Your Presentation Success Is Our Passion
Present It Right...The First Time!

With Geetesh Baja of Indezine, I recently surveyed 750 professionals about their PowerPoint presentations. To see the summary on my website click here. Here's a statistic that surprised me. Some people spend 3 hours organizing their content for a 30-minute talk! That does not include creating slides or practicing out loud. When I read these numbers, I imagined the long hours many people have to work in order to prepare their presentations.

I've given you organizational strategies and presentation pointers in the past and will continue to do so. In the meantime, cut hours out of your presentation preparation time by using the storyboard outlines in my CD Presentations in a Hurry, available on my web site.

From now until April 30th, purchase the CD or download version for $20 off the original price. Type in this code: savetime20 (lower case)

	PRESENTERS: USE WORDS THAT SHOW CONFIDENCE
	PRESENTERS: A CONFERENCE GUIDE
	DESIGNERS: SLIDE TIPS "TO LIVE BY"
	MONTHLY CHALLENGE

USE WORDS THAT SHOW CONFIDENCE

Phrases to banish from your presentations:

• I hope…
• I just…
• I think…
• I feel…
• You should…

You've just given a very good presentation. Now you are at the end and you say, "I hope the information I have given you will be helpful to you." This sounds like you are not sure. You better sound like you are sure since your audience is assuming you prepared your content based on their interests. Change "I hope" to phrases like:

• I know…
• With this information you can…
• Now that you have an overview of…

What other words don't exude confidence? How about this for an opening, "I just want to tell you a bit about our products" or "I just want to share how the project is doing right now." By using "I just" you sound unsure of yourself. Don't start a talk that way. You want to sound in charge and confident as you speak. You are the authority, by virtue of the fact that you are standing in front of the group; so speak like one!

Then there is "I think…" The audience is saying to themselves, "Of course you think about this subject and that's why you're talking." Don't lessen your credibility. Depending on the situation, change "I think" to phrases like:

• I believe…
• This will…
• As I reflected on these numbers, I concluded that…

Another phrase that lacks confidence is "I feel…" Although it may be appropriate in some situations, it probably is not in many business settings. If you must use "I feel," then back up your feelings with some evidence or people will not take you seriously.

Finally, there is one more word to leave out of your talks. People don't like to be told what they "should" do, even if you are right. When you say they "could," then the audience is hearing from you that they have a choice. They understand you are offering them choices and explaining the consequences of each choice. If you really do have to tell them what they "should" and "must" do, at least give them reasons and/or benefits for implementing your recommendation.

By changing your words, the audience will hear you as being confident and in charge of your content.

When you present at a conference, there are many issues to consider. For the next two months I'll give you some ideas to make your company and other conferences easier on everyone.

Use the presenter's checklist as your conference guide:

1. Be early so you can check the equipment and your materials and get yourself a glass of water. Perhaps, change the room around.
2. Be sure you have a pen and some paper in case you need to make a note.
3. Take all the change and keys out of your pockets before you present. Do not hold a pen in your hand when presenting.
4. Be sure you wear something to which you easily can clip the wireless microphone. Remember: Turn the microphone off when you are not talking to the whole audience.
5. Even in summer, don't forget to take a jacket or sweater. Most rooms are very cold.
6. Have at least one buddy at your session. Your buddy will help you with whatever you need, from technical support to answering questions to which you cannot respond very well yourself. Also, he or she can deal with an audience member who might be disrupting your talk.
7. Don't say, "I don't really know this." Or "This is the first time I have given this talk." Keep your anxieties and nervousness to yourself. Always remember the audience is rooting for you. They want you to give a clear, excellent talk so they can relax. Audiences only relax when the presenter appears confident and in charge. Know that you usually appear much more confident and in charge than you might feel.
   

SLIDE TIPS "TO LIVE BY"

Here are some guidelines to use when creating slides. Every day I see these problems with my clients. You probably see them on the screen when you are sitting through yet another boring presentation, asking yourself what the slides, and the presenter, are trying to say.

1. Try not to have the same word on a slide more than once. Making a table may eliminate that necessity.
2. Make certain you can read the words on your slides. A smaller than 20-point font is hard to read. Also, your colors might not have enough contrast. For example, don't put red lettering on a blue background.
3. Don't use clip art in a professional presentation. It rarely portrays the image you want to convey to your audience.
4. Don't repeat words from the slide title in the text.
5. Don't write sentences on your slides.
6. Make comparisons easy. Don't put them in text; create a table instead.

HOW PEOPLE LEARN: SIGNALING PRINCIPLE
USE OUTLINES AND HEADINGS TO ORGANIZE INFORMATION

The past few months in Presentation Points, we've been talking about Richard E. Mayer's principles about how people learn. A professor of Psychology at UC Santa Barbara, Mayer has written many books on education and learning, including Multi-Media Learning. So far, we've discussed the following principles:

• Multimedia: Use words and pictures, not words alone.
• Coherence: Focus your material, excluding extraneous information.
• Spatial Contiguity: Present corresponding words and pictures close together on the page or screen rather than far away from each other.
• Modality: Use animation and narration rather than animation and on-screen text.
• Signaling: Organize the information with clear outlines and headings.

This month, we'll focus on:

• Personalization: People learn better from a conversational style rather than a formal style. Additionally, I have found that people learn better when they don't have to listen to specialized words of jargon that are meaningless to them.

Most people speak in a fairly conversational style, but feel that it is more impressive and businesslike to be very formal on their slides. Believe me, your audience will be much more impressed by a simply stated, jargon-free presentation! Compare, for example:

This slide uses jargon incomprehensible to anyone outside that business area. In fact, even folks in the asset management industry would have a problem understanding exactly what this is about!

 

Now the business of the company is stated simply and clearly, using words anyone can understand.

 

A typical gobbledygook slide. Mercifully, people usually do not use such convoluted language in normal conversation. The fact that the phrases are not in parallel construction makes the slide even harder to understand. This means the phrases don't all start with nouns or verbs.

 

Now we have clear everyday words that the presenter will have an easy time saying. Plus, the audience will actually understand the slide when they look at it.