The World's Worst Presentation? What do you think?

This video will be painful to watch "the first time". But, it's worth watching all the way for the suprise and as a test of your observations skills.

How many lessons and notes can you make about what not to do during a presentation? How would you use these lessons to help yourself and other presenters? You might need to watch it more than once.



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Modern Presentation Design?

I was challenged to write about modern presentation design. The challenge was intended to focus on slide design. I choose to relate that to the overall presentation purpose and delivery.

PowerPoint MVP, Ellen Finkelstein orchestrated this challenge to a group of presentation specialists. I was one of several who accepted her challenge. You can find the links within this article. If you’re planning to use PowerPoint slides in the next year, be sure to follow each link and read these posts. It could make the difference between grief and joy for your next presentation.

The concept intrigued me because I wondered about the use of the word modern as applied to presentations. I normally associate modern with fashion – particularly for clothing, home design and automobiles.

Modern seems to be about style, image and novelty. I was tempted to dismiss the subject as trivial.

How might modern design apply to presentation? Let’s remember that the goal isn’t to be modern. The goal is to deliver an effective presentation that persuades the listeners of the value of the message and to act accordingly. Could modern design be a valuable tool for presenters?

The relevant question is, “Might modern design enhance the effectiveness of the presentation?”

I believe the answer is yes.

Novelty

Novelty in design and delivery can help to attract and hold the attention of the audience. It doesn’t take much to achieve this because we’ve suffered through too many boring same old presentations.

Troy Chollar predicts more effective use of eye-catching transitions with Morph.

Image

A presenter wants to project an image of confidence, credibility and commitment. Modern design can contribute to that powerful image because it demonstrates awareness, resourcefulness and extra effort.

Craig Hadden offers a unique tip about displaying your Twitter account on your slides to stimulate social media interaction.

If you’re wondering “should you go wide screen?” Anug Malhotra addresses that question along with 16 other practical suggestions on his list of 17 Tips for 2017.

Style

Each presenter should follow proven presentation principles and adapt the relevant techniques to their own personal style. When they do that, they appear natural, comfortable and more trustworthy.

Ellen Finkelstein offers 10 suggestions of modern style including thin fonts and borders.

Ken Molay reminds us that modern design can make it more challenging to use the software. Modern doesn’t always mean better.

Mike Parkinson reminds presenters that it’s imperative to connect the dots for your listeners. One way to do that is with the use of the PowerPoint Zoom feature which is an adaption of Prezi.

Should you modernize your presentation slides?

Yes – if you want better results from your presentations.

What are your questions and ideas about modern presentation design?

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6 Ways to Quit Bullet Points with Style

Practical tips from this slideshow and well illustrated.

6 Ways to Quit Bullet Points with Style from Podium Wisdom

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Life After Death by PowerPoint 2012 by Don McMillan

You can laugh when you watch this - then check your own PowerPoint slides.





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How to Make Stats More Interesting

Watch this video to discover:
1. how to take stats from boring to brilliant and
2. how to make charts on your slides more entertaining and instructive.

This video is from a TED talk by Hans Rosling. When I first heard the topic and saw the typical chart displayed I expected a boring lecture. I was delightfully suprised. I enjoyed the presentation and understand his message.

If you thought that a presentation packed with statistics has to be boring, watch this and enjoy.






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Save Us From Ugly PowerPoint Slides

How can you change this ugly PowerPoint typical bar chart slide ...

...into this simple and more visual pleasing PowerPoint slide?

Notice that the second slide is more visually pleasing. It's also much easier to understand the key point - that Australia leads the world in this study.

If you are ready to display better PowerPoint Slides with your next presentation and you would like to learn how to create these slides faster yourself - then check out this guide:

Slides Made Simple

There's no need to spend thousands of dollars hiring a design company to create your slides.

There's no need to embarrass yourself by using boring and ugly slides.

There's no need to waste day's learning how to be a graphic designer.

Download this practical guide to creating simple and effective visual slides and you will immediately start re-programing your brain to design better slides every time.

Click here to grab your copy of Slides Made Simple

PS: It comes with a money back guarantee.


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Warning – Presentation Danger Ahead

When you speak before an audience you will encounter the ravages of Murphy’s Law. It is not a matter of “if” things go wrong, it is only a matter of “when” they will go wrong. You can’t predict when that will happen. Murphy is always lurking in the room just waiting to attack.

Don’t count on luck to help you avoid these presentation gremlins. Remember that there’s both good luck and bad luck. Some presenters claim that if it wasn’t for bad luck, they’d have no luck at all.

If you speak, you will encounter some of these presentation potholes, detours and accidents. Murphy seems to enjoy messing with presentations. This report is as close as you can get to holding a “Get Out of Jail Free” card.

You can’t always prevent these potholes, detours and accidents from assaulting your presentation. But you can prepare for them so you can minimize the damage and shine through the turbulence.

Luck is the residue of design.

Rickey’s Law

Get your free copy of the eBook 
Turn Presentation Disasters into Presentation Success

Just click the link - no need to give your name or email.

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Worst PowerPoint Slides Contest - Worst of the Worst

Here are the "winners" of the Worst PowerPoint Slides contest sponsored by InFocus.

Laugh at these designs then quickly to look at some of your PowerPoint slides.

If you don't laugh when you see these slides, then you better get help for your PowerPoint slides - fast. Who knows what it could be costing you.

Click this link to view the Worst PowerPoint Slides



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PowerPoint Does Not Equal Presentation

You Don’t have a Presentation?

The audio-video guy at the conference asked me for my deck. I told him that I would not use PowerPoint for my presentation.

His incredulous response was, “You don’t have a presentation?”

I laughed and responded, “Of course I do and it’s all in here” pointing to my head, “and it’s never broken down yet.”

His response illustrates that many people equate presentation with PowerPoint. Congratulations to Microsoft on their massive brainwashing. PowerPoint is an easy-to-use software that has seduced hordes of presenters into thinking that PowerPoint is their presentation.

Should you use PowerPoint in your presentation?

That’s a good question to ask. More presenters need to ask that question.

The answer is, “Only if it helps your audience understand and act on your message.”

If you are using PowerPoint as your notes – don’t use it. You’ve probably seen speakers who look at each slide in surprise as they try to stay on track. You might even have suffered through speakers who read the bullet points to you from the slides. Did they think you couldn’t read?

What should you put on your PowerPoint slides?

Images

That means – photos, charts, sketches.

Not text and numbers.

PowerPoint is best used as a visual medium. Text and numbers are not visual. They are processed in a different part of the brain than images.

Before your next presentation consider these questions:

What's the best way to convey your message to your audience?
Would PowerPoint help your audience understand your message?  

Are you using PowerPoint as your crutch?

If the answer to the last question is yes, consider this: your audience will recognize your struggle.

PowerPoint does not equal presentation.

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Eye Movement for Your PowerPoint Slides

Eye Flow Test

Check the design of your slides with the eye flow test.

1. Where is the first place the eyes of your audience will go when the slide appears?

2. After a few seconds where do the eyes go next? 

3. With a well designed slide you should know the third place their eyes go to.

If you are not sure where the eyes go when the slide comes up – then you don’t know where your audience is looking or what they might be thinking. How can you be on their wavelength if you don’t know their wavelength?

If your slides don’t pass the eye flow test, go back and redesign or remove that offending slide.

How do you know where the eyes go? Test yourself. Look at advertisements in magazines. Notice where your eyes stop first. Ask yourself “why?” Eye flow is easy to predict because of important principles that determine how our eyes move.

Some things to understand about our eyes

• They jump from point to point.
• They are attracted to light.
• They are attracted to motion.
• They tend to start at the top left of the screen/ page because of the way we learned to read.
• They look to images before text.
• They seek familiar patterns.
• They notice the unusual.

You can learn more about simple graphic design from the book, "The Non-designers Design Handbook" by Robin Williams. This book explains four fundamentals of graphic design which are essential to creating effective visuals.

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How to Attract the Eyes in Your Multi-Media Presentation

Two Key Principles of Eye Movement

Let’s look at two important principles of presenting with a computer and screen.

Our Eyes are Attracted to Light

Perhaps you have noticed when walking or driving at night that your eyes flash to the source of the brightest light.

You can use this attraction to light principle in the development and delivery of your presentation. When presenting you should always stand in the brightest light so people focus on you. Have the lights slightly dimmer at the back of the room. Bright lights at the back or side of the room will continually distract them.

On a screen it is easier to read lighter coloured letters on a darker coloured background. Our eyes are naturally attracted to the lighter letters – just where we want them to focus. (But don't use white on black. It's eye catching but difficult to read.) 

In contrast black letters on a white background is punishing to our eyes Because it is a light-emitting source our eyes are naturally attracted to the light background. Meanwhile we are forcing our eyes to focus on the black letters. This creates an internal conflict, which tires and annoys. The other pain this type of slide inflicts is that the eyes spend most of the time looking at the bright white light – which tires first the eyes and secondly the person.

Our Eyes are Attracted to Motion

For our cave-dwelling ancestors this was probably an important survival trait because movement signified either food or danger.

When you are speaking don’t have things moving on the screen because people will watch the movement and ignore what you say. Our brain can generally do one thing well at a time – watch or listen. Watching seems to take precedence. When you want people to look at the screen, gesture towards the screen then stand still. To recapture their attention after they have been studying the screen – take a step, stop, and then speak. Your movement draws their attention back to you. This principle explains why we easily get distracted by the speaker fidgeting or pacing. 

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Impressive PowerPoint Presentation for a change

Enjoy this PowerPoint presentation with lots of powerful visuals - along with tips of how to do it yourself. As you view this, remember that PowerPoint is best when used as a visual medium. Text is not a visual even when displayed on a screen. Text is simply text and that does not reach the visual learners.

STEAL THIS PRESENTATION!

View more presentations from @JESSEDEE

http://www.slideshare.net/presentationCoach

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Can We Really Trust Your Marketing Department With Your Sales Presentation

If you are in sales, you might occasionally wonder if your marketing people are really working in your (and the company’s) best interest.

Are your team members working for you or against you? Discovering the answer to that question might start with uncovering the root of their motivation.

How does your marketing department get rewarded?

• Forecasting optimistic sales projections
• Creating nice looking marketing materials
• Winning marketing awards from marketing associations
• Spending money on expensive advertising campaigns
• Creating, and policing the sacred brand
• Addressing politically correct and hot issues
• Appearing to be green or following other popular fads and trends
• Convincingly explaining why the last marketing campaign didn’t work

How does your sales department get rewarded?

•  Sales

 Well that looks simple.
 
Often, your marketing department prepares or hires a marketing agency to prepare the standard sales PowerPoint presentation.

The PowerPoint slides were prepared in response to the expressed desire of senior executives to present a consistent message to prospects.

Because marketing is less concerned about selling and the needs of the prospects – the slideshow becomes a marketing feel-good show.

Because a marketing agency will charge several thousand dollars to produce this slideshow, the focus of their presentation is to appease the person signing the cheque – often the business owner.

So, the beginning of the slideshow will talk about the business, the business owner and his childhood trek across the desert. But, your prospects don’t care about this- at least not at the begging of the presentation.

Your prospects are still asking themselves important questions like:

• Why did I agree to look at this presentation?
• What’s in this for me?
• How much money did they waste on this slideshow?
• Why is this sales person wasting my time?

If the sales person blindly follows the marketing PowerPoint presentation, often the deal will fail. Marketing will blame the sales person. If the customer buys, it will most likely be because of the relationship between the prospect and the sales person. Yet, marketing will claim the success.

Sales can’t win and marketing never loses.

Can you really trust marketing to produce sales presentations that they never deliver? Can you really trust marketing to produce sales presentations that are not about selling?

This might sum it up.

The speaker at a small business conference stated, “I’m from marketing. I’m not here to sell you anything.” Either he was lying or he didn’t understand his real purpose.

Can we really trust your marketing department with your sales presentation?

I’m a marketing guy. But more importantly I'm a business owner so I know the importance of sales. If it doesn’t sell, it’s bad marketing.

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PowerPoint Tips, Mistakes and Ideas from 2011

What are the best ideas that you can use to improve your PowerPoint Presentations?


What if Your PowerPoint Slides Make You a Liar?


The marketing director of a well known Internet company presented us with fascinating stats about Internet use and users.

I was captivated by the numbers and percentages until he reached the graph slide in his PowerPoint presentation.

One of my colleagues raised his hand to ask a question. The presenter innocently paused to take the question and was blindsided by what happened next.


Black Death Versus PowerPoint


It's estimated that the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) killed 20 to 50 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1351. It's attack was swift and merciless. People didn't know how to deal with this threat. They didn't understand nor appreciate personal hygene nor sewage removol. They were vomitting in the streets - and dieing horibily. Almost half of the European population was eliminated in four years.


How Many Words Can You Have on Your Slides?


This is a question that more presenters need to ask before they speak. How many words should you put on your PowerPoint slides? What is the maximum number of words?



Geoff Ramm Presenting With PowerPoint


I watched my good friend from the UK, Geoff Ramm present at a few conferences. We were fellow speakers on this speaking tour. Geoff is a marketing expert and specializes in Observational Marketing. That means he looks around and reports what he sees – especially what seems to be working.
In his presentations Geoff made the best use of PowerPoint that I’ve seen. Too many speakers use PowerPoint as a crutch or shield. You know those speakers who simply repeat the words on the slide or constantly check the slides so they are reminded of what to say next.
 
 
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How Many Words Can You Have on Your Slides?

This is a question that more presenters need to ask before they speak. How many words should you put on your PowerPoint slides? What is the maximum number of words?

I wish more people would ask me because I would tell them - zero, zip, nada. PowerPoint slides should be for images only because it is a visual medium. Text is not visual. Images - photos, diagrams and charts are visual.

But, those people don't seem to listen to me.


Here is a tip that business presenters might find more palatable.

"Put as many words but no more on the slide than you can speak in one breath."

That practical advice comes from my friend, colleague and professional speaker, Mark Ellwood. He is a productivity expert who helps business professionals make better use of their most limited resource - time.

The photo above is a picture of a slide from a presentation I attended at a conference in Iran. As you can see - it has way too many words on the slide and no visuals at all. This PowerPoint scourge encompasses the globe.

The bad news is that presenters all around the world have been seduced into delivering boring PowerPoint presentations.

The good news is that presenters all around the world have been seduced into delivering boring PowerPoint presentations.

The wonderful news for you is that you can stand out from the competition by using less words and more visuals on your PowerPoint slides.

Look at your slide and try to read it out loud in one breath. I dare you! Then remove the excess words.

George Torok
Speech Coach for Executives
Presentation Skills Training
Presentation Skills Club on Facebook


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Better Name for PowerPoint?

Don’t be fooled by the name. There is no implied or real power in PowerPoint. It’s just a clever name. Would so many presenters have been as easily seduced if the product was named FoolsPoint, LoserPoint or BoringPoint?

PowerPoint is software that is easy to use. So, many presenters make the mistake of relying on the software instead of preparing an effective presentation. The next mistake they make is assuming that the PowerPoint slides are the presentation, so they don’t bother to improve their own presentation skills. They expect the software to present for them.

Microsoft put one over the whole presentation world by naming it PowerPoint.

So, let's have some fun and suggest a realist name for the scurge "once known as PowerPoint".


George Torok

PowerPoint Sins

SlideShare Presentations


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Black Death Versus PowerPoint

It's estimated that the Bubonic Plague (Black Death) killed 20 to 50 million people in Europe between 1347 and 1351. It's attack was swift and merciless. People didn't know how to deal with this threat. They didn't understand nor appreciate personal hygene nor sewage removol. They were vomitting in the streets - and dieing horibily. Almost half of the European population was eliminated in four years.

It took almost five years for the uneducated masses of the middle ages to learn how to deal with this threat.

In 1990 another plague assualted us - PowerPoint. Twenty one years later the people are still suffering from Death by PowerPoint.

Audiences are still suffering from bad PowerPoint Presentations. Educated people are still deverlering painful PowerPoint presentations.

Why?

Because the pain is kept to oneself, because the death is in deals lost, and the vomitting is done in private.

Cleary - it's not painful enough - yet.

What are the numbers?

We don't know for sure.

Consider this. When was the last time you sat through a PowerPoint presentation? Today? Last week? Last month?

How did you feel during that experience?

Let's consider some conservative assumptions about corporate presentations.

Of the Fortune Five hundred Corporatioins in North America, let's assume that each of them endures at least 10 interal PowerPoint presentations each working day.

At the same time let's assume that their sales reps are delivering at least 50 external presentations each day.

The next 2,000 large sized corporations are delivering at least five presentations per day.

The next 5,000 large and medium sized corporates are delivering at least one persentation per day.

Of the hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs at least 10,000 are delivering a PowerPoint presention each day.

Of the at least thousands of colleges and univeristies at least 2,000 must be delivering PowerPoint presentations every day.

So what does that leave us?

Fortune 500 x 10 = 5,000

Fortune 500 x 50 = 25,000

Next 2,000 corporate x 5 = 10,000

5,000 mid sized x 1 = 5,000

Entrepreneurs 10,000 x 1 = 10,000

Colleges & Universites 2000 x 1 = 2000


That suggests at least 57,000 presentations a day.

That means at least - 14 million presentations a year

Let's be conservative again and cut that number in half. So for for the last 20 years, at least 140 Million PowerPowerPoint presentations have been forcing people to vomit in private.

With at least five people attending each presentation - that makes at least 700 million people that have suffered the plague of Death by PowerPoint. That is more than twice the population of the USA.



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Effective Presentation Skills is Not Talent

Bad News and Good News for presenters. Successful presentations are not about talent.

If you believe you are a good presenter and can’t articulate the details of what makes you good – you don’t know why – beware! You are headed for surprise failure.

If you are a poor presenter and want to get better – take heart. You can build on the fundamentals. The leaders in any field stress the importance of knowing and doing the fundamentals.

The best presenters are skillful presenters – not talented presenters.

The ability to deliver good and great presentations is based on using the techniques of successful presentation skills. Skills can be learned and honed. All it takes is study, practice and training.

If you want to be a better presenter, understand the principles, practice the techniques, and get expert coaching. That’s how the best in any field get to be the best and stay there.

I have met many fabulous presenters. I have not met one yet who claimed to be a natural born presenter. I am a top notch professional presenter and executive speech coach. Yet I was not a natural born presenter. I can reveal to you examples of my own frustration along the journey. I invested time, effort and money to become a great presenter. To get better I studied and analyzed hundreds of presenters. I received advice, coaching and mentoring from the best that I could find. And I haven’t finished learning yet.

How about you? Where do you want to be?

If you want to improve your presentation results – improve your presentation skills.

Read tips, articles and books on presentation skills. Study other public speakers to learn from their success and mistakes. Listen to audio programs. Watch videos. Attend conferences, course and seminars. Hire a presentation skills coach.

If you really want to improve your presentations invest time, money and effort in improving your presentation skills.


George Torok

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What if Your PowerPoint Slides Make You a Liar?

The marketing director of a well known Internet company presented us with fascinating stats about Internet use and users.

I was captivated by the numbers and percentages until he reached the graph slide in his PowerPoint presentation.

One of my colleagues raised his hand to ask a question. The presenter innocently paused to take the question and was blindsided by what happened next.

My colleague boldly announced that the graph slide was wrong. The data clusters clearly could not be true for the axis defined in the example. When this was pointed out I could see his point. The graph was bogus. The marketing director tried to recover by accepting that the “data” illustrated on the slide was indeed bogus but that it was only for illustration purposes. My colleague continued to point out that because the data represented was bogus therefore anything else the marketing director said was thus suspect.

The marketing director stumbled as he attempted to skate by the flaw and continue to use the questionable slide for his example. My colleague persisted to the point of sounding angry. The marketing director finally conceded and moved on to the next slide and announced that the bogus slide would not be used again.

I was intrigued by the exchange and the impact on the room. Most of the audience knew of my colleague’s expertise and most likely “sided” with him on the point of credibility. The dispute ruined the flow of the presentation and hurt the presenter’s credibility. The presenter first attempted to continue what was clearly a flawed example. He attempted to belittle the flaw.

Most importantly the presenter failed to do three things:

He did not thank my colleague for being so astute.

He did not apologize for the error, (attempted deception).

And because of that he failed to clarify what I suspect was an important point.


You can take a few presentation learning points from this incident.

Don’t use PowerPoint slides prepared by someone else until you understand them fully.

When you use a PowerPoint presentation prepared by someone else – the audience will hold you accountable for errors.

Never use an illustration that is not representative of reality.

Not everyone raising their hand is asking a friendly question. Be prepared for the unexpected attack during your presentation.

When you are clearly wrong – apologize to the audience and thank the person who pointed out your error.


George Torok

The Speech Coach for Executives




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Top 10 Tips for Presenting Your Key Points - Slideshow

Top Ten Tips for Presenting Your Key Points

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Discover techniques that you can use to emphaise the key points of your presentation message.

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