I've given several presentations/webinars/speeches to groups and conferences lately, and they've all gone very well - it's something I really enjoy. I tend to get a lot of compliments on the content & presentation style which is humbling and welcome since I really put a lot of time in to each presentation.
The thing that I DIDN'T expect when I got the presentations together was how many people would love my PowerPoint presentations themselves! (I use the term "PowerPoint" only because it's become a ubiquitous term for "digitally projected presentation" although I don't use PowerPoint - read below) I have yet to give a talk without multiple people telling me how much the PowerPoint itself was awesome. Questions like "How did you do that?" and "Can I hire you to do my presentations?" (at least 5 people have asked that one) are common. I recently got an email from someone in Vancouver asking me for tips on good PPT presentations, so I thought I'd copy/paste what I emailed him to give other people a place to go:
There's so much that goes in to a good presentation it's hard to distill it down into a blog post, but here are 3 steps that will help.
- Step 1: Read Seth Godin's eBook: "Really Bad Powerpoint and How to Avoid It" (click here to download it - it's free) It will cover a LOT of things such as limiting the amount of text on a slide, using big images, etc. This will help you way more than I could in a short post.
- Step 2: Don't use PowerPoint (if you can avoid it). I use Keynote, which is a Mac only application. (If you don't use a Mac, click HERE and BUY ONE - you'll thank me later). Keynote is vastly superior to PowerPoint in many many ways: better built-in themes, better transitions, and better overall design to name a few. It makes it easy to look polished and slick.
- Step 3: Have very good content (this should go without saying). If you don't have well thought-out content that's well organized, you're not going to have a good presentation.
Hope that helps! Feel free to ask any other questions you may have, but no - I won't do your presentation for you. If you don't do it yourself, people will know.
4 Comments
Good tips – part of Step 3 is to actually take the time to create that good content. It’s a disservice to the audience if you haven’t created the best experience you can for them. I also really like Garr Reynolds books “Presentation Zen Design” and “Presentation Zen.”
Totally agree, Gretchen. The VAST majority of my time is spent on the content – as it should be. Maybe that ought to be step 1?
I’ve heard of “Presentation Zen” but never got around to reading it. Thanks for the tip!
Hey Steve – Having learned how to do presentations the RIGHT way, it is physically painful to see them done the wrong way SO VERY OFTEN. We used to do presentations pretty regularly and made it a point to use zero ‘text’. One word was okay when necessary but more for the visual effect of the ‘pop’ of lettering after multiple images. It’s amazing how much easier it is to follow a concept when your mind has simple images to tie it to. Put the words in the ear and let them ‘cement’ to the image they see. It’s simple but very powerful.
Thanks for the post (and link so I can reread Seth’s eBook again)!
También podéis usar plantillas de otros power point
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Since a ton have people have asked, here's a blog post: "3 Steps to Good PowerPoint Presentations" http://bit.ly/9OF8Ga
Since a ton have people have asked, here's a blog post: "3 Steps to Good PowerPoint Presentations" http://bit.ly/9OF8Ga
3 Steps to Good PowerPoint Presentations: http://t.co/9ElzYxYE (every time I see a presentation with large blocks of text, I want to cry)