How To Create Better · Most presentations are built by collecting enough ideas/slides to fill up...

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How To Create Better

Presentations

PREPARE MESSAGE DESIGN POWERPOINT

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CONGRATULATIONS

Alright… so congratulations are in order!

You’ve been shortlisted and the client recognizes that we are qualified to do the work. However, every firm on the shortlist is qualified, so what do you do now?

Use your interview to convince the panel that you know and understand their project more than any other team.

#1fear #2fear

public

speaking

death

Now… the bad news

Did you know that according to the Wall Street Journal, public speaking is the number one fear in America?

We seem more afraid of public speaking than we are of physical demise, heights, jumping out of a plane, or dreaded in-laws.

Nearly all men can stand

adversity, but if you want

to test a man’s character,

give him power.

Abraham Lincoln

Nancy Duarte

Out of the millions of presentations delivered every day, only a small percentage are delivered well – and as a society, we’ve come to expect it.

Unfortunately, while many people are able to verbally express themselves well in a presentation, our visual expression is notalways in line. We keep blaming the software for the terrible output, but we should all take more responsibility.

TYPICAL APPROACH

Demonstrate capabilities

• We’re qualified

• Our team is strong

• We know your project

Speaking roles

Polish presentation

CONTRARIAN APPROACH

Create chemistry, comfort

• What success looks like

• Answers to key challenges

• How we’ll work together

Interactive roles

Get people comfortable

Objective

Themes

Roles

Preparation

BECOME A CONTRARIAN

Death by PowerPoint Think like a billboard designerDesign

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Size RolesTechnical

knowledge

Hot

buttons/

drivers

Everyone knows how important it is to figure out what the client’s hot buttons, drivers, and challenges are BEFORE we write our proposal.

The same goes for our presentation. We need to know who our audience will be – each person is different and each person will have different priorities when choosing the winning firm.

For example, if we’re going to be presenting to a panel of procurement staff, we won’t want to get into too much technical detail – we want to focus our presentation on how we can add value to the client’s organization and hopefully save them money.

You also want to know the size of the audience –if there will only be two people from the client’s end, we don’t want to show up with a whole army of people and completely overtake the room.

KNOW YOUR

AUDIENCE

CAST THE TEAM

One of the first things you need to determine is who will attend the interview.

Right or wrong, people form an impression of how competent we are in the first few seconds that they meet us. The buyers want to get to know the people they will be working with. They want to know if they can trust us. The team who can present confidently and build trust and rapport with the audience has a great shot at getting to the top of the shortlist.

If you know you’re going to be shortlisted as part of the overall procurement process, this is something you want to think about and talk about at the proposal stage. Make sure the PM you select for your proposal is a good presenter and will elicit the response you want from the client.

INTERVIEW

LOGISTICS

Duration Format

Technology Order

How long will your presentation be?

What will the format be? How long do you have for the actual presentation… how long for Q&A?

Some clients give you a prescriptive format with questions to answer, some give you nothing.

Will the client require that you use their computer and their projector? If so, you want to make sure you use a standard size PowerPoint template with standard fonts.

And then of course, it’s always a game to figure out whether your team is presenting first, last, or somewhere in the middle. There are conflicting theories about which one is best… for me, I think I’d prefer to go last so you’re fresh in the client’s mind before they make their decision.

DRESS CODE

MATTERS

You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

It may seem silly, but it's critical to wear the right clothes at the right time at the right place. You don’t want to be either over or underdressed.

Just try to dress to the same level as, or a level above, your client. And of course, consider any social or geographical influences. If you’re meeting with international clients, research what is and isn’t appropriate.

Don’t just put effort into your slides, put effort into your style as well.

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When you’re tasked with a presentation, don’t think of it terms of slides, think of it in term of ideas.

What is the best way for you to present your ideas? How can I best connect my audience with my big ideas? THAT’s what your presentations should focus on.

If there is something in my presentation that doesn’t help me get my ideas across to my audience, I delete them. I would encourage you to do the same.

For many presentations, that may mean no presentation at all.

So what goes into a good presentation? Good storytelling and sound design

Each of these is worthy of more time than I will give today, but we’ll have enough time to browse through these topics, hit some high points. Hopefully this will arouse your curiosity to read and learn more.

People love a good story, and a good presenter is aware that his or her audience is waiting for a good one. However you approach your presentation, you should think of it in terms of big ideas and leading your audience through them.

Storytelling Design

Intro ----------------

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About You ----------------

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About Us ----------------

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Approach ----------------

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Approach ----------------

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ROI ----------------

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Experience ----------------

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Experience ----------------

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References ----------------

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Staff ----------------

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Why Us? ----------------

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Questions ----------------

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Most presentations are built by collecting enough ideas/slides to fill up the time allotted. The result is presentations that are relatively flat. Each slide conveys it’s information in the same general format, with the same general emphasis. This approach is easy, but it isn’t effective because the audience is left to pick out the important parts on their own. It’s like watching a movie without a plot, without a hero, a villain, or a climax.

The main thing to think about where storytelling is concerned is that a presentation full of bullets is by its nature flat. A slide deck of bulleted slides on their own are really a collection of information presented to your audience enmasse. It is left to your audience to discern what’s key. But a good presenter does this for them. He or she figures out who the audience is and what they want, then takes the time to highlight what is important for them.

Intro About

You

About

Us-

Approach Approach

ROI

Experienc

e ----------------

----------------

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Experienc

e ----------------

----------------

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Reference

s ----------------

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Staff Why Us? Questions

?

$

AB

AB

AreAre

We

• Do good work

Are

• Really cool

Awesome!

• Oh, we’re awesome

321

A good presentation tells a good story, and a good story has high points and low points. The audience isn’t left to wonder what the main point is, because the storyteller highlights them.

When developing a presentation, the first thing you should consider is your “big ideas”. Why is your audience here? What do you want them to remember a week later? A year later? These “big ideas” should be highlighted in your presentation. You should spend more time on those slides and ideally illustrate them in a way that makes the most impact.

map your presentation **

Before you start developing your presentation, you should map it out.

But most people start with a blank PowerPoint slide, and that’s a mistake. If you create in PowerPoint, you are probably already “in the box” and the tendency is to just populate the slides with what PPT expects (bullets).

Sticky notes are great and a better solution.

Easy to create/scrap

Easy to move around

If it can’t fit on a sticky note, it’s too much info for your slide

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Click here for a video on why visuals are essential in presentations,

in order to eliminate Death by PowerPoint

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Exn7alAxsLQ&t=14s

Three easy hacks to make your presentations look more professional

Here is yourmessage.

It’s super

importa

ntHere is yourmessage.

Here is yourmessage.It’s

super

importa

nt

But delivering it with bad slides

But delivering it with bad slides

But delivering it with bad slides

People won’t payany attentionto it.

And they’ll getdisappointed whenthey realise it’s notfish and chips*

metaphorically speakingof course

And they’ll getdisappointed whenthey realise it’s notfish and chips*

You don’t need to be a designer to make beautiful slides

Here are three easy hacksto make your presentationslook more professional

But before we begin, let’s have a look at the

ugly duckling

Gross isn’t it?

Gross isn’t it?White Background

Gross isn’t it?White Background

Bullet Points

Gross isn’t it?White Background

Bullet Points

And shock of all horrors

Clip art

StepOne

The background

White can bereally harsh

Make sure you use creative commons

images, or buy them from a stock

image site.

Don’t be that guy

vChoose an image in-keeping with your brand

Do

v

Choose a busy picture

Don’t

Advanced

Duplicate your image

Advanced

Go to artistic effects,

choose blur

Add a Fade animation

after previous

Advanced

Classy Huh!

StepTwo

Bullet Points

Just No!

Too much text, all at once

Make each point its owntext box, and have them fly in after previous or on a click

Cut down your text!

Do

Have your textfill the box –reduced the size!

Don’t

Create boxes that are different sizes

Don’t

Don’t

We innovate

We care

We include you

We support you 24/7

We have expertise

We’re award winners

Don’t

We innovate

We care

We include you

We support you 24/7

We have expertise

We’re award winners

forget to line them all up

Advanced

Right click your box

and choose Shape Fill

Drag the transparency

Slider to 25%

Yep!

That’s sophistication.

StepThree

Iconography

Say no to clipart

It makes your presentation look like a child’s IT project

Instead, get yourselfa set of icons.Stock image website are great for this – it’s definitely an investment

Icons provide an

easy-to-understand

visual language for

your audience

We innovate

We care

We include you

We support you 24/7

We have expertise

We’re award winners

Once you have your icons pop

them in a box the same height

as your points

Copy the formatting of your points to

your new boxes (ctrl+shift+c to

copy and ctrl+shift+v to paste)

Group the objects and add

a zoom animation with previous

and in the animation pane drag

them to the corresponding text

box

Let’s see this swan

Remember what we had before?

Now look at her!

Now look at her

Three easy stepsand your presentation looks aeons better

The best thing is that youcan use these principlesAnd use/re-use them allover your presentations

And your super-important message will always be wrapped up in beautiful paper with a big bow

PREPARE MESSAGE DESIGN POWERPOINT

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http://www.brightcarbon.com/PPTtricksVideos of each of these tricks and many more in action

on the BrightCarbon website

http://goo.gl/Cu90EUFree PPT Toolkit – click to download

Quick Access Toolbar

Quick Access ToolbarAdd shortcuts to your Quick Access Toolbar to access the things you use more quickly.

File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar

Download BrightCarbon’s most used PowerPoint functions in our own customized toolbar

www.brightcarbon.com/resources/powerpoint-help/quick-access-powerpoint-

toolbar

Right click on anything in the menus

To add to theQuick Access

Toolbar

Freeform Shapes

Freeform ShapesCreate custom shapes and edit existing shapes using the Freeform Shape Tool and Edit Points.

Use the Freeform Shape Tool (Insert > Shapes >

Lines) to draw any object. Left click once to start,

release the mouse button, click again for another

point, and continue. Click near the start or double

click anywhere to finish.

Right click any shape and select Edit Points. Move

any black edit points to alter the shape. Create new

points by left clicking on the red outline. Remove

points by holding the Ctrl key and left clicking on

the point to be deleted.

Customize further by clicking on any black edit

point to reveal the Bézier vector handles. Right

click the black edit point to choose smooth,

straight, or corner point. Move the white box edges

of the Bézier to change the point shape or curve.

Focus Shift

Focus ShiftAnimate in a second blurred version of an image over the top of the first to shift focus.

The invisible box ensures your

blurred image won’t have sharp

edges

Create an invisible box over your objects and group

Select the group, Copy and Paste as Picture

Picture Tools Format > Artistic Effects > Blur

Add animation to blurred image. Animations > Add Animation > Entrance Fade

Hyperlinking

HyperlinkingUse hyperlinks to quickly and professionally navigate your presentation.

Hyperlink any object to travel to a slide, webpage or document

Hyperlink boxes on menu slides to jump to different chapters

Hyperlink logos to return to menu

Right click on an object

(not a group) and choose Hyperlink

Hyperlink invisible boxes over multiple objects or groups

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

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