Presentations … and PowerPoint of course

May 1. 2007 by Del.

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

PowerPoint as a comedy routine!

A somewhat more serious take on PowerPoint and presentation tips in general is nicely illustrated by Garr Reynolds. His insight is to 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) delivery tips.

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

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