Presentations are a fact of life. A comedy video on what not to do with PowerPoint caught my eye. [1] Don McMillian is an engineer turned stand up comic …. working in PowerPoint!

PowerPoint as a comedy routine!

A somewhat more serious take on [2] PowerPoint and presentation tips in general is nicely illustrated by Garr Reynolds. His insight is to [3] step back and

1. begin with the end in mind - what do you want the audience to walk away with
2. simple is good - how about 3 take aways
3. simple is also good for slides - sometimes communicate only with a number. Or a picture. Or a word.
4. high quaility graphics are necessary. Dump the ppt templates (yes!!)
5. use color and fonts effectively
6. audio and video are multimedia tools that may enhance. I think in terms of clips and break the flow, i.e. get your audiences attention.

Also some commen sense (which isn’t always so common) [4] delivery tips.

Garr Reynolds also links to several other [5] videos about presentation skills on his blog: [6] PresentationZen . Also goes back to that old reliable resource: a flip chart in “[7] Flip charts as visual enhancers“! Great stuff!!