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July 2001

In this month's free e-news from Wilder Presentations, I'd like to discuss two ideas for presenters and one for designers. Don't forget the monthly challenge at the end.

FOR PRESENTERS:
Step 5: ENERGIZE YOURSELF: CHANGE THE PACE
In the last couple of months you've read about energizing yourself through the proper use of your voice, your eye contact and your diet and exercise. This month let's discuss how to keep yourself energized by changing the pace of your voice, your slides and the room dynamics.

Frequently, people tell me they have a monotone voice. Then I look at their slides. They have twenty-five slides of text phrases. Then they tell me they deliver their talk in a dark room. It would take a miracle for someone in a dark room with twenty-five slides of text phrases to sound, act and look energized and enthusiastic for an hour. The combination is unacceptable for a speaker who wants to be effective.

So what to do? Let's start with the slides. The slides must have a change of pace. They can't all look and feel the same. Bizarre, inappropriate animations don't count as a change of pace. Tables, photos, charts and diagrams change the pace of the talk and enable the presenter to change his or her voice as well.

Even more important is how the presenter interacts with the people listening. Most people do not want to be talked to for an hour. They want to add their comments and thoughts throughout the talk. The change of pace from presenter talking to audience asking questions can keep a presenter sounding and looking more energized. And an audience engaged!

And finally, how do you manage the room's lighting situation? Most rooms don't have to be as dark as everyone makes them. If, for whatever reason, the lights have to be turned down then part way through the talk, turn them up and take questions from the audience. By the nature of some lighting situations it is difficult to keep oneself and the audience attentive. Don't keep the lights dim for an hour.

FOR PRESENTERS:
FIVE WAYS TO PERSUADE YOUR AUDIENCE
First, let your audience talk. Frequently the more people talk and share their opinions and ideas, the more they will then listen to you.
Second, give examples that your audience will believe are credible and similar to their situation.
Third, be sure to add in some statistics-with the numbers readable on the charts.
Fourth, be quiet when they look convinced. You don't have to give the whole presentation if the audience is convinced half way through the slides. They don't care that you haven't finished going through your slides.
Fifth, listen to what they say and speak to their questions, objections and concerns throughout your talk.

FOR DESIGNERS:
TEMPLATE CONSIDERATIONS
People are creating templates without having any guidelines. Many create a template having never seen one person use it in real life or really see all the information that needs to be put on the slide. Here are my guidelines based on what I have seen.

If it's a technical presentation then the template needs to be almost empty of design and images so that the charts, diagrams, and product photos stand out. Also, the template should not have an image or design on the sides as the charts and diagrams will look squeezed.

The template should not have the heading section take up very much space on the slide. Headings should be at the top one-sixth of the slide. Most templates have the headings too low on the page. Of course, if the presentation slides will have very little information on them, then the heading can be lower.

Don't put a line or section divider at the bottom of the slide for the company's logo or product pictures. Now there is even less space on the slide.

If you wish you could have several template looks: one for text slides and one for charts and diagrams.

Key questions to ask:
Is there really enough space for the types of information that will go on this slide?
Is the heading too low on the slide?
Can I put the company logo on the left of the slide and make it smaller so there's more "white space" on the slide?
Do I have just enough or too many design features on the slide?

MONTHLY CHALLENGE:
Presenters
Have more dialogues with your audience and less monologues. This means get your audience to talk by asking questions or just having some silence in the room so they feel there is space for them to add comments.

Designers
Analyze your templates.

For hints on using PowerPoint 2000, try www.microsfot.com/techset/powerpoint/tools/pptips.asp

COMMENTS FROM OUR READERS
Exercise
Your piece on diet and exercise was great-too often people forget this important component. One secret I learned through experience is that almost every major hotel has a GREAT, FREE exercise machine, and it's called the stairwell. Once you've got your bags put away, try avoiding the elevator and always take the stairs. Having trouble waking up? Go up and down the stairs a few times. Likewise for jetlag. Most likely, you won't be alone either!

Cathy Belleville, www.bitbetter.com

SLIDES THAT WIN INFORMATION
I know some of you have Slides That Win, but I don't have your names. If you have purchased Slides That Win here are some features you may not have yet discovered. Once you go through all the Before and After Examples and see the Crystal Graphics demos, go to the Resources folder.

The Resources Folder
Green Light Slides: We didn't want you just to look at the designs. We wanted you to be able to use them.
1. Go to Windows Explorer.
2. Open the CD.
3. Click on the Slides That Win folder.
4. Click on the Resources folder.
5. Click on the Green Light Slides. These are the green light slides you've seen in the different Slides That Win files in the program. These are an incredible resource for you.
6. Open the Sentences folder. Go to Slides 12. If you like this idea you can select all the words copy them and then paste them into a presentation you are creating. You can take any of these slides and copy and paste the table or image into a presentation. Then customize the words for your topic.

Backgrounds: Jennifer Rotondo created these backgrounds. You can use them. How?
1. Select a background. It will open in PowerPoint. You won't see it yet.
2. In PowerPoint go to Insert>New Slide. First choose the title layout. Then choose the text layout. You'll see they are different looks. You have a title page look as well as a text page look. You can also use the title page for section dividers in your talk.
3. Save it by going to File>Save As>(Save as Type) Design Template (*.pot). You can leave it as the number or specify a name that reminds you of what the template looks like.

Articles: These are Before and After columns written by Jennifer Rotondo and Claudyne Wilder for Presentations magazine. Read about other ways to create more effective slides.

Presentation Overview word document: This is a form for you to fill out before you create a presentation. When you fill this out before creating slides you will know better what type of slides to create.

SLIDES THAT WIN REVIEW: Indezine is a site to extend your PowerPoint experience-in spheres as diverse as design, exchange, content, memorabilia, delivery, etc. The site is also home to the PowerPoint Enzine-an enzine on happenings in the PowerPoint world. For a review of Slides That Win go to:

http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/addin/slidesthatwin.html

Presentation Points, written by Claudyne Wilder, usually comes out the first business week of each month. For more information, call 617-524-7172, e-mail claudyne@quik.com, or visit my Web site, www.wilderpresentations.com.

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Credit card announcement: On July 10th, my web site will be able to take credit cards from anywhere in the world. This announcement is for those of you who have been unable to purchase from my site up to now.

Copyright 2001, Claudyne Wilder. All rights reserved.