Project: Presentation - Effective Presentations - Still Holy Grail for Some in the Business World Today...

My Presentation:  How to "Be the Change that Makes the Difference"

It is crystal clear to me that the ability to create and give an effective presentation is a very valuable skill desired and heavily relied upon in today's business world.  However, if you say the phrase, "Death by PowerPoint", why is it that we all know what the phrase means?  Most of us could even share experiences of an incident(s) where we've been either the giver or receiver of a torturously, boring presentation filled with cluttered, unreadable slides which lasted way too long for any human to endure - no matter the age or maturity level. 

Well, help is here!  Over the last three (3) weeks I have learned some TIPs - DOs and DON'Ts of Presentations that I think should be in every savvy business person's arsenal of tools.  I'm going to share this information with you via my experiences as I completed this project. 

The first of which is a Storyboard, I have prepared many presentations but I've never used a storyboard and this project required one be created prior to beginning work on the actual slides in PowerPoint, etc.  Initially, I did not like this idea, I thought it would be a total waste of time and I will admit to procrastinating but I was totally wrong.  The storyboard helped me stay organized which allowed me to more quickly collect my thoughts regarding key points and how to present them.  This made the rest of the presentation process a breeze - the only remaining task that took any significant time was finding the right images that would help convey my message.  Check out my storyboard:

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012. Storyboard Page 2

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012. Storyboard Page 1

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012. Storyboard Page 3

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012. Storyboard Page 4

                              

Hawiane Tidwell, 2012. Storyboard Page 5

Once I completed my storyboard, I began working on my slides in PowerPoint.  Since I had the completed storyboard, I already had the text for all my slides so they were a breeze to complete.  I had the text on them all in no time.  Next I worked on the slides to which I was only going to add an image - TIP: as I mentioned before, this did take a significant amount of time because I had to look for just the right image.  As images are important and should support your key point(s).  Once I found and inserted all my images, I began to work on animations.  TIP: work on and set your slide transitions as you go along and after you make major changes, watch your presentation as a slide show.  I used an egg timer so I knew where I was within the three minute time limit.

Once I finished my transitions and animations, on the first slide, and using the storyboard as my guide, I recorded myself presenting my key points.  TIP:  Synching the audio with the flow of the slides took a little more tweaking of the transition times and the delay of animations.  Finally I had the slides and the audio synched and I saved it as a Windows Media Video (WMV).    I then used YouTube, Web 2.0 Tool, to share the video of my presentation with others.  I have added a clickable link to the video on the YouTube website, as well as, the video below - so check it out: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAd6UNsg3c&feature=youtu.be    

"Hawiane Tidwell, 2012."

Now we've come to the 2nd to last step of the presentation project assignment, critiquing yourself and a peer(s).  I watched many of the videos and for the most part, I was really proud of the Gator Nation talent that's out there!  Watching other presentations also helped me to formulate a mental note of things that I should and should not do.  The young man's presentation I chose to critique did a great job.  There was a logical flow to his presentation.  He really was able to 1) anticipate and answer questions, 2) to grab my attention, 3) to set the context with concise explanation, 4) to avoid clutter by presenting readable slides and 5) he said it then showed it.  He didn't use any slides with bulleted text, most of his slides contained one (1) word in large font. 

My presentation (MP) was also critiqued by my peers.  The feedback MP received was very favorable and from it I've learned that I am more critical of myself so I will share my view of my MP.  MP had a very logical flow and sequence to the content:  I started out by asking the audience a question, explained why I was there, told audience what was in it for them, told audience my story, called audience to action and then closed.  I feel that I appropriately anticipated and answered questions:  TIP: I opened with a question to create common ground and to grab the audience's attention and curiosity.  I also asked questions periodically to keep the audience actively listening and involved. 

In MP I set the context with a concise explanation that made it easy for the audience to clearly understand what MP was about.  I did avoided inconsistencies, errors, and typos and I did not make any unbelievable claims.  However, I do feel I could have improved on validating the claims I made within my MP.  I chose to use my personal experience to validate one (1) of the claims I made - which was fine.  For the other claim I made reference to multiple studies that actually support my claim but I did not actually reference a specific study because again this claim could also be validated by one's personal experiences but I didn't directly state that in MP.  Yep!  That was where I was harder on myself than my peer(s) - they didn't feel the claims needed additional validation...  Another issue regarding MP which wasn't mentioned by my peers but I feel could be improved was the quality of the sound.  I didn't have a microphone other than the one inside the laptop so there was some unavoidable background noise.  For my next presentation, I will definitely find a better solution for sound. 

And to wrap up my critique of myself, to avoid clutter and ensure the readability of my slides, TIP: I used the "10/20/30 Rule" - Never 1) use more than 10 slides, 2) speak more than 20 minutes and 3) use a font smaller than 30 pt.  I had eleven (11) slides which included the title and references pages.  The presentation was a little less than three (3) minutes and I used a 32 pt font or higher on every slide - most having a font size 54 - 80 pt.  I chose images which supported my key point(s).  And I also stated the point(s) then showed the supporting text or slide.  There were a couple of places where I paused a little too long, I would have fixed had time permitted. 

I hope this information has been helpful to you and will be a source of reference should you be required to give a presentation.  TIP: Just remember to keep your audience in mind, approach the presentation from their perspective, and remember the 10/20/30 Rule - you will give an awesomely,  effective presentation!!