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| PowerPoint And The Blackberry Effect
A newly, well-funded company is deciding between two finalists for a new IT vendor. Both are asked to make a final, 45-minute presentation. Within five minutes, the first presenter has read from 7 of his 63 PowerPoint® slides. Due to data overload, various audience members become disengaged and begin turning their attention to their Blackberries. The second finalist has a total of 12 slides. They begin with an engaging, PowerPoint-free opening. The decision makers begin to sit up in their chairs and shift their attention to the presenter's easy to absorb message. The difference between an engaging presentation and one that creates the "Blackberry® effect" often comes down to a presenter's use of slides. Using the tips below will ensure that PowerPoint is playing the appropriate role in creating those winning presentations. 1. Practice the Rule of 5 The Rule of 5 suggests that when you are creating text
slides that you have no more than five lines of text per slide and five
words per line. This tip ensures that handouts are not sneaking into your
visual aids. 2. Use 24-point font or larger Why do we typically shrink the font? 10 and12-point
fonts usually appear because we are trying to get more information on
the slide. Not only does too much information overwhelm the audience,
smaller fonts often go unread. 12-point font does not take into account
those audience members in the back of the room. Just like every presentation should tell a story, so
should each PowerPoint slide. Action titles are a presenter's tool to
help communicate a clear story, or "so what", for each slide.
Action titles are the titles for each slide and serve a similar role as
newspaper headlines; they grab your attention and summarize the story.
As an example, instead of "Revenues" use "Revenues Increasing".
Instead of "Comparison of MCI and Sprint", use "MCI Saves
Money Over Sprint". Let your action titles capture the true story
of your slide. What is your reaction when a presenter says this to you? For many it is, "Then why did you put it up there?" The more serious repercussion is what happens to the presenter's credibility. If you find yourself saying this, you've probably got a great handout but not an effective visual aid. Review the tips above to determine how you can turn your handout into a compelling visual aid. It is no mystery that the decision makers unanimously
chose the second presenter as their IT vendor. While many factors may
have contributed to this decision, one significant element was their understanding
that less can be best when using PowerPoint to create engaging and Blackberry-free
presentations. Diane West is president of 2Connect, a San-Diego based company specializing in presentation training and coaching. She can be reached at dwest@twoconnect.net or 858-638-7544. Copyright San Diego Daily Transcript -- |
