We’ve all heard of death by PowerPoint. More and more I feel myself cringe when someone steps up to speak with their ready-made presentation displaying too many words or numbers on a slide and that cute little clipart picture that has little or no relevance.

I’m just as guilty as the next person of having too many bullets, with too many words to catch the audience’s attention, when really what I am doing is putting up visual cues for myself so that I don’t forget to share pertinent information. In doing so, I actually end up disconnecting myself from the audience. My voice can’t possibly be heard over the loud bullet points screaming on the screen.

I’m relatively new to the presentation game and I’m struggling to find my own style and make the presentation fun and engaging, as well as informative for my audience. I know that PowerPoint is a great tool, I just have to rethink the way I use it.

So, where do I start. Well in my research I came across a website written by Garr Reynolds. On his personal website he has a wealth of information on presentations and I think this is a great place to begin my journey to better presentations.

He includes videos, samples and tutorials, organization and preparation, delivery and slide tips, a handout sheet and links and resources all in easy to read documents. He evens writes a blog called Presentation Zen.  A gold mine find to be sure.

As I read through his materials I nod my head in agreement. Yes, finally this is exactly the information I have been looking for. Good solid tips that make sense.

So here in a nutshell is what I have learned:
• Before you open up PowerPoint - ask yourself questions like: What is the real purpose of your talk? Why is it that you were asked to speak? What does the audience expect?
• Know your audience - Who is your audience? What is the purpose of the event?
• Spare your audience the “data dump”, when the presenter crams too much information into a presentation.
• Ask yourself if your audience could remember only three things about your presentation, what would you want them to be?
• Scratch out your ideas and objectives on a piece of paper and write down your key points. Create a storyboard.
• Use stories in your presentation.
• Practice, practice, practice with the actual computer and projector.
• Be passionate about your topic.
• The first 2-3 minutes of your presentation are the most important. First impressions are powerful.
• Keep it short - finish early.
• Don’t hide behind the podium. The podium is a barrier between you and your audience.
• Make eye contact with individuals and smile.
• Limit bullet points and text - some of the best slides have no text at all. Narration with pictures is better than narration alone.
• People learn better when words are presented as narration rather than text.
• People learn better from narration and graphics rather than narration, graphics and text.

Probably the biggest tip I took away from reading Garr’s website, which I plan to put into practice, is to prepare a handout for the audience so I avoid the temptation to put too much information on my slides.

I can hardly wait to incorporate these great tips into my next presentation. There are more great tips on Garr’s website. Go and find that little gem of information that will help you develop a PowerPoint presentation that will leave your audience wanting more.