Powerpoint design re-conceived

Mary Meetings

powerpoint design has something of a notorious reputation: ‘Death by Powerpoint’ is by now a familiar phrase among office workers who have had to endure countless meetings and presentations in which someone more senior than them takes it upon him or herself to deliver a stream of information that does little more than raise a yawn. Indeed, when that phrase was invented by Angela R. Garber it spoke to a wide audience who had simply had enough of being treated in this patronising way. In Switzerland last year, the Anti PowerPoint Party formed, vowing to decrease the use of Powerpoint amid claims that it decreased the quality of presentations in 95% of cases. This party advanced the revival of the flipchart as a way of getting us more engaged with information again. This would perhaps signal a reactionary move too far the other way, however; the Swiss party might rather look at instructing people how to use Powerpoint presentations more effectively. After all, sales presentations delivered on a flip chart would most probably be deemed deficient in images in this day and age.

In 2012 it has been estimated that some of us look at between 5-7000 images per day, most of them on our laptops. A figure like this suggests that it would simply be anachronistic to revert back to drawing diagrams and messages with pen and paper. What’s more, you cannot make simple transitions to film clips when you’re using a flip chart, while you absolutely can, seamlessly, With Powerpoint. It is time to focus on how we use Powerpoint, then, not whether we use it or not. Perhaps the most crucial thing to recall is that this piece of commercial software is merely a tool, not a thing with a fixed usage. Granted, it is not easy to remember this, given that we’ve been conditioned to experience Powerpoint used unimaginatively. But it is possible to change our ways for the better.

We might start improving our Powerpoint presentations by thinking about how we take in information on our screens. Just take a moment, next time you are reading an article online or watching a YouTube clip, to assess whether you are taking in what you are seeing, whether you are enthused by the content, and whether you could improve on your habits in any way. All of these considerations will feed usefully into your intentions for improved powerpoint design and sales presentations.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Sales presentations depend on more than a good idea

David Meetings, Sales

Powerpoint presentations are extremely easy to put together with a minimum of training. That is both their strength and their failing. sales presentations are complex undertakings that need effective communication of your idea. But as well as what you are communicating, you need to look at how it is communicated. Powerpoint design can either strengthen your presentation – adding to its impression and convincing your hearers of your ideas – or it can seriously detract from it. If that’s the case, it may not matter how good your ideas or competitive your package. If you lose your audience with a dull presentation, they’re not going to be interested.

That’s why Powerpoint has to be employed with a pinch of salt. It’s a fantastically useful program and, delivered well, it can add significantly to the effect you are hoping to transmit. However, it has become the expectation that sales presentations must be accompanied by a Powerpoint presentation. That adds a pressure to put something – anything – together, even if it is badly thought through. Needless to say, relying on an amateur slide presentation is a recipe for disaster.

Part of this is unfortunately our culture’s love of multimedia. The more parallel strands of information we can take in, the better. So a talk isn’t complete without visual representations of what you’re saying – pictures and, better still, video clips. The problem arises when these distract from the chief content rather than adding to it. Simplicity is key. But additionally, the presentation needs to contribute something of itself. We’ve all attended lectures where the spoken content is mirrored on the screen – and, quite likely, in a handout too. Thus the message is simply triplicated, and you could equally skim the handout in five minutes than sit through the hour of speech. It’s frustrating and a waste of time – and something to be avoided in your own presentations.

So, Powerpoint presentations must complement, not replicate the content of your sales presentations. Careful Powerpoint design will enable you to communicate more effectively, rather than distracting from your spoken message. This is vital, since the expectation that a talk will be accompanied by overheads can push well-meaning but misguided speakers into hamstringing themselves and losing their audience on what would otherwise have been a fascinating talk. If that costs you a contract, then it’s easy to see that a little training or outsourcing can be an investment that is worth making and can pay for itself over and over.

Please visit http://www.eyefulpresentations.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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Video conferencing can help drop costs

David Business, Meetings

Meetings are a fact of life, and it’s also the case that there is simply no substitute for face-to-face time. If there are major decisions to be made, then it’s generally best to make them in person – the phone and email just aren’t reasonable substitutes. There is so much nonverbal communication that happens in an exchange that such media can strip out a significant level of content, leading to misunderstandings and potentially serious problems. At the same time, however, meetings can be extremely inconvenient, especially when they involve multiple people and take place in another country. video conferencing is one way around this. Technology has progressed to the point where telepresence video conferencing can be a good substitute for the real thing, obviating the need for costly and time-consuming travel. There may be occasions when you still need to meet in person, since no system, no matter how advanced, is perfect; nevertheless, audio visual conferencing can be a viable way to ‘meet’ now.

Travel is expensive and time consuming, and it is often enormously costly in terms of man-hours to send someone to a meeting or conference – especially when they are likely to spend many hours in transit for the sake of an hour or two in the same room as someone else. There is also an environmental cost to be considered, something that many firms are now aware of. Even if they are not, then this is going to have an increasing financial effect, as this is realistically the only way of limiting Carbon emissions. Therefore travel will increasingly start to show up on companies’ balance sheets.

In a connected world, there is less and less cause to travel to meetings, however, and large companies and charities are finding video conferencing an economical alternative to doing so. Audio visual conferencing can almost give the impression of being in the same room as someone else, and is far more sophisticated than a Skype call – which, although outstanding by the standards of recent years, is behind the competition in this sense. Telepresence video conferencing is a step closer to that all-important face-to-face meeting, for which there is realistically no substitute. You might not be able to shake hands with the others, but you will be able to see them close-to, read their expression and be able to put their words into context – something all but impossible with even a phone call, let alone email. It’s a technology that has recently come of age, and is the perfect solution to the time and financial costs associated with globalisation.

Please visit http://www.edgevision.co.uk/ for further information about this topic.

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