ATTENTION, POWERPOINTERS!!
I recently Googled “PowerPoint,” “Presentations,” and “Conference Presentations” to make sure I am not spewing material you could obtain elsewhere. I’m NOT. However, I encourage you to peruse Microsoft’s recommendations and those by other “experts” on communication principles with PowerPoint.
THEIR INTENT is: To present a nice, neat, semi-interesting, professional presentation of important information.
OUR HERO’S INTENT is (Watch out! Are ya ready?): To deliver the same information while connecting, engaging, exciting, motivating, and, maybe even, inspiring your audience so that their presentation experience with you is unforgettable and the information memorable. Your audience should be on the edges of their uncomfortable seats, not relaxed and passive in a beach lounger. That’s kinda like teaching, but without the students, although I recommend the same approach in the classroom.
DISCLAIMER:
My suggestions in these blogs will blow the traditional PowerPoint recommendations to smithereens. Will I violate the rules? You bet. They will be shredded, ground into pulp, and smashed into PowerPoint road kill. (Note: I apologize for the violence in this disclaimer. Sometimes I get carried away.) For example, I tried the recommended traditional, one color slide-same font approaches. Guess what? The slides were as boring as the content on them. (Sidebar: As a former freelance photographer, I learned early on that if a picture doesn’t elicit some feeling [positive or negative] by the viewer, then it should be discarded as ineffective.)
NEW RULE FOR POWERPOINT: That rule should apply to our PowerPoint slides. Our audience should be emotionally involved in our presentation. That begins with the slides. A spiritless, unemotional reaction to our slides is totally unacceptable. If my strategy is making you nervous or you already started throwing up in this 1st paragraph, you might want to get a vomit bag or close this blog.
BERK'S GOAL: To arm you with the tools to create break-the-mold presentations, not create a moldy audience as they drift into a coma.
BERK'S AUDIENCE ASSUMPTIONS: I assume every audience to whom I present has better things to do with its valuable time than attend my session. The cynics and know-it-alls are thinking: “Tell me something I DON’T already know.” The students probably have the attention span of goat cheese and mentally operate at “twitch speed.”
THE CHALLENGE: Open the presentation with a bang and sustain that bang or you’ll lose them. It’s opening night on Broadway!
6. COMPLEX VISUALS
Beyond the various types of “still images” described in my previous blog, there are also other visuals to consider:
a. Clip Art with Movement—Among the bazillion clip art images, some have animation built in. Use every opportunity to create movement in your slides.
b. Add Music to Any Image—If the picture or cartoon brings to mind a song, add it to the image. It can heighten the impact of the slide and add humor that wasn’t in the image alone. Music will be covered in a later blog, but keep this option open.
c. Create Your Own Graphics—Artistic-wise, PowerPoint provides a wide array of options to build your own graphs, tables, charts, and diagrams with animation. Putting your personal touch on these graphics with color and animation can produce memorable slides with content that will pop off the screen. (WARNING: You’ve seen BAD graphics with too much data and too small a font. Be careful not to violate the basic principles in presenting your graphics. If your audience is squinting or pulling out binoculars or telescopes to read your slides, your graphics are probably BAAAAAD! And I don’t mean Michael Jackson’s Good BAD.)
Once these images are saved in your file, they can be inserted into your PowerPoint slides following the procedures described previously for simple images. Have you tried any of these images in your presentations? Let me know your ideas or additions to my suggestions above.
My next blog will cover SOUND EFFECTS. Is that going to be fun? You bet!
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
ATTENTION, POWERPOINTERS!!
I recently Googled “PowerPoint,” “Presentations,” and “Conference Presentations” to make sure I am not spewing material you could obtain elsewhere. I’m NOT. However, I encourage you to peruse Microsoft’s recommendations and those by other “experts” on communication principles with PowerPoint.
THEIR INTENT is: To present a nice, neat, semi-interesting, professional presentation of important information.
OUR HERO’S INTENT is (Watch out! Are ya ready?): To deliver the same information while connecting, engaging, exciting, motivating, and, maybe even, inspiring your audience so that their presentation experience with you is unforgettable and the information memorable. Your audience should be on the edges of their uncomfortable seats, not relaxed and passive in a beach lounger. That’s kinda like teaching, but without the students, although I recommend the same approach in the classroom.
DISCLAIMER:
My suggestions in these blogs will blow the traditional PowerPoint recommendations to smithereens. Will I violate the rules? You bet. They will be shredded, ground into pulp, and smashed into PowerPoint road kill. (Note: I apologize for the violence in this disclaimer. Sometimes I get carried away.) For example, I tried the recommended traditional, one color slide-same font approaches. Guess what? The slides were as boring as the content on them. (Sidebar: As a former freelance photographer, I learned early on that if a picture doesn’t elicit some feeling [positive or negative] by the viewer, then it should be discarded as ineffective.)
NEW RULE FOR POWERPOINT: That rule should apply to our PowerPoint slides. Our audience should be emotionally involved in our presentation. That begins with the slides. A spiritless, unemotional reaction to our slides is totally unacceptable. If my strategy is making you nervous or you already started throwing up in this 1st paragraph, you might want to get a vomit bag or close this blog.
BERK'S GOAL: To arm you with the tools to create break-the-mold presentations, not create a moldy audience as they drift into a coma.
BERK'S AUDIENCE ASSUMPTIONS: I assume every audience to whom I present has better things to do with its valuable time than attend my session. The cynics and know-it-alls are thinking: “Tell me something I DON’T already know.” The students probably have the attention span of goat cheese and mentally operate at “twitch speed.”
THE CHALLENGE: Open the presentation with a bang and sustain that bang or you’ll lose them. It’s opening night on Broadway!
7. SIMPLE VISUALS
The research evidence to support the power of images and the value of tapping visual/spatial intelligence has been well documented. Images stick in people’s memories. They can also have a profound emotional impact. Adding visual images to your PowerPoint can radically change the meaning of the content and how much your audience learns and remembers.
Your strategy for considering images should be to review each content slide and answer this question: WHAT IMAGE COULD BE USED TO MAKE THE POINT OF THIS CONTENT CLEAR AND MEMORABLE?
CREATE A POOL OF IMAGES: There are at least 3 categories of simple images available for use: (1) pictures, (2) cartoons, and (3) graphics.
a. Pictures—Begin with personal and professional pictures related to the content. Then Google free pictures floating in cyberspace.
b. Cartoons—If you want to infuse a little jocularity into your presentation, here’s your first opportunity. Consider both single panel and multipanel cartoons.
c. Graphics—There are buckets of clip-art/artwork in a variety of forms that can be used to illustrate different content.
EDIT THE IMAGES: Once you’ve assembled a pool of possible images to include in your presentation, you need to EDIT according to specific criteria:
(1) Emotional Impact—If the image doesn’t elicit a feeling by the viewer, it can be just as boring as dead words on the screen. What affect do you want to the image to elicit? What's its emotional outcome?
(2) Intellectual Impact—What does the image contribute beyond the content already presented? What increment in information does it provide? What’s its unique purpose?
(3) Offensiveness—Make sure there is nothing about the image that can offend anyone in your audience. Test it out on several colleagues or students. If you have any doubts, DON’T USE IT!
Pick only the BEST images for the final cut. Colleagues can be very helpful in providing impartial, first impression reactions to the images. Images do not require explanations; they should have immediate in-your-face positive impact if they’re doing their job.
My next blog will cover how to insert your picks into PowerPoint and test their effectiveness.
COPYRIGHT © 2009 Ronald A. Berk, LLC
