Periodic Fable

I went to a seminar the other day where the speaker had a great presentation full not of bullet points in black on white but of interesting images. He’d taken a real leap into being more innovative with presentations – going well beyond “death by powerpoint” and bullet points.

Less is more in this case – the images were relevant to the speaker’s points – he spoke to us, not just reading his slides – and he’d obviously put a lot of effort into preparation.

There are a lot of reasons to overhaul your presentation style, based on recent research and best practice. Some key points are:

• Use more images – to make an emotional connection with your audience in a way 8 lines of unreadable text can’t
• Ask questions instead of giving statements – it makes the audience think about what you’re saying and remember it
• Pause, and give time for the audience to think about those questions
• Use video or charts, and colour to increase your impact – but avoid unnecessary animations and transitions
• Think “If your audience could remember only three things about your presentation, what would you want them to be?” And make sure those three things are clear.
• Keep it simple!

More helpful information:

Presentation Zen – with some great examples as well as tips

Originally published at reachfurther.com