After a presentation I gave in the Netherlands a couple of weeks ago, a colleague asked me about a (plain) black slide I had inserted in my presentation. It’s something I learned from a workshop, a book or a blog … I can’t remember exactly. The idea is that during your presentation you may want to “pause” the presentation in order to get everyone’s attention, and make a specific point. I use this pause in a variety of ways. I will tell a special story demonstrate a unique feature of one of my products involve the audience in an activity introduce the next topic in my presentation, to give it… Read More
Continue ReadingApples to apples & the whole nine yards
Last week I was in the Netherlands and had the opportunity to work with some very dynamic colleagues. As expected, we spent most of our time talking about presentations. During the week I gave four presentations; I must say I was a little nervous. Of course I was concerned how my message(s) would be received, but there was something else. Everyone in these audiences spoke English very well; however, it was their second (or third) language. Presenting in this situation can be a challenge, you aren’t sure if your phrases and terms will be understood by your audience. Given how we speak, it is virtually impossible to avoid some slang… Read More
Continue ReadingTwo simple steps
Last week I attended a high level medical conference. Most of the presentations at the conference contained reports or information on research studies, and most of the presentations were the traditional content rich /data rich type. This can be pretty dry, but I noticed some of the presenters used simple but effective tools (in the presentation software) which helped the audience navigate through the data on the slides. You can use these tools to quickly and easily update your slides to increase the audience connection. One of the things they did was to use “builds”. You can find the technique under animations – custom animations in PowerPoint. Designing your slide… Read More
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