Hi all
I recently blogged about my wishlist for how PowerPoint is used for presentations in 2009. Olivia Mitchell has created a great summary on her website of the viewpoints of the different public speaking bloggers.
You can read it here:
http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/design/powerpoint-does-design-matter/
I was recently asked by a fellow public speaking blogger, Olivia Mitchell from Speaking about Presenting what I would like to see in PowerPoint presentations this year. The answer to me is quite simple – LESS.
Less Slides
The trend in 2008 has largely been to replace lines and lines of bullet points with pictures illustrating the points. This is great because pictures have a powerful ability to illustrate points that text never will have. Hence the large and vivid pictures commonly used on newspaper front pages.
However, pictures are only part of the solution to giving an effective presentation. I still feel that most presentation need to be simplified and to have fewer slides. Remember that if a slide does not add to your message, it probably detracts from it.
Less Complexity
If you push the capabilities of PowerPoint (esp version 2007), you can create some amazing effects and transitions. Here is a great example. However, the more effects and transitions you add to your presentations, the more complex they become, and greater the chance of you messing it up. So, unless you really know what you are doing, or you have some great designers and PowerPoint experts working with you, you might want to cut back on the complexity.
I have also seen very few transitions, effects and animations that add to a presentation.
Less Text
We still need to see less text. Far to many presentations are text heavy. Laura Bergells makes a great point about going picture crazy and replaceing every single line of text with graphics. We do need to find a balance, but I would still rather see a presentation with too many graphics than with too much text.
So, lets cut back on the slides,simplifiy the slides that we keep, and use less text. Here’s to some great PowerPoint presentations in 2009!
While this talk by David Rose is about pitching to Venture Capitalists, he also gives some great PowerPoint tips. I was very pleased to see that he agrees with many of my thoughts on PowerPoint. In particular, David presents his top five presentation tips:
All of these tips are in my free e-book. The presentation is only about 15 minutes long, but well worth watching. I was a little bemused to see that he even uses one of same slides that I use – the one of Bill Gates presenting Windows Live in 2005. David does speak at about a million words per second, so you do need to listen carefully!
If you are going to pitch your idea to anybody, he provides a great speech outline. Here is a summarized outline, but watch the presentation for his insights.
You can watch other great speeches at www.ted.com
Enjoy, and keep talking!
When I present my PowerPoint training, I am often asked where people can find additional tips and help for creating their PowerPoint presentations. Here is a website to add to your resource list.
Dave Paradi has created a great list of PowerPoint resources, including videos, FAQ’s, technical help experts and support.
Enjoy!
Are struggling to find good quality images that you can use in your presentations? If so, you need to watch this 4 1/2 minute long video.
It shows you how to use the photo-sharing website – www.flickr.com to find images that you can commercially use at no cost.
Enjoy
Hi all-
Just a quick update about my next training session:
Putting the POWER back into PowerPoint will be held next on Monday 3 Nov, at 7:30pm. Huis der Nederlanden, Central Square Pinelands.
I am offering a 2 for 1 discount, so bring a friend. I only have space for 30, and I already have 18 bookings, so please book soon if you would like a seat!
See you there!
Craig
Pecha-kucha is an unusual method used to create PowerPoint presentations. The rules are simple. You can only create 20 slides, and you have to display each slide for exactly 20 seconds. This gives you 6 minutes and 40 seconds to give your presentation and get your message across (perfect timing for Toastmasters speeches!).
There is an interesting article about Pecha-kucha on Wired Magazine.
I am going to try it for my next presentation and I will let you know how it goes.
This is a presentation pulled off the Coca Cola (Japan) website. The slides are of their "Financial Results Presentation for the year ended December 31, 2007". It consists of about 70 slides, and is very scary.
Thank goodness I did not have to sit through that presentation. Here a just a few problems:
This presentation is a great example of a really poor presentation.
(You can download the original presentation off their website here).
Perhaps they need to attend my "Put the Power back into PowerPoint" seminar :-)
I have just completed a CD containing over 400 PowerPoint templates. What is special about this CD is that the templates are categorized, and EVERY TEMPLATE has a thumbnail view, making it very easy to browse and find the best template for your job!
You can view a sample, and download 24 free templates here.
I am selling the CD for $15, which is less than 3.75c per template – and to celebrate it’s launch, you can use the following discount code to get a 20% discount – valid until the end of April 2008. Just enter the word PowerCode on the checkout page. Buy now – only $14.99.
To celebrate even further, I am going to give away five copies in a lucky draw – just leave a comment on this post, and I will select five random names. I will contact you for delivery details if you are one of the five (names by April 25 please).
In my last post, I spoke about the very poor slides from a recent presentation by by Barack Obama. – the so-called "Yes we Can" speech. Firstly an apology- the slides were not created by Obama, but were created by a blogger to demonstrate how poor slides can ruin a presentation. Sorry for the miscommunication.
However, they are a great example of poor slides, so I have dissected them and shown what could have been done.
The main problems with the slides is that there is far too much text, and there is such missed opportunity for great visuals (I have left the original slides in the bottom left for reference).
I removed the agenda and second hope slide – they were redundant.
Yes we can! - simple and patriotic
Thank you - personally I don’t think that you need this slide, but if you have to have it, show visual of what/who you are thanking (I just stuck the picture of the family in to illustrate).
Time for change - representing the diverse culture of American people.
Change isn’t easy - difficult to break out of the mold – Lego people.
What we’re up against - a brick wall.
What I see - the title does not interest me. Obama is actually speaking about what he sees in his country, so I have renamed it to My country. The picture is a vivid picture of inner-city buildings with fences and graffiti.
We cannot loose hope - picture of patriotic child representing hope for the future.
What I know - also boring title. Obama is speaking about we can achieve, so I called it We can. I am not too sure about the picture of the children, perhaps a bit too cuddly. It also makes a good climatic transition into the last slide, which is…
Yes We can – some stars and strips.
Which slide deck do you prefer?
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