Presentations Matter!

Transcript

1. Presentations Matter … a few things we can do to improve them
2. Presentations Matter … a few things we can do to improve them This talk was designed to be delivered live, but I have inserted some notes in boxes like this to help you make sense of the talk!
3. Why? So what are the reasons that presentations are so important?
4. “Ideas that spread... Win”
5. A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can’t convince enough other people it doesn't matter.
6. A person can have the greatest idea in the world. But if that person can’t convince enough other people it doesn't matter. Gregory Berns
7. First impressions count Presentations are often a point of first contact with people, it forms a large part of what they will think about you and your business
8. Show and tell! Presentations are your opportunity to SHOW people what you are talking about through effective visual aids
9. Teach people
10. Al Gore helped teach us all about Climate Change through his presentation “An Inconvenient Truth”
11. You can really stand out from the crowd by delivering a well thought out, structured presentation, chances are your competitors wont
12. BUT, something has gone wrong, most presentations are not all that great and leave us feeling like him…
13. How can we change things
14. Structure Visuals Other
15. Structure and the “why”
16. Why are you presenting? It might seem like an obvious question, but thinking about your exact reasons for presenting, and your specific desired outcomes can help you start thinking in the right direction.
17. Tailor your approach You must also tailor your approach for every presentation, no 2 audiences are the same, and 1 size never fits all!
18. Deep In terms of number of messages, you can either go deep on a small few
19. Deep Wide Or shallow on a wider number
20. Deep No Go Area!!! Trying to go deep on a wide number of issues is a no-go area, this is where we get into having 1 to 2 hour presentations which send everyone to sleep
21. Three messages 1 2 3 In my opinion 3 is the magic number
22. 20 Minutes And the optimal time should be in and around the 20 minute mark tops. We have finite attention spans, and can really only take in so much new material at once. Brevity is your friend!
23. Curation! This means you need to engage in Curation! It’s not easy to get your presentation down to 20 minutes
25. An art gallery COULD throw up pictures everywhere, but they realise that this is not an effective way for people to appreciate art.
26. They own a lot more paintings, but they are put in storage. You own a lot of ideas, but similarly you have to choose only a few, suitable, relevant and engaging ones for any presentation
27. Crafting the Message So once you have decided what you want your core messages to be you need to start deciding what exactly is the best, most suitable way to get this across to your audience
28. Do not start here! Don’t even go near a computer for now
29. Clear your head Go for a walk, sit in a different room, get out of the computer mindset. Think about what your audience need to know.
30. Is it understandable? All the while thinking about whether it is understandable or not. It can be easy to forget that your audince may know NOTHING about your business area
31. Just try and imagine what it is like to be in their shoes, imagine approaching your subject area for the first time. What would need explanation?
32. Simple language Use simple language to explain concepts
33. The eBay for buyers & sellers of live music Use references that people will understand, like Ebay, and avoid Jargon.
34. An ecommerce platform for the facilitation of musical events through dynamic database driven relationships I could have used this explanation… It’s not really as easy to understand though…
35. Stories are remembered & Understood Try and tell the story of how your product, service or idea will benefit…
36. What does it mean for him? The AUDIENCE! How will it make their life better?
37. Visuals So once you have decided WHY you want to present, WHAT it is you want to present, and HOW you are going to do it, it is now – and only now – time to start thinking about the visuals
38. Remember at all times that the slides are intended for the audience, not you!
39. Not This We have all seen the people who use their powerpoint slides as an autocue… this is not what they are for!
40. There is nothing wrong with having a computer screen strategically set up so you can keep track of what slide you are on, and what is coming up next
41. Even Steve Jobs does it!
42. How many slides?
43. As many as you need I saw use as many as you need. Think in terms of number of messages, or number of minutes, the slide count is irrelevant. If you make a good presentation people will neither know nor care how many slides you used
44. As many as you need We don’t tell filmmakers to use only 5 scenes, or documentary makers to use a limited number of pieces of footage. Similarly. following some arbitrary slide count rule is pointless
45. Get rid of the logo
46. For triangles make it tri-co Intro Tri Co. Tri Co. Tri Co. By having logos, straplines and needless brand related graphics on every slides we severely reduce the usable space for our visual aids down to the area of the red box
47. Fonts Choosing the right font is important
48. Readability First and foremost, it’s important to ensure that it is readable
49. Aim to be more like a billboard…
50. Or a roadsign…
51. DISCLAIMER BIG COMPANY X FOR BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL INVESTORS ONLY AND NOT TO BE USED WITH THE GENERAL PUBLIC THIS FINANCIAL PROMOTION WAS ISSUED AND APPROVED BY COMPANY X, FOR DISTRIBUTION TO INSTITUTIONAL AND PROFESSIONAL CLIENTS ONLY. THIS COMMUNICATION IS ONLY INTENDED FOR AND WILL BE ONLY DISTRIBUTED TO PERSONS RESIDENT IN JURISDICTIONS WHERE SUCH DISTRIBUTION OR AVAILABILITY WOULD NOT BE CONTRARY TO LOCAL LAWS OR REGULATIONS. THE DOCUMENT HAS BEEN PREPARED SOLELY FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OR A RECOMMENDATION TO BUY OR SELL ANY PARTICULAR SECURITY OR TO ADOPT ANY SPECIFIC INVESTMENT STRATEGY. THE MATERIAL CONTAINED HEREIN HAS NOT BEEN BASED ON A CONSIDERATION OF ANY INDIVIDUAL CLIENT CIRCUMSTANCES AND IS NOT INVESTMENT ADVICE, NOR SHOULD IT BE CONSTRUED IN ANY WAY AS TAX, ACCOUNTING, LEGAL OR REGULATORY ADVICE. TO THAT END, INVESTORS SHOULD SEEK INDEPENDENT LEGAL AND FINANCIAL ADVICE, INCLUDING ADVICE AS TO TAX CONSEQUENCES, BEFORE MAKING ANY INVESTMENT DECISION. THE PROSPECTUS AND/OR SIMPLIFIED PROSPECTUS SHOULD BE READ BEFORE AN INVESTMENT IS MADE. THE INVESTMENT OBJECTIVES AND POLICIES FOR EACH SUB-FUND ARE OUTLINED IN THE SUPPLEMENTS TO THE PROSPECTUS. ANY RESEARCH IN THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN UNDERTAKEN AND MAY BE ACTED ON BY COMPANY X FOR ITS OWN PURPOSE. THE RESULTS OF SUCH RESEARCH ARE BEEN MADE AVAILABLE ONLY INCIDENTALLY. THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS EXPRESSED DO NOT CONSTITUTE INVESTMENT OR ANY OTHER ADVICE AND ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. THEY DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS AND OPINIONS OF ANY COMPANY OF THE MEDIOLANUM GROUP OR ANY PART THEREOF AND NO ASSURANCES ARE MADE AS TO THEIR ACCURACY. THE INFORMATION ABOVE IS BASED ON INFORMATION AND DATA SUPPLIED BY THIRD PARTIES. WHILE SUCH INFORMATION AND DATA ARE BELIEVED TO BE ACCURATE, COMPANY X DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INACCURACY IN SUCH DATA. PRODUCTS, REPORTS, RATIOS AND RATINGS DO NOT CONTAIN ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT IS REQUIRED IN ORDER TO EVALUATE AND/OR COMPARE PRODUCTS AND/OR SERVICE PROVIDERS. OPINIONS INCLUDED IN THIS MATERIAL CONSTITUTE THE JUDGMENT OF COMPANY X AT THE TIME SPECIFIED AND MAY BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. COMPANY X IS NOT OBLIGED TO UPDATE OR ALTER THE INFORMATION OR OPINIONS CONTAINED WITHIN THIS MATERIAL. INVESTORS SHOULD CONSULT THEIR OWN Than a terms and conditions. This one just screams “please don’t read me”
52. Fonts say something Fonts say something about you, so be careful that you use
53. Coca cola chose this typeface for a reason, they want to seem fun, energetic and exciting
54. KPMG also chose their font for a reason… they want to seem like accountants!
55. Classic Antiques This doesn’t fit with the business too well
56. Cloud Tech Co. Neither does this
57. Size How big should your text be?
58. Big enough for the guy at the back of the room! Try and check out the space you will be presenting in and see what the screen looks like from the back.
59. Images Images are hugely important
60. Info alone = 10% recall
61. Info plus Image = 65% recall They help with recall of information
62. NO Clipart But never use this…
63. NO Low-Res
64. NO Low-Res Use HIGH res
65. NO Watermarked
66. For triangles make it tri-co Intro Tri Co. Tri Co. Tri Co. Our new product is called twitter We have designed the interface to look like this It’s great. If you are showing a screenshot don’t hide it off in a corner, if you are showing it it is important, if it is important get rid of everything else
67. Make it full screen!
68. Our trip will take you on a lovely trip to some really great places Again, don’t hide it…
69. Give the image the space it deserves. It can tell a story far better than your logo or corporate template can.
70. Make it real
71. The Team If you are talking about your team, don’t use something like this, its cheesy and CLEARLY not real
72. Energy Expert Ops Expert Sales Expert Tech Expert Sales Expert The Team Show them your REAL team, show them real pics of your business or idea, we all like things that are REAL!
73. Where? Where can you find these images?
74. www.flickr.com
75. You can find great pics like this one on Flickr
78. www.Canstockphoto.com The best & most affordable stock photo site around
79. You can also search by model. He is angry here…
80. Do I look happy? And still a bit cranky here… this feature is pretty useful at times.
81. Step away from the effects! Animations and transitions should be avoided like the plague
82. Transitions Just because you CAN use them, it doesn’t mean you SHOULD
83. Pow! Most of them look like effects out of the old Batman series
86. Distracting Most of them do little but provide distraction
87. Fade Stick to simple ones like fade
88. Use the right charts for your data Using the right charts for your data can be very important
89. Keep it simple
90. A B C D E Don’t use 3d charts when there is no 3rd dimension of data to be used
91. Series1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 A B C D E A B C D E They are ugly AND more importantly make it harder to read and compare data.
92. Series1 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 A B C D E A B C D E Which is the entire point of showing them in the first place
93. Q: Which team had greater sales? Team B or Team E Lets do a quick test
94. A B C D E Well which is larger section b or section e? Pretty hard isn’t it
95. A B C D E Making it 2d it a bit easier
96. A B C D E A B C D E Label it If we labelled it that would take some of the hastle out of it
97. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 A B C D E A B C D E But maybe a bar chart would be better? It is now much easier to compare them instantly
98. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 A B C D E A B C D E We could also use colour to draw attention to the relevant data
99. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 A B C D E A B C D E Much better than the original…
100. A B C D E
101. It really happens
102. •The Big Plan •Plan A Name of Business Big Logo Customer Customer A 37.7% Customer B 22.5% Customer C 9.9% Customer D 8.0% Customer E 7.1% Customer F 5.9% Customer G 2.0% Customer H 1.8% Customer I 1.5% Customer J 1.0% Customer K 0.8% Customer L 0.2% Customer M 0.2% 37.70% 22.50% 9.90% 8.00% 7.10% 5.90% 2.00% 1.80% 1.50% 1.00% 0.80% 0.20% 0.20% % Customer A Customer B Customer C Customer D Customer E Customer F Customer G Customer H Customer I Customer J Customer K Customer L This is a slide I received, the message is pretty hard to decode
103. 0.2% 0.2% 0.8% 1.0% 1.5% 1.8% 2.0% 5.9% 7.1% 8.0% 9.9% 22.5% 37.7% M L K J I H G F E D C B A Customer Sales Shares for Quarter 2 by customer Name of Business Here is the same data. It was intended to show how large customer A had grown.
104. A few other tips
105. Rehearse For a presentation to be truly great you will need to rehearse till you go blue in the face
106. If people only knew how hard I work to gain my mastery it wouldn’t seem too wonderful at all. Michelangelo
107. Steve Jobs, known for his legendary presentations rehearses for literally days in advance
108. Out Loud You need to do this too… OUT LOUD, preferably in front of friends or colleagues. You will get great feedback and will be far more confident with the material come the big day
109. Something will go wrong You should just assume that something will go wrong… and prepare a plan B and C
110. Your computer might die on you before the presentation even begins, what will you do?
111. Go home? Try and deliver it from memory?
112. ALWAYS bring your presentation on a USB key instead
113. AND put it up online somewhere. In that case if you can borrow another computer you can use with the USB key or online source to run your presentation
114. You should also go REALLY oldschool and bring a paper back up, maybe there will be a power cut and the projector will be dead. You have to be prepared for that.
115. My grandfather always said “Stay two steps from disaster”, I whole-heartedly endorse that!
116. Sharing it after There are great ways for you to give life to your presentation after the delivery is done
117. Slideshare.net Putting it up on slideshare.net is a great start
118. Its like the Youtube for presentations
119. You can embed slideshare presentations on your website
120. They can be viewed through twitter
121. They can be viewed through Facebook and linkedin too
122. Reach! Things like this give your presentation much greater reach!
123. Last 4 1,500 views My last 4 uploads to slideshare have averaged 1,500 views
124. Most ever 26,000 views One was viewed 26,000 times! I could never deliver that presentation to that many people face to face
125. Go forth and share! So go forth and share!
126. Get in touch If you want to get in touch to talk about anything presentation related…
127. ed@clearpreso.com www.twitter.com/clearpreso www.clearpreso.com You know where you can find me! Thanks!