In the Zone Session:What makes a good presentation?Olga Falko, Lancaster University ISS

Content

Structured – with a Beginning, Middle and End (Conclusion/ Summary)

Interesting and to the point

Not too long Include some reference to ‘Real Life’ examples

Know your audience!

Design and layout

Plenty of Visual Representation

Use bullets or diagrams (Smart Art) instead of long sentences

Use White spaces

Use special effects (animation, transition, sound) only to make a

point.

If using text, find hidden lists/bullets:

Rules of Three: People remember things that are listed in three. Try to keep slide content minimal and in threes. You will find that it stays in memory better. Use Visual Representation: Charts, tables of information, short bulleted lists help aid people’s memory rather than long text. Also, people will read your long text on your slide rather than listening to the presentation.

If using text, find hidden lists/bullets - fixed

• Rules of Three: – People remember things that are listed in three. – Keep slide content minimal and in threes. – You will find that it stays in memory better.

• Use Visual Representation– Use charts, tables of information, short bulleted lists rather

than long text – they aid people’s memory– People will read your long text on your slide rather than

listening to the presentation.

Presenter

Introduce self at beginning

Be prepared – rehearse your talk

Be enthusiastic and confident

Talk to the audience – not to the whiteboard

Useful keyboard shortcuts

• Use F5 to start a show from the first slide• B keyboard key switches screen to black

– press it again to return to the presentation screen• W switches screen to white

• Navigation keys:– Page up, Page down– Navigation arrows

• To navigate to the slide out of presentation order :– use Go to Slide option

• For Presentations saved as PDF:– Use Ctrl L for the full screen view

And finally, …

Good presentations are memorableThey contain graphics, images, and facts in such a way that they're easy to remember. A week later, your audience can remember much of what you said.

Good presentations contain valid informationEach piece of data is thoroughly fact-checked, accurate, and never misleading.Any information that's not 100 percent relevant is stripped away.

Good presentations include storiesStories speak to the heart, and every good presentation uses stories to illustrate points and to help people make an emotional connection to the message.

(from the book ”Business Without the Bullsh*t” by Geoffrey James)

PowerPoint online learning links:www.lancaster.ac.uk/iss/training/elearning/

Download handouts and a practice files from

www.lancaster.ac.uk/iss/training/materials/office/

MOS e-books and practice fileswww.lancaster.ac.uk/iss/training/materials/office/mos-ebooks/

On the ISS Training web site: