Three Tips to Make Your Presentations Rock!

Don’t Over-Do It!

Too many differing fonts, sounds and animations can kill your message. I remember watching a speaker that had every single slide animated with movement and sound. To this day I have to think very hard about to remember the content of her presentation; I was so distracted by the noise and action that I could not focus on her content. It’s really not that cute and it takes loads of your time to design it that way.


The Rule of Three

Too much content can overwhelm your learners. Keep each slide to three bullet points and limit each bullet point to around seven or eight words. If there is deeper content your audience needs to know provide them with a handout (not a copy of the slides). Your slides simply represent a summary of the key points you will be presenting, not a comprehensive data dump of all of your knowledge on the topic. The figures I have heard indicate that your audience will retain about 10% of what they hear you say… so it’s best to provide them with a meaningful handout.


Contrast is Good

Although a dark blue background with yellow font may be beautiful to look at, it is very difficult for your audience to read. Instead, opt for a light background with dark font. Be careful when you use the grey tones; I was watching someone present highly technical content to a large audience, and the slides they had designed had a medium grey background with a light grey font (with too many bullet points). The end result was that unless you were sitting in the front row, you could not read the slide. Partner this with no handout to support the content, and the presentation quickly becomes a dismal failure.

As you plan your next presentation, keep in mind this quote from Maya Angelou:

I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. - Maya Angelou