s true that there’s a sucker born every minute, but most people are moderately skeptical of any offer. They seek to avoid risk. You can never predict the level of suspicion any particular person has, so it’s usually best to back up all claims with evidence, such as testimonials, survey results, authoritative endorsements, test results, and scientific data.’ Don’t just tell the audience what you’re capable of – prove it.

Answering Difficult Questions

Many a sales presentation comes unstuck when questions are fielded badly. David Kean recommends listing ‘the worst question the client could ask you’, then ‘the second nastiest question clients could ask’, and so on. The group should ‘work out what the answer is and who should answer’. It is far better to assume that the client will ask difficult questions and to prepare strong answers, than to be caught off-guard. We’ve written extensively about successful presentation Q&A on this site.

Weaknesses

Don’t try to ignore possible weaknesses – address them instead. As well-known presentation blogger Jan Schultink points out ‘highlighting weaknesses does not mean shooting yourself in the foot… If you don’t address them, the questions will remain’. Don’t identify obscure weaknesses that your audience would never think of for themselves, but do ‘think what questions any intelligent human being would have when listening to your story’.

Case Studies

Turn case studies into success stories. As Joey Asher writes: ‘Success stories can give your prospect something that is very hard for them to get, a taste of the intangible thing that they’re buying – a satisfactory result.’  So, go beyond lists of client names or logo slides, and bring your successes to life by telling stories; they can be really memorable, particularly if an element of suspense can be introduced.

Ask for the Order

Don’t forget to ask for the order. As presentation coach and author Jerry Weissman explains – ‘if you’re a sales professional, how can your customer reach the point of making a purchase unless you ask for the sale? … Ask for the order! Call your audience to action!’

How to Conduct a Successful Online Presentation

With more and more business being conducted over the internet, many companies are looking to use online presentations for marketing and business development activities. Yet, as a relatively new concept, there are fewer resources available for presenters wishing to improve their online presenting skills. Here we offer some tips on how to go about preparing and delivering an online presentation, from the initial planning stages to delivery.

Software and Technical

There are a lot of technicalities involved in conducting a presentation over the internet, and many decisions to be made regarding these. It is important to make the choices that are right for your particular presentation; and to be aware of the difficulties that could arise in this situation.

1. The first question to be considered when preparing for an online presentation is whether the presentation is to be live, pre-recorded, or to be used for both? This decision affects the way you will conduct your presentation, and which hosting sites or software you will use. Both have their merits, and it depends on your target audience: for example, a presentation that is designed for use as a general marketing tool will need to be pre-recorded as a webcast, for viewers to peruse at their own leisure; whereas a sales presentation directed at a specific company will need to be live, to ensure the best chances of interactivity, and of closing the deal.
2. Choose the right software. We have reviewed various online meeting software applications for hosting a presentation online, and have also conducted a slide sharing websites review.  Consider the overall capabilities of each, but also how suited the software is to your individual purposes. Would it benefit you to use screen sharing software? Or to record the presentation as a PowerPoint file and send it remotely? Each has its benefits and limitations, and they should be taken into account.
3. Is it worth asking your service provider to host and manage the event? For larger webinars, many providers tend to offer this for a fee. It can remove a lot of the stress and difficulties of organising such an event, especially if you are not familiar with the process.
4. Check your animation. Hosting anything over the net tends to produce a small delay, but certain animations can look awful (if they function at all). On top of this, many slide sharing websites and programs do not support several common animations. Incorrectly functioning animation could distract and irritate your audience; which does not bode well for a successful presentation. Similarly, watch out for video – streaming a video live will not work well, especially if you are using screen sharing. Be prepared, and check that everything you are using works remotely beforehand.
5. Remember Murphy’s Law: if it can go wrong, it will. Prepare for connectivity issues, incorrect access codes, and set up a live meeting ten minutes early. Ensure that everyone has the right details, and an alternative method of contacting you if they experience problems.

Message

In any presentation, it is important to ensure that your message is sound. Every presentation has a purpose, and everything that is said should be focused on conveying this message. In a remote presentation, this is even more important. As an example, if you don’t think your prospects would ever agree a deal over the web, the focus in an online sales presentation might be to generate a face-to-face appointment.

1. The first thing to do when beginning to write a presentation is to consider your audience. Even an anonymous audience can be understood in terms of personas. If you are inviting certain people to your presentation, ensure that everything is tailored specifically to them. If your presentation is being pre-recorded for anyone to find, think of the types of people you are hoping to get watching it. Will they appreciate a serious presentation, or a light-hearted one? Do you want your audience to be taught or persuaded (usually both)? There is always a question to be answered, and this should be your first point of call in considering your message.
2. Simplicity is the key. The human brain can only hold a limited amount of information at any one time, and this is significantly reduced if attention spans are waning. In turn, too much information can reduce attention levels: it becomes a vicious circle. When aspects such as body language and eye contact do not come into the play, it can difficult to keep your audience engaged remotely. Audience members feel free to check their email and surf the web, and find it easier to drift off into their own thoughts. Don’t overload your audience: whittle your presentation down to its most important points, and they will find it much easier to pay attention, and to remember.
3. Have a clear structure. Pre-recorded presentations are, by nature, linear; but presentations conducted live have the option of being interactive. Consider providing a (small) live audience with a list of possible topics, and asking them to choose those that they feel most relevant to them. You’ve instantly created respect, as they believe that you truly care about what they want; and you need not bore them with aspects they are not interested in.
4. Use stories. This goes beyond using the familiar anecdote to get a few laughs before you plough into the heavy stuff: use the stories to tie into your material; to explain it; to keep it interesting; and to better enable your audience to remember. A more formal version of this is the corporate case study, but any story appropriate to the audience and relevant to the material can aid retention. A remote audience will struggle to listen to continuous patter: link it all together, and they will find it much easier to follow.

Visual Aids

Without the physical presence of a presenter, it can be even more difficult to retain interest. If an audience has nothing to watch, they become more easily distracted by their surroundings. Not only are visual aids necessary, but they should animate in the correct places to draw the audience’s attention to the focus of the message.

1. Again, the most important rule to follow here is that of simplicity. This is important in any presentation, but especially in one being conducted remotely, as attention is already more difficult to attain. If your slides have too much content, the audience will not know where to direct their attention. Keep them simple and reduce your text significantly. There should be a clear focus to each slide, and visual aids should support your points made, without distracting from them.
2. In a remote presentation, everything needs to move faster to ensure that your audience stay focused. Keep your visuals moving: switch between images and diagrams, and make sure that every point builds. Leaving a static slide up for too long will encourage your audience to look elsewhere.
3. Ensure that your most important points are emphasised. Use animation, such as a growth or colour change, to draw the audience’s attention to specific details. With the presenter unable to direct the audience to the right places with gestures, it is important to do so using effective slide design.

Delivery

The most noticeable drawback in a web presentation is the lack of the presenter’s physical presence. Using eye contact to engage the audience, and being able to see whether they are paying attention, prove invaluable in face-to-face presentations. In a remote presentation it is important to engage your audience by other means, and to devise methods of checking that they are still following you.

1. Ask questions. If you are conducting your presentation live, use polling facilities to gather feedback. If your presentation is pre-recorded, ask hypothetical questions, or pose challenges, designed to make the audience think. This method of including and involving your audience helps to bridge the gap between presenter and audience (however far in miles!).
2. Emphasise important points with your tone of voice. Without body language to show your enthusiasm, it is important to exaggerate this. Similarly, pause for effect: it is a sure way to make your audience pick up their attention.
3. Be careful with your use of humour. This can be risky in a normal presentation, but it can be even more difficult to convey a joke over the internet. Irony especially is less likely to work in this situation.
4. In a live presentation, if your software allows it, the use of a pointer can be extremely useful. Use the meeting software pointer to gesture at parts of the screen when presenting, as this can translate across the internet.

Watch your timing. Don’t go over the attention span limit (20 minutes) unless absolutely necessary. Use soft breaks such as quiz questions, polls, Q&A, and changes of presenter to reset attention levels. In a remote presentation more than any other, this is important. Nobody likes sitting in front of a computer screen for too long, and minds will start to wander. If you do make your presentation that little bit longer, make sure it is really worthwhile.

m62 took a short visual presentation of medium complexity and playtested three software packages that convert presentations into Flash™ animations (that can be integrated into a webpage or blog, or distributed without fear of versioning issues on different machines). Here’s what happened.

Articulate Presenter ‘09 – Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, tested with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007

Articulate’s offering markets itself as an e-learning material creation tool. It offers a range of publishing options; Flash presentation for Web, a Word document of slide snapshots and speaker notes, self-running CD, or an audio-only podcast. Since we’re in the visual communications business, we have foregone the podcast and handout functionality here.

Installation is simple, embedding an Articulate submenu right into the PowerPoint window (easier to navigate in PPT 2007 which creates a new ribbon of buttons,  than in 2003 which drops down a list, but it’s still pretty intuitive to see what’s on offer). Before converting you can record narrative onto the slides (in a separate preview window), and then afterwards tweak the timings if you’re not happy with them. If you’ve ever used PowerPoint’s own narrative recorder this new interface takes a bit of getting used to. Narration is recorded a slide at a time, and requires clicking on separate buttons to advance the animations and slides rather than just clicking the mouse or keyboard continuously to proceed, as comes naturally.

Audio/video quality options are not available at this stage and are instead confined to a separate submenu, which makes creating or amending a voiceover quick to get into. More confident users (actually, perhaps that should be ‘less confident’…) can even open up an impressive audio wave editor that allows you to trim out all those pauses, coughs, ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.

Also available is the ‘Add Annotations’ process that offers the interesting option to draw on your slides ‘telestrator-style’, by adding arrows, boxes, highlights, check marks etc. If you haven’t incorporated this kind of thing into your slides at the design stage, and you don’t mind the preset graphics style, you might find this worth getting to grips with. It does take some practice: the interface runs the pre-timed slides while you choose your shapes and place them, so you have to be quick on the draw.

You can then preview your creation and opt to Publish once you’re happy. This brings up a tabbed menu screen with the various format options described above; we’ll focus on publishing for the Web. Some digging at this stage reveals extensive calibration submenus, including specifications for rendering quality, navigation restrictions, and tweaks to change the appearance of the embedded Player (you can also add a presenter photo, bio and email address). There are only a couple of preset layouts for the player however, so if you want less conspicuous play controls you have to build up the design yourself.

Once you’re done calibrating to your heart’s content, hit Publish. Our modest ten slides took around thirty seconds to convert, and then gave options to view the presentation in a browser, upload it via FTP, or email it to someone. The final option generates a friendly email with instructions on what to do with the files inside the attachment in order to get it to work.

Quality of the output file with the default settings is good, albeit slightly less sharp than the native PowerPoint show, and we noticed very little degradation of animation effects even with complex, multi-layered combinations. Puzzlingly, we couldn’t find any way of publishing the presentation with the clicks preserved – viewers  must use the playback controls if the timings haven’t been set, which could be confusing.

The option to email the presentation with instructions is helpful, mostly because the output folder contains a huge number of flash files and construction files to hunt through. There are no options to save out the presentation in different formats (.exe, .swf etc.), the ‘go’ file is always a .html, which might be more or less useful depending what you plan to do with your package once it’s converted.

There’s probably more fun to be had by way of setting up user interaction (quizzes and games), but that reaches beyond the scope of this review. Even ignoring these features, you’re getting a good performer with a huge amount of functionality, but at what cost? Presenter ’09 standalone is currently on special at $699 (UP: $799).

iSpring Presenter / iSpring Pro- Compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows7, tested with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007

iSpring Solutions has three products on the market, iSpring Pro, iSpring Presenter and an SDK. We decided to test Presenter,which is a similar type of product to Articulate’s, and also the lighter iSpring Pro program since we’re not overly concerned in our arena with creating interactive content.

Like Articulate’s product, iSpring Presenter integrates easily and rapidly into the PowerPoint window, either as a toolbar and submenu (PPT03) or ribbon (PPT07).  Recording narration is even simpler than with Articulate’s product, providing the option to record audio continuously (just one button to click as the slides build and advance).  iSpring has a similarly friendly way to record video as well, just plug in your webcam and hit Record Video, and you’re taken to the same click-through interface featuring your talking head on screen. You can also sync the animations with the audio and/or video in the same window, which is a real timesaver if you need a few tries to get it perfect.

Elsewhere, like Articulate iSpring lets you add an existing Flash movie onto a slide, and is quite loud and proud about its YouTube button, which in exchange for a YouTube link will embed a clip and a player onto the slide. This is essentially the same ‘insert from link’ function that Articulate uses, but here there’s also an inbuilt video tutorial to guide novices through the process. Again, there’s a feature to insert a quiz, and again we’re not really interested in it. The in-window menu is clean and straightforward: record narration and/or video, sync the slides, make changes to the ‘presenter and company’ metadata if you want, throw in a YouTube clip, and then hit Publish.

A new, large, tabbed window now pops up containing all the various publishing options. iSpring have really put some effort into keeping this part of the process simple - it’s much easier to deal with these options all in one go rather than tinkering during the preparation process. The output can be saved to CD, to iSpring’s online sharing community SlideBoom, attached to an email or saved to hard disk. For increased flexibility, different output formats can be chosen via simple checkboxes: separate flash files for use with other animation packages, an .EXE file which is a completely self-contained single ‘go’ file, or a single .swf movie with an accompanying .html file.

There are nine preset player styles, ranging from the businesslike (with navigation pane, picture / video, and presenter information) to the inconspicuous (transparent player buttons in one corner), with other styles at various degrees of glossiness and functionality. One player allows viewers to types notes as they watch or scribble on the slides themselves.  Depending on the detail each style affords, the players can be customised with colour options and information or photos. Changes can be previewed in real time with the user’s actual slides, which makes it much easier to see how the final product will behave.

On other tabs, a similarly open interface presents settings for video and audio quality, playback controls (this time you do have the option, among others, to advance the slides on a click), and the pixel size of the output video – very useful if you’re using a CMS to insert your presentation into a blog or webpage. Another tab lets you customise the image, video and audio compression.

On hitting Publish, iSpring Presenter converted our test slides in just under thirty seconds and immediately launched the file in a web browser. Using the default settings, the graphics and audio were crisp and the animation very sharp. Upon examining the output folder, there’s just one file in it – in this case a .swf file which opens by default in a web browser – very portable and easy to upload or share. Even simpler is the .exe format option (automatically zipped for security) which bundles the presentation and player with the latest flash launcher as well, again in a single file.

iSpring Pro works in exactly the same way as iSpring Presenter, but without the options to record video and insert quizzes, so it’s all about getting the slides narrated and self running with minimum hassle. The real attractions to these packages are the intuitive interface and low cost. iSpring Presenter downloads with a business licence at $399, and if you can live without the video recording and quizzes, iSpring Pro is just $249.

FlashPoint Professional –Compatible with XP, Vista, Windows 7, PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007. Tested with PowerPoint 2007.

On offer from FlashDemo comes FlashPoint Pro, a straightforward PowerPoint to flash conversion tool. This is the lighter of the three and installs cleanly and easy, embedding a single button into the PowerPoint interface. This immediately launches a Wizard, starting with three options for encoding the final file: a single Flash movie (.swf) with an option to generate an .exe (useful), as separate Flash movies by slide (probably useful), or as a screensaver.

The next stage offers two player options (a row of navigation buttons, or nothing), and sets up some very basic options around the way the slides run and the render quality. An Advanced tab lets you redirect the viewer to a website after the movie has finished playing, which might be a good idea but can be done more easily by adding hyperlinks into the presentation yourself.

The next two stages allow you to import audio files into the presentation, and record a narration for each slide. FlashPoint Pro appears to use PowerPoint’s own Rehearse Timings feature to accurately sync the animations with your voiceover, which is actually a much simpler way than the more sophisticated packages: you get the slides running full screen, and click to advance the builds and slide transitions, rather than working with buttons in a separate window.

Once that’s done, FlashPoint Pro begins the conversion, which takes about the same time as the other two packages. Opening the output file however is disappointing. The converted file is noticeably degraded in image quality, even with the ‘Improved’ image conversion box checked, and many of the PowerPoint shapes that feature gradient fills or transparent fills were not displaying correctly. There were also several graphical artefacts remaining on screen after their objects had disappeared. Several animation effects suffered, with fades building in very slowly and wipes running jerkily, although motion paths and grow/shrink effects were very smooth.

The quality of the voiceover was rather good; FlashPoint provided the same recording quality options as the inbuilt PowerPoint tool, so the narration sounded clear. Unfortunately due to the visual stuttering caused by the conversion of some animation effects, the audio did not always run in sync with the visuals.

Overall, with conversion performance at the bottom-end and a complete lack of customisation, FlashPoint Pro does not live up to its claim of creating “professional-look Flash presentations and e-learning courses”. With a price tag of $59, it’s probably suited only to PowerPoint hobbyists and bullet-pointers. If that’s you, there are much more useful things you could be reading on this website before you start spending on additional software.

Which is best?

Except as an entry level solution for presentations with very basic graphics and low-end animation, FlashPoint Pro is hard to recommend. The last thing you want to do after producing a deck of slides is to then retro-engineer the graphics and animation because of poor conversion quality. It’s very easy to use, has good flexibility in the output options and is inexpensive, but sadly can’t cut it when dealing with graphics and motion of any degree of sophistication. If you’re still working with flat backgrounds and bullet-points, this will probably do what you need, but it’s hard for us to gauge the value of the tool if that’s your desired type of output.

iSpring Presenter and Articulate Presenter ’09 do very similar things in very different ways, the only major gaps in functionality being that iSpring lets you record the video narration, while Articulate gives you the slide annotation feature and audio editor. Each of these features may be more or less useful and would probably balance out the two products (since the rendering times and output quality are pretty much the same). But the big differences are in cost and ease of use.

Articulate Presenter may offer huge flexibility in customising the Player specifications and calibrating the viewer experience, but its extensive menus are not easy to find and navigate. A better range of output formats and settings, and a more thoughtful structure to the submenus would have made for a less bewildering experience. That said, the output quality is first-class, and those looking to produce interactive learning tools or e-brochures will probably find value here once they get up the learning curve and perhaps invest a few hours watching the online tutorials. For publishing a presentation for web or soft/hard copy distribution, we have to wonder whether it’s worth the hefty price tag as well as the effort required to learn where everything is.

iSpring Presenter is far and away more pleasant and intuitive, and a few hundred dollars cheaper. The viewer experience is slightly less customisable than with Articulate’s package, but iSpring delivers flexibility where it’s needed most, and without any hunting around.  Powerful as they are, both iSpring programs feel completely unintimidating at the publishing stage and make it very easy to set up the exact format, size and quality that you need.

As stated, we’re more concerned with presentations than E-learning tools, but in both cases the option to record video narration seems like a more desirable option than the ability to add arrows and boxes (something that really should be thought about at the slide design stage). Even better, if you don’t need the video and quizzes, the lighter iSpring Pro retains all of Presenter’s output quality and flexibility at just $249, so whatever you’re planning to do with your Flash-based presentation, iSpring’s solutions convert to better value all round.

The good news is that m62 is here to help. We know sales presentations – after all, we’ve created 1000s of them. Here, we bring you great tips from our own consultants, as well as other sales, marketing, and presentation experts. We’ve reproduced all of these tips for you in a series of articles split into six different aspects: content; planning and process; format and structure; design; delivery; and audience interaction.

The first part of our series contains tips on messaging and content.

Concrete Details

Make sure that your presentation brings your points to life, rather than simply presenting abstract concepts. If making a sales presentation, make sure that you offer proof. As Chip and Dan Heath note in their pamphlet ‘Making Presentations that Stick‘ – “The number one mistake we’ve observed in presentations – and there is no close second – is that the message is too abstract. The presenter offers concepts and conclusions but not evidence. He talks at a high level about the big picture, but gives no concrete details that might make the big picture understandable and plausible.”

Focus on Solutions

In a credentials presentation, says author Joey Asher, don’t talk directly about credentials, or too much about your own company. “Instead, your credentials will be apparent as you talk about your solution, and how you’ve implemented similar solutions for other clients. You focus your presentation solely on what the client really cares about – a solution to her business problem.”

Value Proposition for Structure

Less is more. At m62 we advise our clients to structure their sales presentations into five parts or fewer. Use benefit statements to form a value proposition, and use the value proposition for structure. Giving five strong answers to the question ‘Why Us?’ is far more powerful, and memorable, than listing 100s of benefits that nobody can prioritise or remember.

Bring Solution to Life

In Fire Them Up, best-selling author Carmine Gallo suggests focusing on the solution that your service delivers, and recommends bringing to life how this solution will help – “Tell your listeners why you’re excited about your product, share a vivid vision of the future that your product makes possible, and be specific about how your product will help them succeed in business”. He reminds us of the well-known adage that ‘nobody wants a quarter-inch drill; they want a quarter-inch hole’ – that is, in B2B sales, people want solutions, not just products.

Memorable Moments

Duarte Design in California (the folks behind Slide:ology) teach presenters to use ‘S.T.A.R Moments™. S.T.A.R. stands for “Something They’ll Always Remember” and S.T.A.R. Moments refer to the memorable moments in a presentation that stick in the minds of your audience long after the presentation is over.’ We’ve mentioned it before on this website, because we love the clip, but a great example of this is Bill Gates releasing a jar of mosquitoes into a crowded auditorium while talking about Malaria. People remember that kind of stunt, and if it’s connected to your message, they remember your message too.

Benefits not Features

Remember that successful sales presentations can’t simply list product features, but must make the connection to benefits that actually help the audience. As Jerry Weissman writes in Presenting to Win ‘A feature is a fact or quality about you or your company, the products you sell, or the idea you’re advocating. By contrast, a Benefit is how that fact or quality will help your audience. When you seek to persuade, it’s never enough to present the Features of what you’re selling; every Feature must always be translated into a Benefit.’

Stories and Emotion

‘People buy on emotion, and justify with fact’ says Bert Decker, CEO of Decker Communications. Stories are ‘emotionally connecting’, ‘move people’, ‘give third party credibility, and are memorable. Sales people should make use of stories in presentations, because stories help presenters to connect, and ‘connection trumps everything’.

Allude to Competitor Weaknesses

Many companies feel uncomfortable in directly attacking competitors in their sales presentations. The alternative is to use a technique called ghosting. In ghosting, the aim is to allude to the weaknesses of competitors without specifically mentioning them. Explain why a certain feature is important, allude to the risk of not having that feature (without openly mentioning a competitor), and then present your own strengths in that area.

Clear Objectives

Many presentations are prepared and delivered with no clear objectives in mind. Yet, if a presentation isn’t trying to achieve anything in particular, it risks achieving nothing. Andrew Abela, author of Advanced Presentations by Design, suggests creating a table, and listing what the audience think now, and what the presenter wants them to think after the presentation; and what the audience do now, and what the presenter wants them to do after the presentation. This framework ensures that presentations are given for a purpose.

Handouts for Detail

Sales people need to convince emotionally and rationally, and some of the rational sale can be achieved using detailed handouts, as Seth Godin argues – ‘the presentation is to make an emotional sale. The document is the proof that helps the intellectuals in your audience accept the idea that you’ve sold them on emotionally.’

Case Studies for Social Proof

As Chris Atherton, writer of the blog Finite Attention, affirms, sales people really need to use case studies. Show your audience how other clients have benefited from your product or service. This immediately poses the question, “What would this do for me?” This approach is interesting, affirming, and involves your audience.

Understand Prospects

And finally, an audience needs to feel important. As recommend by Sue Hershowitz, whose blog SpeakerSue provides resources for sales skills, you should ‘Love your prospects.’ Take the time to get to know them. Do the research. Most importantly, let them know that you appreciate them. Show them that you understand; that their problems matter to you; and that you offer a solution that is tailored to helping them in the best way possible.

The results we produced were so extensive that we’ve split this review into two parts. This, part one, outlines the improvements and new features PowerPoint 2010 professes over the earlier versions.

What’s New?

Video – In older versions of PowerPoint, videos would have to be linked from PowerPoint to the internet, or to the correct file on your computer. This would cause problems if the internet connection was lost; the file was moved; or when trying to use the PowerPoint file on another computer. It also meant that video could not be edited when in PowerPoint, and when embedded, was in a simple rectangular frame.

2010 has changed the way videos are used in PowerPoint. You can now insert a video file directly into PowerPoint, which, aside from making life a lot easier for the presenter, actually enables the video to be edited within PowerPoint itself. You can adjust the length, brightness, colour, frame… In short, PowerPoint now covers all the basics in video editing, reducing the need for additional software to prepare video for use in presentations.

Animation – I would wager that there are few, if any, presenters who have not at some point experienced a lag in certain animations (unless, that is, the most complicated animations you’ve ever used are ‘Appear’ and ‘Fade Out’). Motion paths have perhaps been the biggest culprit, but there were quite a few animations that had a tendency to jump, and not flow as smoothly as they should with PowerPoint 2003 and PowerPoint 2007.

PowerPoint 2010 has changed all that. Animations now run as they were designed to. Gone is the jumping, gone is the delay, and you are left with animation as it should be.

It’s a Lot Prettier – Those who have customised PowerPoint 2003 will vouch for the fact that if you’ve chosen to make a lot of tools available on the main screen, the view can look a tad messy. 2007, when customised, can also do so. Practical? Perhaps. Pleasing on the eye? No.

PowerPoint 2010 in general just looks better. It’s cleaner than 2007, and much cleaner than 2003. It looks, in fact, like a design tool. Slides themselves are crisper, and were in fact compared by one of our designers to the graphics on an HD advert. In general, the whole program is just nicer to look at.

Share – It’s not that we haven’t had the option to share a PowerPoint file before, it’s just that it had to be done outside of PowerPoint. Send it as an email; upload it to a slide sharing website; convert it to video. All possible, just a little time-consuming.

Now, sharing your presentations has never been easier. You are given the option to ‘share’ right from the ‘backstage’ area. By email, by website… Arguably the best function in this section is the ability to convert a file straight to video with recorded narration. Before, this would have to be done using another piece of software. Now, it can be done with minimal clicks, and minimal fuss.

Stability and Power – PowerPoint 2007, while offering new and improved features on 2003, wasn’t perhaps the most  stable programme. There were bugs, lags, and compatibility issues, that caused many PowerPoint users to revert back to the older PowerPoint 2003.

PowerPoint 2010 has all the features of 2007 (plus extras), with none of the problems (thus far). 2010 has resolved the known bugs, and combined an increased range of options with great constancy in performance. Hyperlinks are more stable, lags have been removed, and the whole experience is a lot less stressful.

Any problems?

With the more obvious, accessible, animations and transitions it might be tempting for amateur designers to go crazy and use every option available. The trouble with this is that most of the new animations in PowerPoint 2010 would serve to distract the audience rather than to direct their attention towards the right things, even to the extent of becoming annoying. Users should think carefully about how they use each function, and why. Probably a challenge for user-education, rather than a problem with the software.

So… How much better is it?

The general opinion of our designers is that PowerPoint 2010 is what 2007 should have been, with the tidy layout, extra features and smooth animations. For functionality, 2010 is the way forward. In the right hands, this software will produce truly beautiful, effective presentations.

In the second half of this review, we will look at usability. How easy is PowerPoint 2010 to use, both for the new user and those experienced in older versions? Our designers judge the ease of use, based on how straightforward a function is to use, and how time-consuming to execute.

SlideShare

Animation – SlideShare was the weakest site in terms of enabling animation. In fact – it doesn’t. Each slide is presented as a static image – presumably it is meant to display the final build of each slide, but it couldn’t even host certain graphics on our test presentation.

Audio – PowerPoint has the easy option of recording narration as you present, saving directly as your PowerPoint file. Unfortunately, SlideShare does not enable this, and thus does not recognise narration, or slide timings. To add audio, the user has to record the narration as a separate sound, save it to an mp3 file (which could involve having to convert the original file), upload it to SlideShare, and then go through the whole presentation and adjust the timing for each slide change, so that the narration corresponds to the visual. The whole process is long, slow and tedious. 

Ease of Use – The site is cluttered, with many advertisements dotted around the page. That said, the site is fairly straightforward to use – except for the hassle in uploading audio. For this reason, for ease of use SlideShare scores two stars. 

Control – There are several different privacy settings to choose from: public; private (enabling those the user follows to see); and private (only the user can see). There is also the option to allow viewers to download, or to send the presentation via email to a recipient of the user’s choosing. 

Suitability – There are some random presentations placed next to our animation test, such as ‘PowerPoint Animals’ and ‘Animal Testing’. Mostly, however, the selection is relevant, with PowerPoint tests displayed in the ‘related presentations’ box.

Overall – SlideShare’s strong points are in the control over privacy options. Unfortunately, its lack of technical capabilities let it down when actually viewing slides. Adding audio is difficult and time consuming, and the lack of animation, combined with substandard graphics, give the effect that the viewer is looking at a series of badly-designed posters. 

authorSTREAM

Animation – authorSTREAM supports more animations than SlideShare, but still misses most – and those that it does enable are largely incorrect. For the basic animations it permits, authorSTREAM is awarded two stars.

Audio – Audio is uploaded automatically with the PowerPoint file, saving a lot of time and effort. Lack of control over audio once uploaded, (and no volume control) means that authorSTREAM scores three stars.

Ease of Use – AuthorSTREAM is a little complicated to use, and seems to lack some of the basic functions; I am still unable to find a ‘replay’ button after a presentation has been watched. With the fact that it is not immediately clear how to edit your presentation either, for ease of use authorSTREAM scores one and a half stars.

Control – authorSTREAM had perhaps the best options for privacy control. The user is given the option to keep the presentation private or public, and to enable download if wished. An email can be sent with a link to those you wish to share it with, and the premium version of the site allows the user to create a pass code for access to the slides. The fact that this pass code is not available for free means that authorSTREAM scores four and a half stars.

Suitability – There were a couple of files in ‘Related Presentations’ that were actually related, but most were random.

Overall – authorSTREAM has potential, but it is let down by its lack of simplicity, and the inadequate nature of its animations. 

SlideBoom

Animation – SlideBoom allows more complicated animation than the two sites reviewed above. The site managed to animate everything except the headlines and the live graphs, and graphics were of a good standard. 

Audio – If a narration of the slides has been made in PowerPoint, this is uploaded with the slides in the file, and automatically plays. Once uploaded however, there is nothing that can be done with the audio. Still, the ease of uploading and the fact that SlideBoom allows volume control score SlideBoom four stars.

Ease of use – SlideBoom is straightforward to use, and features a handy toolbar on the viewing screen enabling the remote audience to do things such as view as full screen, or jump to a particular slide. The options are easily accessible and the page layout is clear and uncluttered.

Control – SlideBoom allows the user to control whether everyone can see the presentation, or whether just the user has access. Sharing via email is allowed. Control over embedding in other websites is also given, as is control over downloads. More detailed control over who has access directly on the site (rather than just everyone or no one) would score SlideBoom higher.

Suitability – SlideBoom doesn’t place the presentation next to a completely unrelated one – but it doesn’t give many relevant options. Even with the tags removed, our ‘PowerPoint Animation Test’ only had one set of slides in ‘Related Presentations’. It was definitely related, but lack of choice means that for suitability SlideBoom scores two stars.

Overall – SlideBoom has all the makings of a quality slide sharing site, with good animation and a pleasant, uncluttered screen layout. Having more control over viewing would score higher, as would enabling more options once the presentation is uploaded, such as the ability to add or edit audio. SlideBoom is a good site for most basic needs, for which it scores four stars.

myBrainshark

Animation – myBrainshark has the potential to be very good at animation, and is better than most. It was the only site reviewed that managed to correctly animate the headlines, although it failed to enable the motion path and live graph, and the colour change was there, but not correct. With these adjustments made myBrainshark would score higher, but for the present animation capabilities the site is awarded three and a half stars.

Audio – myBrainshark was the strongest site in the audio category. As with the other sites that score highly in this section, myBrainshark allowed slide narration to be uploaded easily in the PowerPoint file. However, myBrainshark surpassed this in enabling many options in terms of audio once the file was uploaded. A narration can be recorded directly onto the site via a telephone call; a background audio (such as music) can be uploaded from an mp3 file; and audio can be downloaded by viewers as a podcast. If volume control was included in the viewing window, myBrainshark would score five stars; as it is, the site is awarded four and a half stars.

Ease of use – myBrainshark is simple, ad-free, and straightforward to use. Drop down options on the ‘Edit Presentation’ page enable the user to clearly choose from available functions, and ‘helpful hints’ and ‘stages to follow’ throughout cumulate to award myBrainshark five stars.

Control – All slides are publicly available when active. Content can be made inactive, which means that it cannot be found on the site, but users to whom the slides are sent by the user will still be able to view them. More options to users as to who can interact with the file on the website would score myBrainshark higher, but the present control capabilites award the site three stars.

Suitability – The ‘Related Presentations’ box offers the viewer a large number of slides to view, and the majority are directly related. Those that are not directly related are not far off the mark, and there are no random presentations recommended.

Overall – While improvements could be made on myBrainshark’s animation capabilities, the range of functions offered for uploaded content (particularly audio) and its simple interface score the site well. On top of this, myBrainshark hosts a wide range of extra functions, from detailed viewing reports (including location and percentage watched) to the ability to ask viewers questions.

Disclosure: m62 uses Brainshark’s enterprise-level platform, and recommends it to clients. m62 also makes use of iSpring software, which is the PowerPoint to Flash conversion tool used by SlideBoom.

See a problem?

Flexibility in front of an audience and conformity within a company are two age-old adversaries that seemingly cannot co-exist. Here, we discuss the reasons for, and limitations of, flexibility and control in company presentations, and offer some advice on what works.

Management Control: The battle for consistency

Managerial staff in every department have different reasons for enforcing complete consistency in their company presentation:

• CEO: “I want control over what my staff deliver.”
• Marketing director: “I want to make sure my staff are exhibiting consistency of brand and message.”
• Compliance officer: “Certain slides need to be included as a legal requirement. If they are deleted, the company is at risk.”
• Sales manager: “I know more about sales than many of my staff – so I want them to use the slides I suggest.”

Having one single company presentation is about making sure that everything is done according to company guidelines – and to the best possible standard. Building a company presentation from the top down ensures that quality and consistency are positively managed.

Brand consistency is important: strong brands create emotional bonds with customers, adding significant value for companies. A standard company presentation can ensure that all presenters use the same slides and deliver the same message.

The Challenges

A generic company presentation, unless it is specifically designed to do so, may not adapt well to all situations. Every audience is different, and an audience that is not interested in what the presenter has to say will not be fully engaged with the presentation.

An audience may not do what you expect it to, and it can be useful to use tools that allow changes to be made instantly in reaction to an audience’s response.

Presenter’s Discretion: Different audience, different presentation

Although presenters in the field may well accept and understand the reasons for consistency and control of their company presentation, they most likely have questions and doubts about an approach that limits their discretion:

• “I’m the one presenting – shouldn’t I be able to pick what goes in to the presentation?”
• “I never know exactly what an audience wants to hear until I’m there. What happens if they decide they only want to see three slides?”
• “There’s lots of boring information in this presentation – surely the audience would prefer me to deliver only what is interesting?”

Every audience and every situation is different. Often, it is impossible to know what an audience will want until the presentation has already begun. Sales presentations need to be kept fluid, with presenters adjusting and adapting to each situation that arises. By trusting presenters to pick their own material, the chances of presenting material that is relevant to each audience might well increase.

The Challenges

• It is not always useful for every presenter to produce and adapt his or her own presentations. A company does need consistency, and this will not occur if every presenter acts individually.
• Not all presenters will be great at preparing elegant, well-structured PowerPoint decks. Leaving those in the field to mix-and-match slides can have awful consequences.
• Management has no control over what is being conveyed. This means that incorrect information could be given out, while the points that should be made (such as legal requirements) aren’t delivered.
• Presenters may end up presenting only the material they are most comfortable with – but not necessarily the material they ought to present.

Is there a Solution?

There is no perfect solution, but there are steps that can be taken that should greatly improve the situation. A balance should be found between company control and presenter freedom. The appropriate balance depends greatly on the company culture, the level of training that presenters have had, the market in which a company operates, and the strength and approach of the company’s brand. Here are some tips that we suggest:

Ensure your sales team want to use your slides. If slides consist of mainly text, it is too easy (and tempting!) for presenters to adapt existing slides or insert new ones. If you have slides that are good enough that no one in your team would be able to replicate them to the same standard, you reduce the likelihood of such an attempt.

Produce branded PowerPoint templates. It is easy to convince presenters to use the same template to ensure brand consistency. If anything, it is more convenient for them.

Involve your sales team in the decisions. Ensuring everyone delivers the same message can be difficult, but having staff contribute to writing presentations that they will have to deliver is a positive step. Involvement and engagement leads to buy-in.

Share best practice. Get salespeople to send in their best slides, enhance and edit as necessary, and then allow everyone to benefit by including these slides in your company presentation. Make everyone’s best ideas visible – and share them around!

Use interactive presentations that presenters will be able to adapt as they go, according to what the audience wants to hear. Use hyperlinks, live graphs and audience response tools to make each presentation unique – while built from a core deck of PowerPoint slides.

Train your sales team. Ensure that sales people know the best way to present each slide in your company presentation – and, more importantly, why this is the best way. People are much more likely to follow rules if they understand the reasoning behind them.

Consider using software to deliver the right slides to presenters. Slide library software can also force compliance where this is essential – so that legal disclaimers must be used, for example.

Company presentations involve a certain tension between consistency and control, and flexibility. By involving presenters in the process of identifying and choosing the strongest messages, designing attractive and effective slides, allowing a certain amount of interactivity, and providing training to presenters, companies can resolve this tension in the most successful way.

Fast-forward ten years to business school, and almost without fail, every lecturer used slides. PowerPoint had become ubiquitous. Most slides were made up of lines of text, with font sizes as low as six points. Some lecturers used the university template, others plain white or blue. Clip art was widely abused. Nearly all lecturers spent hours either reading sides aloud, or attempting not to read slides aloud by saying the same stuff that was written on the slides in a much less efficient way.

My fellow students and I were reduced to being spoon-fed, and long parts of each lecture became enormously boring and unhelpful. Worse, everybody knew that this would be the case well in advance. Teachers weren’t teaching effectively, students weren’t learning effectively, and everybody knew it. Strength in numbers ensured that lecturers all felt safe continuing to read their bullet points aloud.

One of our team was invited to present at Surrey University recently, as part of a programme of enrichment activities. Shortly afterwards, we received the following message from a student who attended the session:

I recently attended a “killer presentations” session taken by Alex Hardy at the University of Surrey. I would just like to say thank you for the advice and tips given to me during that time. I learnt a tremendous amount during the one hour that Alex presented and after having a brief look around your website, I can safely say that I will learn a great deal more in the future. This sort of information and advice should be provided to universities up and down the country. In the two lectures I sat in today, I could not believe the lack of effort put into the slides. A brief look at this website (or indeed a training session) would ensure lecturers transformed the learning experience to facilitate a better transfer of knowledge.

This got us to thinking: Why do educated people present in such a thoughtless way? What mistakes are made in the use of PowerPoint in university, and what should lecturers do instead?

Most lecturers (in our completely unscientific study based on asking recent graduates in the office to ask their friends) use slides for nearly all of their material, make these slides full of bullet points, and then distribute these text-heavy slides as handouts. This creates three fundamental problems:

1. If slides make sense without the presenter, then during the session the lecturer is redundant. Many presenters try to get around this problem by adding additional material or attempting to explain the material on the slides – but students will tend to disengage, feeling they can already see the key information. Besides, it is impossible to read and listen at the same time, so audience members simply ‘block out’ the lecturer in order to focus on reading the slides. It’s really hard to present self-explanatory slides well.
2. An opportunity to use genuine visual aids is missed, and a chance to actually teach goes missing. If students come to lectures to read abbreviated text books, then those lectures are a waste of time.
3. As any student will tell you, if the handouts contain the information that will be presented in a self-explanatory and unembellished form, there’s really not much point attending the lecture. Pick up or download the slides, and then go do something else instead.

If reading slides aloud is so ineffective in teaching, how has the technique become so widespread? Why have lecturers everywhere adopted a technique that students recognise as ineffective? Why copy an approach that doesn’t work? After all, most lecturers have attended presentations given by others, and been utterly bored. We would postulate that there are a few factors:

1. Using the latest technology makes presenters seem up-to-date and avoiding it risks giving the impression of being old-fashioned;
2. Everybody else is doing it. For those teaching who aren’t experts in pedagogy it is easy to just copy what everyone else is doing;
3. Using visual aids that can be re-used year after year reduces overall effort;
4. Delivering a lecture by reading slides seems easy – the lecturer doesn’t need to think too hard about what to say;
5. When expected to produce handouts, using text-heavy slides reduces overall effort;
6. Anybody can do it. Typing into PowerPoint is extremely easy.

The accessibility of PowerPoint has caused problems. Most people can draw diagrams – however messy – onto acetate or a blackboard. Switch to PowerPoint and these same people – experts in something other than graphic design or software – no longer have the ability to create diagrams. PowerPoint certainly doesn’t force people to use bullet points (check out these PowerPoint slides), but doing something else does requires an investment of time and effort.

So, what should a university lecturer interested in teaching effectively actually do, given that they are unlikely to have time or inclination to master presentation software? With no budget, but a vague wish to stop being hated by students, what is the best way to use visual aids?

1. Visuals should help students to understand material. Find helpful visual concepts – a timeline, process, map, matrix or graph – and create simple PowerPoint diagrams. If a visual aid doesn’t help the audience to understand material, what is it for?
2. Don’t worry about slide count. Be prepared to use more slides, but with less content on each slide. Remember because the slides won’t be printed as handouts, they won’t waste paper.
3. Use simple graphs and charts. Graphs for projection should be clean, and build. Check out our tutorials on creating PowerPoint graphs.
4. Show photographs. Not just stock photography, but photos taken specifically to demonstrate a point or illustrate issues.
5. Use video clips. Shooting video is relatively easy nowadays, and interviewing people can demonstrate points forcibly (e.g. Google ask what is a browser?)
6. Show quotes and definitions as slides, but present them by saying nothing and letting the audience read for themselves. Don’t read aloud when the audience are reading for themselves.
7. Don’t feel it’s necessary to use visual aids for all material. Prioritise the areas where visuals will most help – definitions of concepts, relationships, presentation structure and comparisons, examples, and for summary. Better to have a few helpful slides than dozens of pointless slides.
8. Use the whiteboard. Not everything needs to be prepared in PowerPoint in advance, and drawing “live” on a whiteboard can be engaging for students.
9. Use a tool like Papershow to annotate slides in real-time.
10. Produce handouts in Word, not PowerPoint. Because slides shouldn’t make sense without a presenter, but handouts should, the same material can’t be reused effectively. Consider recording narration if distributing slides to students.

Remember, PowerPoint is not the enemy – but nor should it be abused. Use the whiteboard, use acetates, use video clips and use PowerPoint. But do not present self-explanatory slides.

Want to see how academic slides could be improved? Submit some lecture slides to our PowerPoint clinic, and we’ll transform a selection of those we receive, free of charge. We’ll emphasise approaches and techniques that are accessible for those without a studio of PowerPoint designers to rely on. This one is for lecturers only – no class assessments please. (We’ve tried that before, and most lecturers mark presentations down if they don’t have enough text. Honestly.)