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Showing posts from July, 2009

Getting Your Point Across

When you have to explain something to people, you may automatically whip out PowerPoint. And you may load it with bullet points, ready to shoot the audience into submission with facts. If only effective presentations were so easy... We've all seen too many awful presentations. Boring all-text presentations. Clipart-infested shows that had no real purpose. These things happen often because PowerPoint makes it so easy to create really bad presentations. You have to work hard to avoid this trap. Gauging the Situation While there are several wrong ways to present, there's no one right way, because different situations call for different types of presentations. Your presentation style needs to adapt to: - The audience (i.e. colleagues vs. industry analysts), - The venue (conference room vs. auditorium) - The time available ( a few-minute report vs. multi-hour seminar) - The content and media (no visual content vs. photos, charts, animations or movies). Each combination r