Ever been in a presentation and wanted to slit your wrists because the presenter was so bad, used way too many slides and read you all the details on their slide… or is that just me? A tad bit overdramatic? Perhaps?
If you are given an opportunity to stand and present to any audience, in a meeting, at a conference, in your community – you owe it to your audience to rock that presentation. You owe it to your audience to be good, to be on point… not to kill them with your overcomplicated, busy, ugly slides!
PowerPoint when used well, can be an awesome addition to any presentation if you follow a few simple strategies:
- Less is more, consider less words and less slides
- Use one engaging photo or graphic instead of a huge amount of text
- Simplify your slides so they support your message
- Never read to your audience, they are smart.. they know how to read.. don’t insult their intelligence
- Use no more than 6 bullet points per slide, no more than 6 words per line
- Avoid things bouncing in and out, fading in and out – it’s exhausting
- Make your font big and bold so everyone can read it
It often makes me giggle when I hear a presenter say ‘you can’t read these slides but let me tell you what they say’ – NO please don’t! Please do your audience a favor and create rockin’ slides that everyone wants to enjoy.
If you want to increase the engagement of your presentation and leverage the short attention span of your fabulous audience – remember with PowerPoint… less is more, now that’s productive.
If you want to accelerate your speaking skills ask us about our next presentation skills program or join us for Speakership in March when Thought Leaders get together in Santa Monica.
Neen: You could not have been more spot on! Love this! Keep it coming!