Easy Steps to Successful Presentations

We know you're always supposed to have some number of steps, but we didn't want to limit ourselves.  The truth is that there are lots of things you can do to become a more successful presenter--here are just a few...

• To avoid the "opening jitters", practice the opening of your presentation over and over. When you are driving to the location of the presentation, keep saying the first few minutes over and over. You don't have to say it the same time each time, just practice beginning. This way, when the "real" start comes, it seems much easier. Once you get going, things will be much easier-- then it's the audience's problem to stop you!

• Time your presentation: go through the whole thing out loud at least once without interruption. You will be then get a realistic idea of how long it will take. If you are speaking extemporaneously from notes you will take longer than you plan.  If you are reading (which we don't recommend, but it does work best for some people) you will probably go under your rehearsed time.

• NO presenter in the history of mankind has ever been criticized for too short a speech.

• Concentrate on knowing the content of your presentation--don't think you can just "wing it".  Go through all the material at least once.

• If you will be asked questions at the end, prepare for the worst.  Think of the worst possible questions, and rehearse your answers out loud.  When you've prepared for the worst, the rest seems easy.  Typical questions arise from concerns with process type things, sources for your data, how you calculated certain information, costs, critical dependencies, and delivery dates.  Get familiar with this information, and things will flow smoothly.

• If something goes wrong, laugh with it. Things will go wrong, and audiences appreciate and are relaxed by presenters who can roll with it. I once watched a presenter give an entire presentation without his slides which he left at home in "the other briefcase"; he just gave the presentation exactly as he would have with the slides, including using the remote to advance the slides, and asking the projector operator to adjust the focus. It was hysterically funny (since it was a tour of our manufacturing facility) hearing him walk you through the slides ('as you can see here, the place is very big, and extremely clean') and very memorable!

• Have backup technology available: if you're traveling with a laptop, always bring some paper copies too.

• Don't assume someone has arranged for the overhead or slide projector; call for yourself and make sure. If you're giving a presentation from a computer, bring your own.

• If you're making a presentation on your own machine, and moving it to a different computer, see the information below about creating portable presentations.

• Don't put change in your pockets--if you're nervous there's a  good chance you'll start jingling it, which makes you look both nervous and stupid.

• Remember that everyone has one really bad presentation, so when you have one, just think "well, I'm glad that's out of the way!"

• Remember all the stuff your mom taught you: wash your hair, wear clean clothes, and spit out that gum!

• Don't try opening with a joke unless you know you're the type of person who can tell jokes. Please.

• If you do tell a joke in your presentation, make sure that it is a joke that does not marginalize anyone except yourself.

• Remember that the audience is on your side--they want to know what you have to say (unless, of course, you're lecturing for a prison, in which case you shouldn't worry because you have the proverbial "captive audience").

• Don't read from your slides.

• Before you start making slides, ask yourself: if my audience remembers only three things, what do I want them to be?  Then make slides that explain and support these points.  If people want more information, they'll ask.

• Create slides that focus on the points you want people to remember.  This sounds silly, but in reality it isn't done very often.  Use each slide to drive home ONE point--the bullet points should reinforce this one point.

• Remember that people can't read and listen at the same time. Plan your slides and talk accordingly.

• Define all acronyms (DAA).

• People usually speak at a rate of about 2-3 minutes per slide. If you have 30 slides to give in 15 minutes, you ain't gonna make it.

• Always thank the people who asked you to come, and thank your audience. At the end, if they haven't thrown things, thank them again.

• Try to have a good time--presenting can be hell or heaven, it's all up to you.

and of course...

• Use Screen Beans!!!

Creating Portable Presentations

When you create a PowerPoint presentation on your machine, don't expect to be able to move it to another machine unless you've taken the following precautions. 

Fonts: Do not use any fancy fonts.  Use only those fonts that ship with Office or PowerPoint.  Fonts do not travel with the presentation, so if you do have a special font that your company uses, you'll need to know how to copy the necessary files, and install that font on the destination machine.

Sounds and Movies: make sure that all sound and movie files are located in the same folder as the presentation that you've created, and that you insert them from this location. Sound and movie files, because of their large size, don't become an actual part of the presentation file--a link is formed to the file. When the presentation is played, the program goes looking for the sound at the location described in the link. This works fine on the original creation machine, but as soon as you move things to another machine, if the links don't accurately describe where the files are, things fail to play.  PowerPoint will always look for the sound in the folder that contains the presentation, so this is the best place to put them. Start off by putting the sounds or movies in the same folder as the presentation, and then inserting them into your presentation. This will create an internal link with no real address: PowerPoint knows that the sound or movie is in the same folder as the presentation, and will look for it there regardless of what that folder's name is.

Get all the Pieces: If you've used sounds, movies, or special fonts, remember to take those files with you as well as your presentation.  They don't travel with the presentation automatically!

Confirm Software Versions: Call the person who is working with the destination machine, and verify what version of PowerPoint it is running.  If you have to save down to that version, you should definitely check the presentation before giving it--you might get some unwelcome surprises!

Allow Extra Time: Allow some extra time to review the presentation on the destination machine ahead of time.  If there are problems, it's best to know up front when you have time to do something about them. 

Save As...  When you've completed all the edits to your presentation, it may have gotten pretty big.  To reduce the file size a bit, try saving the presentation with a new name.  This sometimes reduces the file size by as much as 30%.

Check out More PowerPoint Tips and Tricks