How to Give Great Presentations at Work?

What is a great presentation? As you might have already seen on the Internet, or read in books, there are many definitions of great presentations. Nevertheless, they all emphasize one point - a great presentation is one which, ideally speaking, completely holds an audience enthralled. It is not entirely true that only great personalities can give great presentations. To develop great presentation skills, which you will need, especially if you are a Six Sigma professional, you need to understand the anatomy of a great presentation.

Anatomy Of A Great Presentation

Unlike written reports where you have a chance to correct mistakes, presentations are a sort of 'get it right the first time' business activity. So, a considerable amount of preparation is necessary to make a presentation great.

1. All Great Presentations Are Well Researched and rehearsed in advance. You must determine how much information or statistics needs to be given in proportion to a plain lecture. Too much statistics defeats the purpose of your presentation and makes it boring.

2. Encourage The Audience To Have Confidence in you at the beginning by greeting them and briefly explaining the points you are going to cover during the course of your speech.

3. Presentations Are All About Scoring Points and winning over others to your opinions. Delivery skill is a vehicle of driving a point home. Statistical information should be presented in logical sequences and in the right doses.

4. Make The Presentation A Light-Hearted One wherever possible but without compromising on the seriousness of the matter. All great presentations are made in simple language using industry specific jargon, but not words that are too hard to understand.

5. Great Presentations Use Audio-Visual Aids for greater impact. This is based on the principle that a picture speaks a thousand words. Even a budgetary speech or an accountant's presentation can use slide pictures.

How To Give Great Presentations

Begin with greeting the audience; end with asking their feedback and then thanking them. Announce that you will answer their questions later at the end of your speech. Apart from the apparent benefit this provides you, you get their undivided attention to your speech which is vital to your success.

Proven Steps To Give Great Presentations

Whether it is a formal speech to a large audience or an informal briefing, knowing your audience is vital to your speech preparation and helps you to relate it to them. Here are a few steps to making the actual presentation.

1. Judiciously Use Examples from everyday life or from past events to make your point quickly understandable. But don't let examples occupy center stage.

2. Don't Forget, Your Audience may have come from different departments within your organization. Each of them has different interests and different levels of understanding on your topic. Strive to address the needs of the entire audience, not just a select few.

3. Grasp Audience Responses that show whether and how much they like your speech. Make midcourse corrections to the tone of your speech if necessary. At this point you can engage them to lift their moods.

4. Extemporaneous Presentation goes a long way to make it interesting as this obviously eliminates the 'report reading style' and gives your speech a natural touch. You can use notecards if necessary, so that you don't forget them.

5. Using Body Language Effectively. Make eye contact with members of the audience. Make gestures like hand waving, nodding and voice. Using body language in this way helps to break the monotony of a possibly long speech.

Giving a great presentations at work is not limited to just benefiting your organization. Use this vehicle to travel that extra mile to reach your career goals.
Source: Free Articles

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Hidden Tips on Public Speaking Revealed

Whether you have to address your company shareholders or maybe you local PTA, knowing some hidden tips on public speaking is really going to help you out. Starting with preparation is the key. Knowing where you are going to speak, to whom you will be speaking, and the time you have allotted to address your messages is information you will need to know. This article will offer tips on public speaking that you may not have considered before.



Your audience and the speaking engagement location are very important. Get all the information possible about who will be attending your presentation. Find out if these people be experts in the matter you will be discussing, will they have little information about your subject or are they a mixed group. This information will determine how you will prepare your speech. It will help you decide if your presentation it to teach, train or to provide your view point on the subject matter. If you have the opportunity, visit the location before the time of the talk. It will help you visualize as you prepare your outline and will ensure you are not caught off guard by any peculiarities of the space.



Once you are sure what your main message will be, get it down on paper as an outline. Write down the main sections and subsections on what you are going to talk about. There is no need to go into detail on the outline, as you do not want end up reading your speech from your outline. If you end up reading your presentation you will bore your audience to death. Keep in mind the time you have been allotted for your presentation. Knowing what you are going to say, when you are standing in front of your audience will be the most important of the secret tips on public speaking.



People will rarely want to listen to you for longer that the time you have been allotted. Do not assume you are one of those speakers that the audience cannot get enough of. Remember, rap up your presentation on time. If you notice you are loosing your audience's attention, you probably have gone overtime, end your presentation quickly.



You have been chosen to speak because you are an expert on the topic you are presenting. Make sure your confidence and enthusiasm reflects this. Never apologize for what you do not have with you or what you do not know, instead, focus on what you do know and do it with confidence. If you portray yourself as being an expert on the topic you are presenting, your audience will assume you are, and will pay more attention to you. People like hearing from people that portray confidence.



So, knowing your audience, preparing an outline, keeping on time, and portraying confidence are the secret tips on public speaking. You will learn many more secrets as you grow in your abilities in speaking in public. The most important thing know is to concentrate on theses four tips on public speaking, and implement them in your next speaking engagement and you will see tremendous personal growth.

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A Public Speaking Nightmare

Recently, I attended a keynote presentation by a major radio executive in Toronto. Which, may sound interesting enough but, what happened at this event may make you think twice about how fine tuned your public speaking skills really are!



It all started innocently enough when a representative from the hosting organization got up to introduce the keynote speaker. What happened next can only be described as a complete public speaking meltdown and a humiliating nightmare.



After taking the stage and nervously placing herself behind the podium, she immediately launched into a twenty minute litany about herself, her quirky mother, nine rooms in her house, her alcoholic father, her trip to Boston, her move to New York etc. And, as she rested her elbows on the podium she held tightly to her face two goose-neck microphones. (I know you can picture this in your head!) And, while this looked obviously inappropriate she also never got around to mentioning anything about the keynote speaker.



With growing frustration, chairs around the room started to shift, people started to moan, and people began to give hand signals to hurry up and get off the stage. Yet, despite all the warning signs, she just kept going. Then, it happened. She got heckled by the audience! "Get off the stage for crying out loud, let the speaker speak!" said one. "That's enough!" said the other. And, this was not just any audience! This was a prominent well-to-do money making business audience.



Not only did she never even get to the point but, but she failed completely in her duty to introduce and honour the keynote speaker. After realizing her professional blunder (due to the loud heckling from the audience) she politely said "well it looks like I've run out of time". Though she tried to regain her composure, she sheepishly began reading the guest speaker's credentials off a page in a monotone voice like she was reading names from a phonebook.



I can honestly tell you that it was truly painful to be in that audience and watch such a complete and utter self-destruction! The whole room was not only uncomfortable but some audience members were clearly angry! This is just one example of the many potential public speaking mishaps that I witness on a regular basis.



Other common public speaking mistakes include...



When the speaker fails to build trust with his/her audience

When the speaker tries gimmicks or jokes that interfere with their message

When the speaker fails to effectively communicate their message and/or product/service benefits

When a speaker puts the audience to sleep

When a speaker manages to exclude their entire audience by focusing all of their attention on one member (or target members) of the audience



Have you ever heard ineffective speeches or pitches by politicians or by business leaders and colleagues? Did it garner your trust or lose your trust? Have you ever heard sorry speeches at weddings that made you say "yikes"? Have you ever attended a seminar where you were filled with so many statistics that you were bored after ten minutes? Have you ever witnessed an amazing seminar and wished you could do the same?



You may be interested to know that public speaking is an art that can be taught. In fact, everyone can learn the basic template for a winning and successful presentation. Learning public speaking can be a fun and stimulating experience that will empower you in any boardroom or public presentation. It can give you the confidence you need to achieve the higher success that you want! Simply by learning the secrets of powerful speakers you can make affect great change in both your professional and personal life! Avoid the professional pitfalls and public blunders altogether. Public speaking training is not only a great investment in your professional career; it's a great life investment that will reward you again and again.

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Can Public Speaking Hypnosis Help You?

It seems that at some point almost everyone experiences some anxiety about public speaking. Hypnosis can be a useful tool to help many people overcome this fear of speaking in front of an audience, and become relaxed, confident speakers.



Although there are several ways to treat a fear of public speaking, hypnosis is often one of the most successful. Hypnosis deals with the "programming" in your subconscious mind, and can affect changes on a deeper level than we are counsciously aware of. Why is this important?



Your subconscious is trying to protect you by maintaining everything in your life the way it currently is -- both the good and the bad! Your subconscious doesn't really concern itself with concepts like happiness or unhappiness. It deals with basic survival, and the way it sees it, you have survived up to now the way you are, so you shouldn't change anything and put yourself at risk.



You can see a therapist that uses hypnosis to overcome your anxiety, or you can use a public speaking hypnosis recording. Self hypnosis, like using a pre-recorded mp3 session, can in some cases be just as useful as seeing a therapist, and you can do it in the privacy of your own home. Public speaking hypnosis mp3s are available to use over and over until you feel that you have completely overcome your fear. They are also usually a cheaper option than seeing a hypnotherapist.



As with most other types of treatment, hypnosis works best when you are able to repeat it over and over. Owning a self hypnosis session allows you to use it every day, until you have successfully "brainwashed" yourself to the point where you have overcome your mental obstacles and re-programmed your mind.



Undergoing hypnosis, whether with a therapist or using a recording, usually begins by getting really relaxed and calm, and entering a pre-hypnotic state. Once hypnotized, you are usually still both awake and alert, but your mind is more receptive to suggestions. The hypnotherapist will guide you by giving you suggestions that will help your subconscious mind to change its habitual responses and replace them with new, more beneficial ones.



You subconscious does not understand negatives, so a suggestion should not be "I am not afraid of speaking in public," but rather something like "I feel calm and relaxed when I speak in public," or "I enjoy speaking in public."



Using hypnosis to treat phobias has been proven effective in many research studies, and this includes treating fear of flying, fear of spiders, social phobias as well as fear of public speaking.



The concept of ypnosis has been around for a long time, but there are many misconceptions about this technique. For one, a lot of people think you are unconscious and not aware of what goes on around you when you are hypnotized. This is not correct; under hypnosis, you might feel like you are in an altered state of mind, but you are still aware of what is going on and nothing can be done to you that you do not allow.



You can not be hypnotized against your will, and you are still in control when you are under hypnosis. If you feel insecure about what the public speaking hypnosis tape will "do to you", listen through it without focusing on following the suggestions, or read the script before you start your self hypnosis session, just for your own peace of mind.

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Working Voices - Presentation Skills, Communication Skills, Interpersonal Skills

Working Voices - Presentation skills, Communication skills, Interpersonal skills Working Voices teaches interpersonal communication skills. Everything from Presentation Skills to Leadership Development, Voice Coaching, Writing Skills, Image Management, Cultural Diversity and Memory Techniques. You’ll learn more about our courses in a moment.





Our USP is:





• our content (relevant, up-to-date, PRACTICAL)





• our style (high energy, high interactivity, FUN)





• our people (expert, experienced, EFFECTIVE).





Established in 1998, Working Voices delivers courses in the UK and abroad and engages a hand-picked team of trainers to meet the needs of a client list that includes some of the world’s most prestigious companies. You’ll learn more about our people in a moment too.





About our courses





If you’ve been on a course that was dull or uninformative; if delegates left it ill-equipped to put the fundamentals into practice from that moment forward – the “takeaways” as we call them – then the course was NOT one of ours. Groups, seminars, one-to-ones: here’s what we teach.





Presentation Skills





Presenting ourselves, our company, our case. It’s what we’re all doing all of the time. This comprehensive suite of courses is about doing these things properly and confidently – and getting the results we want.





• Presenting





• Pitching Skills





• Body Language





• Anger Management





• Assertiveness Training





• Essential Communication Skills





Leadership Development





Working Voices’ leadership development programmes focus on your managers – the people who hold the key to making your business successful and profitable. Ours is a suite of UNIQUE and proven one-to-one coaching techniques and team-building exercises.





• One-to-one Leadership Programmes





• The Chi * of Success





• Leadership Unplugged





• Coach the Coach





( * The circulating life force whose existence and properties are the basis of much of Chinese philosophy and medicine.)





Voice Coaching





Your voice says masses about you, face-to-face, on the phone or by voicemail. It might say good humour, energy, gravitas. It might say dull, uninterested, impatient. And, of course, it might say nothing at all if it is unclear or unintelligible. These courses deal with all the pitfalls.





• The Perfect Voicemail





• Speaking English Clearly for Business





• Making The Most Of Your Voice





Writing Skills





Today’s business writers write for the screen – and good screen-writing requires a new set of skills. We show you how to make your writing “screen-friendly”: easy to scan, easy to grasp, easy to action, easy to archive.





• Effective Business Writing





• Effective Report Writing





• Writing Effective Emails





Image Management





Look the best you can, every day. The clothes you wear, the way you wear them, the colours you choose. Savvy women realise that it’s part of their workplace weaponry. Savvy men realise that good grooming is a perfectly legitimate “male thing”. We’ll show how looking good is easy.





• Visual Impact in the Workplace





• Exclusive Personal Image Day





• Image Management





Cultural Diversity





No two people or businesses are the same. Our cultural diversity courses highlight how diversity within and outside your organisation can create opportunity and not division, when it is handled and managed properly.





• Communicating Across Cultures





• Cultural Awareness





• Embracing Diversity





Memory Techniques





The better your memory, the greater your ability to think on your feet and the greater your confidence. Think about it – then think about your performance at meetings or when you make presentations. We teach brain-training strategies that will give you the memory you want.





• Total Recall





• Power-up Your Memory





• Memories Are Made Of This





About our people





Nick Smallman is founder and Managing Director of Working Voices. He combined a classical acting and business career until asked to set up the company specifically to meet the interpersonal communication needs of the UK and overseas banking communities. Since then the client base has widened year-on-year and now includes the legal, media, fashion, distribution and pharmaceutical sectors. Nick trains in a variety of disciplines both in the UK and abroad (Europe, USA, China and Russia, principally) and is a sought-after motivational speaker.





Our trainers are expert and experienced; motivators as well as educators; high scorer’s against client feedback.





John Mabberley: A city Banker for 30 years, John’s enthusiastic and motivational style has given him a great track record for team and confidence building. John specialises in delivering all of our Presentation Skills courses except Anger Management and Assertiveness Training.





JC Mac: Chevron, Citigroup, EMI Music, BP/Amoco, Orange, Universal and the British Museum are just a handful of the major corporates which have benefited from JC Mac’s holistic approach to Leadership Training. He handles all our Leadership Development courses and is in demand both in the UK and abroad.





Paul Hill: A graduate of English from Cambridge University, Paul is a trained actor and highly qualified voice coach. His Voice Coaching courses are a favourite with our global-company clients but he’s also part of the Presentation Skills team, delivering all courses except Anger Management and Assertiveness Training.





Kate McGoldrick: Kate’s background in radio and print journalism and the theatre -and an infectiously enthusiastic style – mean her Writing Skills courses are in constant demand. She also delivers the Presentation Skills suite including Anger Management and Assertiveness Training.





Sara Hollamby: Sara's combined careers in the fashion industry and presenting on TV have spanned 27 years and made her a seasoned and popular group and auditorium speaker. She takes all our Image Management courses, which, just like the rest of our portfolio, are available “one-to-one” as well.





Jo Rice: Author of over 50 books including “How to do Business in Japan”, multi-lingual Jo lived and worked in the Far East for many years and is now a leading expert in all – ALL – aspects of cultural diversity training. He delivers our Diversity Training courses – as much abroad as in the UK.





Paul Mabberley: Paul acquired his grasp of the art of presenting via, at one end of the spectrum, the UK’s creative design sector, and, at the other, university guest lectureships. He coaches our Presentation Skills courses (except Anger Management and Assertiveness Training), as well as Memory Techniques.





Genevieve Grant: Born in the USA, Genevieve came to London for post-graduate studies, and stayed. Her background has a wide span – political activist to charity organiser – and she brings the technique she’s gained to our Presentation Skills courses (excluding Anger Management and Assertiveness Training).





About our clients





Here are just a few of them. Channel 4; HSBC Group; Barclays Group; Deutsche Bank; Lovells, Credit Suisse; BAFTA; Swarovski; Morgan Stanley. With or without the 50 others, we believe these names speak volumes about the quality of our client base.





Please visit www.workingvoices.com for more information on our company, our courses, our people and our clients. Then contact Tina at info@workingvoices.com.

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The Importance Of Life Skills Coaching

Giving yourself to other people and offering your expertise and/or skills to help change their life in any positive way is a profound way to effect the world we live in. Whether you are a coach, a teacher, a counselor, or if you just have wealth of knowledge to offer people you can help shape the our society.



Not only that, it can be very healthy for you as well because let's face it, it feels good to genuinely help others and know that you are making a difference in their life.



Due to the stress and pressure of most people's lives there is much need for people with skills in the area of life coaching. However, if you want to become a life coach you need to be in a good place yourself, as there is nothing more annoying than people who don't practice what they preach.



To Become a Great Life Skills Coach You Must Train First



If a person wishes to become adept at life skills coaching, it may be necessary to first take life skills training, which is the study of behavior in humans. People are generally known to have their own behavior patterns that can lead, in some instances, to negative turns or choices in their lives. People are all very different and you need to be aware of these differences and how they do or don't affect people's behavior.



This is where life skills coaching comes into play. Your job is to:

* Monitor your client's behaviors

* Help them make the right choices

* Recognizing the wrong choices

* Gain back control of their life

* Set realistic goals for them



Specializing Your Life Coaching Skills



You also want to specialize your life coaching expertise. Most people who are good at counseling are usually great at coaching in one area and only good at others. Stick to what you are great at because in order to make a profound difference in someone's life you need to be a great life coach, not just a good one.



For example if you are trained and knowledgeable in business coaching your specialized skills in this area will help others succeed in the entrepreneurial or corporate world, but don't go trying to help a mentally ill person who is contemplating suicide. Leave that up to those who specialize in mental health.



One thing that is actually a little ironic about this is that once you start to specialize in one area you will find that you are also improving that part of your life as well. By teaching others you will learn even more about yourself. Let's face it no one is perfect and even life coaches can still improve on their life skills.



One thing that is for certain is that to be a good life skills coach you need to have conviction. This means that you have the power to motivate others by your words.



Motivation is the only way you can lead someone to change. You Can't change someone for them, you can only motivate them to change. I learned that a long time ago and it was exhausting trying to help other people who don't really want to help themselves.



There is one thing to watch out for, however if you are currently a life coach, or pursuing the profession. Don't get too emotionally attached to your clients. Yes you want to help them, but you don't want to hurt yourself by trying too hard or investing so much of yourself into them if they continue to make poor choices.

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The Secrets to Generate Income Online by Teaching Your Own Expertise

What can you do about the hyper inflation going on? There is more and more data shows that inflation condition is going worse. Do you know the hidden message? It means your purchase ability is going down! You can not have the same quality life as today in the future, if you don't have methods to earn more money!

What can I do? You may ask. The answer is simple; you need to have second income sources, such as what this article tells you!

For instructors, students and everyone who wants to have a main or second income source, ForteMall is the perfect place to introduce the online learning and training market. Start-up investment is minimal and there is virtually no risk involved. Everyone with their own unique skills and know-how can make money through ForteMall platform easily. It is better than the business activities that sell goods on normal auction sites, you don't have to prepare money and time to buy the inventory, all you sell is your knowledge, your brain. You can create the courses once, and sell forever! Without extra cost to do that.

If you want, you can start by opening a course to teach your native language to foreigner. Online learning market is also wide open to experimentation. You don't need to be an expert when you begin. What could be easier or better?

So pursue your passion and discover your own special niche, in any category you want. It's your choice. Let Your Knowledge Makes Money for You!

This article provides everything you need to build a profitable online learning/training business, the business of your dreams. This article shares the extensive knowledge, experience and expertise in this article, reducing your learning curve to almost a flat line.

The Income Generating Paradise!

Online teaching is the simplest way on this planet for the "ordinary guy" to make money. There are several reasons for that :

1. No inventory, just your brain - It is not necessary to prepare money to buy inventory of goods; all you need is your brain. You can make real money by your experience, knowledge, and expertise by offering courses on ForteMall. The course can be reused unlimited, created once, sell forever. There is no inventory cost, no COGS.

2.No Shipping handling - The course materials can be delivered directly to the students through ForteMall in real-time. Instructors and students can even interact with each other on ForteMall. ForteMall includes a rich learning management system; you can use these tools to interact with students in synchronous and asynchronous way. There is no shipping handling effort and no time limitation.

3.There are no start-up costs -- Can you name any other business that has no start up costs? For example, if you want to build up adult English education school, how much cost you need to pay? Employees, rent, government regulations, incredible paperwork, the constant threat of lawsuits, grinding responsibility and twelve hour days... phew! With an online teaching business, you have none of those expenses. All you have to do is register a ForteMall account for free and you are now the proud owner of an online teaching business. What a contrast!

4.There is no financial risk - ForteMall adapts freemium business model, which offers most services for free, while charging a premium for advanced or special features; it means you can start your business without any financial risk.

5.You can start-up in 5 minutes -- Just fill out a registration form on ForteMall and register a payment account (for example, PayPal, this is the place where you get paid) or prepare your offline payment account, you can begin selling your expertise.

If you like this article, you can find more information from the source : http://www.fortemall.com/...-to-Generate-Income-Online-by-Teaching-Your-Own-Expertise&auction_id=159

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The Teaching Cover Letter: Out Of The Classroom And Into Reality

A teacher has a great job to do: he or she must be mentor and supervisor in the classroom, and counselor outside of it. Such a job requires people skills, passion, enthusiasm, and a lot of patience. Such a job is actually in great demand: there are thousands of schools all over the world with so many students, but with very few good teachers.

If you are looking for a job as a teacher, then you might be preparing your documents right now. Your resume will probably outline all your educational and career achievements, and will show all the awards you received, all the work you had peer-reviewed or published, and all the workshops or seminars you participated in and attended. Your transcript will show all the wonderful grades you got. Your cover letter will act as the complement to both these documents, and showcase your personality.

But wait, you think: can the cover letter be so important? How can one sheet of paper hold so much power? Do prospective employers actually read the cover letter?

Believe it or not, a cover letter is actually the most important part of your job application. Your teaching cover letter can show your passion for teaching, as well as your enthusiasm in dealing with different people. Your resume and transcript can only go so far in providing your prospective employers a glimpse of your personality.

So what goes into the great teaching cover letter? Your cover letter has to grab your reader's attention, and make the attention stay there. There are so many ways by which you can do this - but there are also so many ways by which you can get it wrong. First, you need to use direct, terse language that does not alienate your letter's reader. Stay away from deep English words, long paragraphs, or run-on sentences. Check your grammar: if you are careful about how you write your letters, you can be careful with how you handle your job, and your prospective employers can sense this.

Don't make your letter boring: use language that is conversational and exciting, but be polite and tactful. You want your teaching cover letter to be bold, and to show your passion. You want to be a personality in the classroom, not a cardboard cutout reading lessons to a bunch of sleepy students. Your letter should reflect this desire, so make every word count.

Your teaching cover letter should also be relevant to the school's mission and goals. State your experience as a teacher, and make sure that you align all these experiences with how you want your career to progress, and how this career progression is in line with the school's own aims. Show that you can offer the school something, and that you can make its students better than ever. You have only a few sentences at your disposal, however, so avoid gushing about what you can do and what you want to do.

Lastly, use an active, exciting voice in your letter. State that you are looking forward to being interviewed, and that you anticipate a positive response from your prospective employers. Provide contact information, and make sure that all the information is valid. Don't make any promises that you can't keep: wait for the phone call or email from the school, and respond immediately. If you don't hear from your prospective employers, make a follow-up call. Show persistence and dedication at this stage of the job application, and chances are, you might be hired as a teacher.

Your teaching cover letter should show what kind of a teacher you will be. You have to show personality and be exciting, but you have to be mature and professional at the same time. If you can show your passion and make your teaching cover letter matter, then your teaching career may soon blossom into the kind of career that you really want.

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Presentation Design - The Right Graph

Microsoft does not know a heckuva lot about presentation design, but one thing they do correctly in PowerPoint is to make available different types of graph so that you can match the graph type to the point you're trying to make with your data. There are twelve different graph types available with PowerPoint 2000, but few of those styles work well in the low-resolution world of computer-based presentations. With few exceptions, here is how you want to use the following types:

• Pie Graphs for Share
• Bar Graphs for Comparative Amounts
• Line Graphs for Trends, Time

Pie Graphs

Pie graphs (commonly misnomered pie charts) are one of the more overused, and hence misused, types of graphs, primarily because they are so easy to make, and easy to make look good. They are misused when chosen to show amounts rather than share. The beauty of pie graphs is that they show so clearly what they are supposed to show, i.e., how much of the whole each element contributes. In most cases the actual amounts - in this case percentages - are actually secondary to the area of the slices in terms of telling the story.

When you look at a pie graph with five or fewer slices, your brain can quickly ascertain which groups dominate. We often see pie graphs with more than 5 elements, but they then become more difficult to comprehend in short order. In most cases, consider whether your story needs to include details about all the players, or whether a group of insignificant contributors can be grouped as "others".

If you want to show how much volume each element contributes, rather than what fraction, you'll want to use a bar graph.

Bar Graphs

To show relative sizes of different segments as well as the actual amounts, you'll want to use a bar graph. Bar graphs are designed to show volumes against a y-axis that clearly delineates the units of measure. By having a series of bars next to each other, we can see how each element compares with the others as well as what absolute volume the element represents.

There are variations on the bar graph, such as a stacked bar, where different elements are stacked on top of each other to form a series, or a 100% bar graph, where all the bars are the same height but are split to show what percent of the whole the volume reflects. In a presentation environment, esoteric options are best to be avoided.

Line Graphs

Line graphs have the unique advantage of speaking to inherent right-brain prejudices about information. That is, when typically conditioned western minds see a graph with no labeling, they automatically assign "volume" to the y-axis, with "up" meaning "more", and a time-line to the x-axis, with the left side meaning most recent. Just as we read from left-to-right, rightward motion subconsciously means positive motion.
You would want to use a line graph, then, to show a progression in amount from one point in time to another. The elevation of the line at any one point represents the quantity of the tracked data at that moment. Audiences, wanting to be the first-to-know, will automatically make assumptions about the types of values x-axes and y-axes represent. Don't disappoint them.

Data labels

Graphs are a great way of making complex information easily understood. But graphs work best only when you properly integrate words, numbers and images. Whenever possible, label the elements of your graph directly on the elements themselves, rather than relying on the ever-popular clarity killer, the legend. Legends require too much effort on the part of listeners to discern exactly what each data point is. Just be certain your labels don't clutter up the otherwise clear "picture" a good graph can make.

If you have a number of graphs in your presentation, you'll want to avoid dumping a data overload on your audience by over-labeling each one. In fact, in many cases you can tell your story forcibly enough by only the size of your data elements, without burdening their minds with numbers that they're likely to forget by the end of the presentation. However, it's also not a bad idea to have what we call "reference slides" that do contain all the data attached to the end of your main slide deck. To really impress your crowd, install hyperlinks to these slides from the ones in your main show, and when some vice-president makes a stink about wanting to know the whole story, zap to your total-info slide and give him what he wants. He probably won't ask again.

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Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is? Using Math to Make your Presentations Sizzle

The agenda states an end time of 2:00 pm, and yet it is 2:10 and the guy is still droning on with only 52 more slides to go in his presentation!





You are told that you will have 30 minutes to present and now you show up and find out your time has been cut to 20 minutes because the person before you went over time.





As the band, Chicago sings, “Does anybody really know what time it is? Does anybody really care about time?” Start your next meeting with this song and then share this mathematical formula to help the speakers for the next time.





The average person speaks 150-200 words per minute. During a presentation we should slow that pace down to about 125 words per minute to allow for better enunciation, interaction and clarity. If you are asked to speak for 15 minutes, do the math…15 times 125 equals 1,875 words…period! Type up what you want to say and then do a word count (go to TOOLS menu and select WORD COUNT). This will let you know how long you will need to cover this information.





When people ask me how many slides they should have in a 15 minute presentation, I say, “It depends.” How many words are you going to say on each slide? Sit down at your laptop and type out verbatim what you think you will say with each slide. Of course you are not going to bring this typed transcript up and read it, but it will tell you where you need to cut or add more detail.





If you have 30 minutes of material prepared, ask yourself what you would cut if they took you down to 20 minutes. What would you cut if you had only 15 minutes? This is a great exercise in editing and really drilling down to your point.





A little planning ahead of time will really make a big difference when it comes time to present, and a little math ahead of time will make a huge difference to your audience. And when you hear Chicago singing, “Does anybody really care about time?” You can answer “I DO!” (ps. This article would take someone approximately 3 minutes to speak!)

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The Five Minute Business Presentation Ideas

Most of us feel that making a five minute Powerpoint presentation is like putting an elephant into a small refrigerator. It is just a metaphoric example to express how difficult to cut-sized your product launching report as your product has several important features. It is extremely a challenge to make your audiences listen to your product promotion within given short period of time.





Why it has to be done within five minutes?





No other reasons. If your product is good, it can only take few minutes to mention. It is like TV and radio advertisements - the delivery of the main messages counts, not the total amount of the presentation slides.





How to make a slide that can promote your product fast and simple?





For instance, let's say we want to promote various of associated computer mouse products.





In the beginning, you need to have high resolution pictures of the computer mouse products. Avoid using low resolution pictures as your audiences will not able to see your products clearly even though it is within viewing distance.





Creatively align these pictures on your slides. You do not have to enlarge these pictures on one slide. It is possible for you to include several pictures on your slides. For better view, include three to four pictures on your slide. After adding pictures into your slide, start using simple effects on these pictures. In this case, choose "Grow/Shrink" for "Emphasis" custom animation. This particular animation will enlarge each of the picture within customizable sizes. In this example, once you click on the slide, the picture will enlarge by 400%. Once the picture is enlarged, you can take this opportunity to elaborate your product during the actual presentation.





Since you have added all pictures with custom animations, you need to make it disappear after you need to proceed with the other picture. Basically you need to create "Now-You-See-It-Now-You-Don't" picture appearance for your audiences. Take note that no text-contents are included in this slide. Within the custom animation task panel, earlier you will see the "Grow/Shrink" effect that you have added earlier. Add "Exit" effects on the selected pictures and choose "Box" exiting effect.





Finally, manually arrange the sequences of selected effects earlier ("Grow/Shrink" and "Box") in order to create an "Now-You-See-It-Now-You-Don't" picture appearance. Now, you are ready to fascinate your audiences with your new product launching.

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Make a Charming PowerPoint Presentation - 2 Powerful Secrets Revealed

Many people try hard to make a great presentation, but sometimes they make it wrong. Be unique, that is the only thing to make your PowerPoint presentation stunning the audience, not only unique in your presentation material, but also the way you present in front of audience.

1. Unique Presentation Content

Pick a colorful and unique PowerPoint templates to keep your audience eyes open at your powerpoint slide, this is very important thing but most people do not aware about it. After that, compose your presentation material into a friendly and clear looks, the purpose is to keep your presentation simple but interesting for your audience. Complex slide looks will make audience bored and feel headache. Do not forget to include some related interesting images or pictures on your powerpoint slide to convey your presentation point more effectively

2.The Way You Present

Do not starring at the floor or at the sky but keep starring at your audience. Eye contact will give them special experience, but do not only stare at one audience, stare from the left side to the right side of your audience slowly, remember, slowly, and then keep staring at the center side of your audience, repeat it again after five minutes. Control your speech, do not speak too fast or too slow, speak with best fit volume which is clear to your audience, so they can understand what is the message you want to deliver. Tone, also hold important part, do not speak with flat tone or monotone, because it will make your audience feel sleepy. Make a difference intonation between important part, introduction part and ending part. 
Unique is different, but it still follow the rules.

We do not encourage you to make some thing out from the border to become unique, just keep on the track and give a touch to make it different and attract your audiences.

Sayid Aksa is the Author of Powerpoint Presentations Resources. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sayid_Aksa

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Executive Presentation Training - The Seven Deadly PowerPoint Sins

Business executives everywhere know the power of a PowerPoint® presentation. PowerPoint® is the predominate presentation tool used in the world today. It can also be the most assured way to lose an audience's attention and kill your message.

Why? Because PowerPoint® is the most misused presentation tool used in business today.

When used correctly, PowerPoint® can enrich a presentation and make the message more memorable. The problem is most people don't use this terrific invention even remotely effectively.

With proper executive presentation training, you can avoid the common mishaps many executives make when using PowerPoint®.

Below are the top seven mistakes people make when using PowerPoint®. If you are guilty of any of these, make changes to your presentations immediately. Your reputation as a speaker will improve and your message will be more memorable.

1) Too much content on a slide. Use only a few key words or phrases on each slide. Think 4 X 4: No more than four words per line, no more than 4 lines per slide.

2) All words, no images. Use fewer words and more images. Use an interesting picture or a key word on a slide to launch your talk about each topic or message you want to deliver.

3) Too many slides. Do not use a slide for every point you want to make. The main focus should be on you, not the slides.

4) Wild and crazy animations. Swooshing sounds and flying words are distracting to the audience and weaken your presentation.

5) Using the slide presentation as the handout. Sorry, but that is the lazy way out. Prepare separate handouts with as much detail as you want. Use simple PowerPoint® slides to enhance your oral message, not serve as the leave-behind.

6) Reading from the slides. Don't turn your back to your audience and read the slides. Instead, maintain eye contact with your audience while delivering your key points in a conversational tone.

7) The Star Wars "laser saber" show. Leave the laser pointer home. The piercing red beam probably won't really take an aircraft down, but it will definitely kill your audience's attention.

Carmie McCook, the president of Carmie McCook & Associates, is a nationally recognized expert on effective communication skills, specializing in media interview, public speaking, presentation, crisis communications, and executive media training For more information, visit http://www.carmie.com

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Picture Perfect PowerPoint - Presentations That Sell

When it comes to putting together the PowerPoint slides for sales presentations, presenters usually sit down and type in everything they want to say. When it's all there in black and white, they pass their slides on to a colleague or team member who will also share the stage. That person adds a few slides--making sure to include all the text, all the graphs, all the charts, and all the bullet points they don't want to forget.

But that's not all. Marketing is alerted and they send you a few more essential slides. Then your manager reminds you to please include the one you used last summer at the meeting that everyone loved. Before you know it, you've got a presentation that grew like Topsy--without consistency, without flair, and without a coherent message.

PowerPoint slides are a visual aid intended to support your oral delivery--not to replace it. Good slides are good pictures. They are a visual representation of what you are saying, attractive to look at and easy to understand just by glancing at them. They are an enhancement, a simplification or an addition. They don't require interpretation, explanation or reading.

A presentation is a performance and you are the star. Your slides should help you tell your story--not tell your story for you. That means you must cull your slides; eliminate all but the most essential. Any slide that is just a bunch of text must go. Any slide you've included "just in case" must be discarded. Delete any slide that needs a long explanation, a slow read or a magnifying glass. If you must include some text, eliminate full sentences and use key words only. Use bullets sparingly and make sure they are grammatically parallel.

The fact is, you are the presentation; your slides are not. If everything you want to say is on your slides, you lose your animation, your spontaneity and your ability to connect with your audience. What's worse, your audience loses you--so you lose the sale.

Of course, it's important to pick an appealing background and here are some suggestions to help you get it right.

Professional tips for high-impact slides: 

• choose a dark color--never use a white background
• look for a background image that adds dimension and depth to the screen
• use pictures that are a metaphor for your message
• photoshop an appropriate image and use it as background for the whole slide--not as a little insert
• use the biggest font you can--72 points is best, 36 points is minimum
• don't use cheesy clipart images
• aim for consistency--pictures that help you tell a coherent story
• get professional help or buy professional images when professionalism is important to you.

Too many people spoil a potentially good presentation with too many words. Good slides are simply an artistic visual that captures your words in a compelling image. Just picture it.

Author, consultant, trainer and coach, Fern Lebo is also president of FrontRunner Communications, adjunct faculty at Auburn University and a frequent keynote speaker. A respected communications expert, Lebo focuses on presentation and writing for sales. For nearly 20 years, she has helped Fortune 500 companies create and deploy star sales performers. Whether it's reinventing a sales presentation, discovering how to write strategically, or improving presentation delivery, Lebo's clients learn the secrets that set them apart; they master the professional techniques they need to achieve outstanding success. Find out more at http://FRcommunications.com

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Using Microsoft PowerPoint As A Tool For Teaching

Thinking back to long gone school days, I recall the majority of my teachers delivering their lessons with the aid of a blackboard and a piece of chalk. There was also the occasional individual who preferred to use a white board or an overhead projector because it allowed them to introduce colour into their presentation.



Nowadays, more teachers have access to computers and with adequate training, are therefore able to deliver classes with the aid of PowerPoint. By incorporating photographs, video clips and sound into presentations important concepts can be illustrated in a clear and informative manner.



Ways of using PowerPoint in Lessons

- Outlining a plan of activities - This is particularly useful at the start of a new term when you want to give the students an overview of the material that needs to be covered.



- Informing the students about the next assignment - This can cover the material that needs to be included, reference sources, deadlines and assessment criteria.

- Teaching new ideas to students - A PowerPoint presentation can be used to introduce a new topic to your students.



It can be particularly useful for clearly displaying complex formulae. Animated slides can be used to help explain the steps in a particular process such as photosynthesis or a chemical reaction.

- Summarising material covered - Once a topic has been covered, you can prepare a PowerPoint presentation to highlight the important points learned and check that that your students have mastered the important concepts. It can be useful for the class to see the material presented in a different way. Handouts, including additional references, can be prepared for the students to take away at the end of the class.



- Tests and quizzes - PowerPoint can be used to create interactive, multimedia quizzes for use during lessons. A question can appear on the screen and the appearance of the answer delayed by using the time delay feature.



These are just some simple ways that the features of PowerPoint can be used to help benefit the learning experience of your students. It may be worth considering PowerPoint training to make sure that you can get the most out of this software and to ensure that you are using your precious time as efficiently as possible.



If all teachers with an organisation are trained to a similar level of technical expertise, consistency can be ensured. Successful presentations can be shared with colleagues and saved for future use. Exchanging ideas with colleagues can be useful and even provide you with a new perspective on how to teach a new topic. When used appropriately, PowerPoint can be an effective tool to support learning in the classroom.

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Some Tips On When and When Not To Use Animated Powerpoint Background In A Presentation

Having good presentation skills is a trait that goes a long way to ensure professional success. There are many occasions in our professional lives where we need to present our ideas and opinions or even facts to an audience. For a successful presentation it is important to keep the interest of the audience alive at all times so that they look forward to what you are saying.



One of the tricks in transforming your presentation from a boring one to an interactive session is to use animated PowerPoint backgrounds. Incorporation of graphics will surely attract the attention of your audience. However, as is true with anything else, excess use of animated PowerPoint background may actually backfire and hence it is important that you know the profile of your audience beforehand.



If the presentation is for a professional audience, you would find that a younger audience will be more receptive to animated PowerPoint than an older audience, like your bosses. He may actually be counting the number of hours you put behind creating the animation and if this time could have been put to a better use. However, if your boss actually encourages humor and positive interactions among the coworkers, he would love the concept of an animated background because it would signify that the mood of the audience is important for the speaker.



Many bosses feel that the use of animated background communicates that you are committed to using the latest techniques while interacting with the co-workers and it impresses them. They view this trait or skill to be a positive quality in an employee.



If the audience happens to be consisting of seasoned professionals, they may be irritated with the use of animated PowerPoint since normally these people are interested in cold facts presented in a concise manner. But if the audience is of young professionals, they may actually appreciate it.



Nowadays, teachers also use presentations as a teaching aid extensively. They also incorporate animated backgrounds to attract the attention of their students. Many students appreciate this effort as it is seen as a change from the routine.



However, in children with special conditions like the attention deficit syndrome or hyperactivity disorder, use of animated PowerPoint does not help because it takes away their concentration and hence the ability to grasp the information. It would be better if these children were presented with the information in a clear and concise manner.



If one was to generalize, the use of animated PowerPoint background is more helpful when the audience consists of young adults who have adequate attention spans. With children, since they tend to be distracted easily, the use of animated PowerPoint background could be avoided unless you are looking at a fun activity.

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Powerpoint does not make you a speaker:

However, one must remember that Powerpoint is only for presentation sake and does not by any means make one a speaker just by using it. Nowadays Powerpoint is evolved with so many tools, effects, transitions and settings that neither help nor hinder the effectiveness of one as a speaker.

The first thing that has to be remembered when using Powerpoint is that the audience had assembled to hear a speech, and not to watch a slide show. The only thing you may achieve by having more of Powerpoint and less of speech, in a dimly lit room, may be some nappers in the audience! You should use Powerpoint just as a support tool to reinforce the key points of your presentation, and not to take the front stage in your presentation! It is to be used just to help you to speak during the presentation, and not to speak on your behalf during the presentation. While making your Powerpoint slides, don't let it become an uncontrollable monster by sticking to the six-by-six guidelines. Here you have to remember to limit the slide to six bullets to a slide and six words per bullet. This is the best way of avoiding the ‘presentation karaoke' which is most likely to arise with Powerpoint. In the presentation karaoke, either the presenter reads directly from the slide or the audience reads along with the presenter. Of course, if needed, one may go by fie-by-seven or seven-by-seven presentations too, but just remember to keep the fat of the Powerpoint presentation well-trimmed!

Just having a Powerpoint presentation will not make your speech. You have to make it a point to research your audience as your core message of the speech may be accepted in different ways by different people. Most of the times, speakers get lazy and think that the message that they are propagating is so important that anyone may want to hear it. This is not true as the audience tends to relate much better to the information and to think highly about you if you create something specifically for them and not go on showing Powerpoint slides. To give the best of speeches, without any fumbles, it is not Powerpoint that will help you, but practice. Practice is the only way for one to look polished while speaking. You have to remember that it is you that will be on the stage with the microphone and that it will be you who will decide if you look great or terrible on stage, and not the Powerpoint presentation. You will be indeed sadly mistaken and egotistical if you ever think that the Powerpoint slides will ever make you a powerful speaker. There are of course different methods to master the technique of giving speeches. One of them, by far the best method, is called bits. Here you have to practice a short piece of the material over and over again, not by word for word, but just by talking your way through it. You have to do it this way to avoid any blank outs that may occur when a distraction occurs while you are on stage, or if your Powerpoint presentation somehow or the other fumbles during the presentation!

Another point you have to remember to give the best of speeches is to take care of hecklers who may be present in the audience. You can take care of these hecklers not with the showing of the Powerpoint presentation but by getting some people to identify potential troublemakers before the speech day. You have to then phone them to interview them, only with the intention of giving them the attention they crave for. After that, you have to remember to mention their names in the speech, and not in the Powerpoint presentation, to eliminate any chance of them giving you a hard time as you will be praising one of their opinions. However, don't mention their names exclusively as the rest of the audience who may know them to be trouble makers may think that you too are just as bad as they are! Using emotional language into speech can very well trigger the audience. Choose words wisely wherein you may relate to some incidences that the audience may have experienced some time or other, in their lives. In this way, they are bound to be more eager to listen to what you have to relate to them on that matter. This is not at all possible through the Powerpoint presentation.

So it has to be seen, and understood, that having a Powerpoint presentation will not by any means make one an established speaker. To become a speaker, a flair for speaking, general knowledge and a good etiquette are the main points that have to be present in the speaker, rather than a Powerpoint presentation!

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How to View Powerpoint on Tv?

http://www.ppt-to-video.com


Microsoft is such a powerful tool for presentation, but sometimes we are limited by its requirement; you must have a computer with PowerPoint installed. Sometimes we want to send our presentation like photo presentation to friends or families and share with them, but on different operating system or different PowerPoint version , it doesn't work very well, that's really a disappoint thing. All things seem to be under Microsoft's dominion; is there anything we can do? Why not watch your PowerPoint on TV? Sounds great! I believe many people have already done this interesting and useful thing, and I'm so glad to share experience with you about how to view PowerPoint on TV.





Free way





The free way is connect your TV to computer, then use computer control PowerPoint presentation, there is a vast difference between the technologies of a computer monitor and a TV monitor, you can connect your PC to TV, and watch your PowerPoint on TV screen, but this job is not that easy!


Unlike computer monitors TV monitors are interlaced which has the effect of making thin lines and text shimmer. TV monitors generally (apart from broadcast spec) don't show the full image, so you may lose stuff at the edge of the screen (thus further reducing the amount of available resolution). Some graphics cards do compensate for this by squeezing the image into a window inside the video output - the only way you'll know is to test it.


This method depends on the output from your video card...if you have component video out, you can use that kind of cable, if you have a s-video out from the card and s-video input on your TV you can use that, otherwise you would need a convert from Radio Shack to connect to the TV. As I know, some laptops come with an S-video port, and if your TV or VCR has an S-video input then just use an S-video cable. Otherwise you'll need a cheap scalar/converter to take the VGA signal and turn it into a signal the TV/VCR can accept, most likely over a composite (RCA) or RF (like what your TV cable comes in on). In my opinion, this way cost a lot of time, and the result is not as we expect!





Watch PowerPoint on TV via Apple TV





We know that Apple Company created such a great product, Apple TV automatically grabs the digital media on your computer and makes it available for you to enjoy on your TV. Best of all, whenever you add something new in iTunes, Apple TV updates automatically. So what we should do if we want to watch PowerPoint on TV via Apple TV:


The first step is convert PowerPoint to certain Video formats Like MPEG-4 that can be accept by iTunes. You can learn more from another article: How to convert PowerPoint to MPEG?


The second step is upload video to iTunes and sync to Apple TV, and then you can enjoy your PowerPoint Presentation on your widescreen TV.





The question is Apple TV is too expensive, and the process is also troublesome. Maybe it's good for enjoying videos (from YouTube), but for PowerPoint presentation, I don't think it's the best solution.





View PowerPoint on TV with DVD player





That's what we suggest, burn your PowerPoint to DVD and then watch them on TV with a DVD remote controller, so you must make sure the software have the function of customized DVD menus, and the burning process should be stable. DVD player is cheap, and when you burn PowerPoint to DVD, it's good for distribution, you can send them to your friends without worry about if they have PC or PowerPoint installed, and you also don't care about the version and operation system; Another good benefits is that you can protect your PowerPoint from un authorizing edit, you can view the article “Advantages of b`urning PowerPoint to DVD “to know more about it.





Ok, let's use Acoolsoft PPT2DVD to take a tour and see how to Burn PowerPoint to DVD





Start the Program and import files (Acoolsoft PPT2DVD support Batch Converting)





You must clear that this Program is going step by step, you just need to clik next and make sure everything is what you want, if not, then set it , we give you the power to change it !





Clike next and then you can do with Menu settings, that's really depend on your creativity!





Is everything under your control?





Yes, you sure everything is OK, just click next and leave the rest to Acoolsoft, all things will be done!





Click here to have a free trial, we believe you will get more!


http://www.ppt-to-video.com/powerpoint-to-dvd-overview.html

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Utterly Droolworthy Power Point Presentations

You can sell Benzes to refugees during war time.

You easily part a nun from her vow of chastity.

No doubt- you're the greatest at influencing people one-on-one.

But can you conduct killer power point presentations?

If you're like 99% of all the presentors out there, I bet you 're a veteran at observing the MEGO Syndrome in audiences.

MEGO?

"Mine Eyes Glaze Over"

That's right. Three minutes into the powerpoint presentation, the audience is restless. Some begin sneaking out the door. The more polite ones just pretend to listen behind dark spectacles. But you know where their minds went.

The MEGO Syndrome arises from five monumental presentation mistakes. Do the opposite and you'll deliver utterly drool worthy power point presentations- and influence the socks out of your crowd.

1. Keeping Them Guessing. Many speakers fail to give a roadmap of their speech. So throughout the presentation, the crowd is asking 'huh? What's his point? Where's this leading to?' Guide them by the hand. Before the actual presentation, outline exactly what you'll cover and let them know when you'll finish.

2. Failing to Connect At the Beginning. Audiences don't like to be preached to. They'd prefer to be talked with. Keep your style interactive. Open the talk by asking a rhetorical question, launching an anecdote, or saying a shocking statement- then invite a comment! You'll draw them in like Pirahnnas to a pork buffet.

3. Looking at the Floor and Closing Your Body. I've seen it so often. The speaker assumes a closed body language. Guilty of this? Hands in pocket. Arms crossed. Legs tight together. Look stiff, and you alienate the audience. To invite the audience to appreciate your power point presentation, move around. Gesture. Smile!

4. DataDumping. I've attended hundreds of business presentations where the speaker fills the slide with size 9 font text crammed to the margin. Then they read each line. Good lord! We're attending a presentation, not an online reading course! The best slides follow the 4 by 4 rule. Four words across, four bullets down.

5. Forgetting the Call of Action. At the end, the speaker jumps to "any questions?" without giving the audience a specific command. Is it to buy? To invest? To visit a website? Without the call to action, the audience is left wondering what you yammered about for the last 20 minutes of their valuable time.

So here's my call to action for you: create drool worthy powerpoint presentations. Right now.

Your audience deserves it

Read More...

Utterly Droolworthy Power Point Presentations

You can sell Benzes to refugees during war time.

You easily part a nun from her vow of chastity.

No doubt- you're the greatest at influencing people one-on-one.

But can you conduct killer power point presentations?

If you're like 99% of all the presentors out there, I bet you 're a veteran at observing the MEGO Syndrome in audiences.

MEGO?

"Mine Eyes Glaze Over"

That's right. Three minutes into the powerpoint presentation, the audience is restless. Some begin sneaking out the door. The more polite ones just pretend to listen behind dark spectacles. But you know where their minds went.

The MEGO Syndrome arises from five monumental presentation mistakes. Do the opposite and you'll deliver utterly drool worthy power point presentations- and influence the socks out of your crowd.

1. Keeping Them Guessing. Many speakers fail to give a roadmap of their speech. So throughout the presentation, the crowd is asking 'huh? What's his point? Where's this leading to?' Guide them by the hand. Before the actual presentation, outline exactly what you'll cover and let them know when you'll finish.

2. Failing to Connect At the Beginning. Audiences don't like to be preached to. They'd prefer to be talked with. Keep your style interactive. Open the talk by asking a rhetorical question, launching an anecdote, or saying a shocking statement- then invite a comment! You'll draw them in like Pirahnnas to a pork buffet.

3. Looking at the Floor and Closing Your Body. I've seen it so often. The speaker assumes a closed body language. Guilty of this? Hands in pocket. Arms crossed. Legs tight together. Look stiff, and you alienate the audience. To invite the audience to appreciate your power point presentation, move around. Gesture. Smile!

4. DataDumping. I've attended hundreds of business presentations where the speaker fills the slide with size 9 font text crammed to the margin. Then they read each line. Good lord! We're attending a presentation, not an online reading course! The best slides follow the 4 by 4 rule. Four words across, four bullets down.

5. Forgetting the Call of Action. At the end, the speaker jumps to "any questions?" without giving the audience a specific command. Is it to buy? To invest? To visit a website? Without the call to action, the audience is left wondering what you yammered about for the last 20 minutes of their valuable time.

So here's my call to action for you: create drool worthy powerpoint presentations. Right now.

Your audience deserves it

Read More...

Alternative Ways To Use Power Point Software

Hear the word "Power Point" and I would assume that most of you would start to think about presentations and handouts. Are you remembering your favourite slide design or animation? Perhaps you are recalling your personal experiences with this software or maybe the opportunities you have had in your career to attend a multitude of presentations given using Power Point. Whatever memories have come to mind, it is most likely that the scene is set in a business or educational environment. However, once you have the technical know-how and a little time to spare, this presentation software can also be put to various alternative uses. Let us review some interesting applications of Power Point.



Slideshows

Once you have designed your slides, it is possible to select the slideshow option to display your work. In times gone by, you would probably think of a series of photographic images being projected onto a screen in a darkened room, upon hearing the term slide show. You too, can follow in the footsteps of projectionists from days gone by and create a digital slideshow of your holiday photos, for example. The advantage of using Power point is that you can add amusing comments to your photos and even record a narration. Then, all you need is a willing audience.



Quizzes

Continuing with the entertainment theme, you could consider taking advantage of the multimedia capabilities of Power Point to design a quiz show. Your prospective audience could be family members gathered together for the holidays or perhaps work colleagues needing a little light entertainment. Using Power Point templates and music and sound files downloaded onto your computer, you can incorporate question rounds, picture rounds and even song and movie clips into your quiz.



Award certificate

Perhaps someone in your personal or professional life has had a success of some kind. One way to mark such an occasion is to offer them an award certificate which you can design using Power Point. Templates are available for various themes including employee of the month, most improved student and for recognising excellence or attendance at an event. You just need to enter the personal details of your nominee, the date and details of their achievement. Another idea is to offer certificates of attendance, in addition to handouts, to all individuals attending your presentations.



Technology is not only streamlining our working practices but also, if we let it, technology can make it easier for us to get in touch with our creative side. Attending Power Point courses offers you the opportunity to further develop your presentation design skills and thereby benefit your career and perhaps now, your family and friends. You may also receive a certificate of attendance.

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Preparation Techniques for Public Speaking

Preparation for public speaking is more than fact-finding or effective writing and then repeating the words by rote to your audience. Learning the more subtle skills like voice control and modulation, paper and equipment handling, posture and presentation, humor and timing, ease and confidence all require preparation.



Preparation techniques for public speaking includes practice, "real" practice, not just memorization. We're all familiar with the adage, Practice make perfect". But practice does not make perfect,Perfect Practice Makes Perfect.



Practice in front of a mirror 10 to 15 minutes a day, two or three times until the event. Practice speaking at the correct volume for the crowd and room size. You do not want to be overpowering or too faint to be heard.



Speak slowly and clearly. After reading a line, pause and look in the mirror, pretending you are looking at the audience, then return to your speech and repeat. To get immediate and realistic feedback, record your speech into a tape recorder and then listen critically.



You will hear where your strong points lie and the areas that need improvement. Doing that even once is worth ten silent read-throughs In the same way, one stand-up practice in front of friends and family members is worth ten read-alouds in front of a mirror. There will be nothing as helpful as practice and preparation to reduce or eliminate fear of public speaking. Practice, practice, practice.



Visualize your presentation in advance. Not only will your proficiency be increased by visualization, but so will your self confidence. Visualize yourself standing erect and proud, giving a flawless speech, the audience eager to hear every word. See yourself up on stage, fearless and powerful, connecting with your audience. Feel your pride. Hear the applause.



The fear of public speaking ranks high in the ratings of phobias. One of just many of the reasons for this is because of fear that someone in the audience may ask a difficult question after your speech, so anticipate and be ready with answers. There may of course be a question you haven't anticipated and don't know the answer to. Simply state, "I don't know, but I'll find out and get back to you". This will help eliminate your fear of 'unanswerable questions' and you can concentrate on your presentation.



Using these preparation techniques for public speaking will help to reduce or eliminate your stage fright. You've never learned how to do anything hard without practice, and speaking is the same way. Practice. You owe it to yourself and your audience.

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The Art of Effective Public Speaking

You might think that you are the best speaker and despite could not manage to grab the attention of the audience you ever spoke before. You might have prepared your presentation after a week long grueling effort but the impact was only 10% or so. This leaves you wondering why have you not been successful at public speeches and presentations although you possess enough knowledge and also do have the required skills. The introduction, the body part and the conclusion all have been spoken in an orderly manner but little it did to captivate the audience.

It can be said then that saying a word is one thing and how it affects the audience is another and the only thing to win over your audience. The great industry speakers often use contemporary jargons and the quotes by famous authors so as to allure the audience.  But looking back at the history of these leading speakers tell us how to avoid the common errors which often a speaker commits and how to develop the art of public speaking. No doubt, a lot of effort goes into the public speaking and the perfection is achieved after a continuous practice and systematic learning.

Often a speaker gets amazed at how the people react to the speeches made at a conference or a seminar. A listener may either nod his head in your favour or shake showing his disapproval and may even doze off if the speech or presentation is not liked by him. At times, it becomes difficult to appease the entire crowd of listeners.

By paying heed to the following common mistakes which often a speaker commits, you can win over the audience.

•Starting without saying “thank-you”: Many speakers especially who are novice commit this mistake. They start with the subject without saying thank you.  The people  like to be given importance and they feel great when they are being told “thank-you”. Contrary to this, if the speech is being delivered internally within the organization, there is no need to say this word.

•Not maintaining an eye-contact: There are speakers who are good and can influence the audience but somehow during the speech can not maintain an eye-contact with the audience. The speaker reads out the lines of entire subject from the projector screen or somehow while speaking is not able to make eye-to-eye contact. This is the biggest mistake one can commit and must be avoided at all costs.

•Taking long pauses while speaking: Many speakers take long pauses because of the reason that they miss out on words. They are not very good communicators and also do not convey the right message while speaking. The use of right words is very-very important. This can be effected by taking up breathing exercises and also practicing to speak for long. In toto, the speaker should be able to say a sentence by maintaining a continuum.

•Shaking or moving while speaking: Often speakers are seen to be moving their hands and body while speaking. The body language is an asset and this should be utilized to make the best use of your opportunity as a speaker. Be comfortable and maintain your posture by standing straight. This is especially so when you are using a podium.

•Speaking the by hearted text: Some speakers just speak those words which seem to be by hearted. Never do this as it creates a negative impression. Speak in either a conversational tone or in a such a manner that it should seem to be authentic and spoken straight from the heart. Aditionally, have your own style which should look original and also do not imitate any other speaker.

The voice-modulation is also very important and maintaining clarity in your voice will lend you credibility whenever you stand up to speak. Above all, in order to be a good speaker, you also need to be a good observer too.

 

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Presentation Skills - Proper Slide Delivery

The only way to assure your presentation audience will stay with you every step of the way is to maintain proper eye contact throughout your presentation. Proper eye contact involves delivering your presentation as a series of one-on-one conversations with each member of the audience, and holding eye-contact with members through to the end of a thought or complete sentence. Most presenters hold eye contact with any one person no more than one second - to effectively bond with your audience, you need to pump that up to a range more like three to eight.

The image to keep in mind here is that you are never delivering to a group of individuals, but rather to individuals in a group. (When people ask me what's the largest number of people I've ever spoken to, I always answer, "one".)

When delivering a PowerPoint presentation, maintaining proper eye contact becomes difficult if your slides are structured like most we see in the corporate world today - with way more information than the audience can digest before the speaker feels compels to start speaking. In order to maintain constant eye contact with members of the audience, you must restrict the volume of information that you toss up on the screen at any one time. Otherwise, you will do what most presenters do, which is to spend much of the presentation looking at the screen. In fact, you must restrict each new parcel of information to that which can be absorbed by both you and the audience in just a few seconds - ten at the very most.

That will set you up to then smoothly and coherently transfer the information from the screen to the audience. We call the procedure for doing this "Absorb, Align, and Address."

Absorb

When new information appears on the screen, all eyes will follow it, and at this point it is OK, and desirable, for you, too, to look to the screen. By doing so, you "give permission" to the audience to get prepared for what's coming next. That's all the screen info should include, too: just enough information to set the stage for what you are going to discuss. At this point, because you are not looking at any individual in the group, you must be silent.

Rule Number 9: If your eyes aren't locked, your jaw must be.

When you have absorbed the data bite, you can now think for a moment on how to phrase what you want to say to start off. This would not include expounding on the point, but merely filling out the talking points to make a grammatically correct statement.

Align

Once you and your audience have had the opportunity to take in this info, you then need to turn your attention away from the screen, and lock eyes (align) with a member of the audience. This is the most difficult part, physically, to perform, as the natural tendency is to begin speaking as soon as you have formulated your statement.

Address

Locked on, you finally can address your selected member of the audience with your version of the talking point.

Understand that if what you're addressing is a bullet point, this address should not be the actual words. You may always say more than the line on the screen, but never, never any less. Keep in mind that the group will read everything that's on the screen, so if you put words up there but don't speak to them, you are actually insulting your audience: These words aren't important enough for me to bother with but I wanted to take up your brain's time and effort just the same.

How many times has this happened to you: You go to a presentation and see slide after slide with all kinds of footnotes and small type, or graphs with legends and data to which the presenter never refers? You're looking at all the elements on the slide trying to figure out which stuff is most important, and then the presenter never even mentions half the stuff you've read. How does that make you feel? For most people, the first slide that contains more information than the presenter chooses not to discuss is the point at which they check out, deciding to figure it all out later from the handout, which, of course, they trash at the first can they see outside the presentation room.

Once learned, the Absorb, Align and Address system is a beautiful thing to behold. Slides designed with this system never suffer from TMI, and thus never have too much for the presenter to deal with. Presenter confidence is high, and the audience feels this big time. The audience is forced to turn their attention to you, because there's not enough information to allow them to jump to their own conclusions. By the same token, you are now able to direct all of your speaking to the audience and not the screen.

But here's the really fun part: When you follow this simple plan for both design and delivery, almost anyone can look and sound like an expert on their subject, regardless of how much prep time they've put into rehearsing the presentation! We prove this in our corporate training classes by having participants deliver other participant's presentations that we have edited and revised to comply with the "rules" (next chapter). Preferably, off course, you would have a good background in the subject matter, so that you can deliver the "meat on the bones" part effectively. But if you know to what the talking points refer, and you also know that no more material than you can deliver in just a few seconds will appear, you can actually give a presentation for the very first time and sound like you know what you're talking about!

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The 7 Easy Steps to Becoming a Public Speaking Failure

Learning to speak in public with confidence is a surefire way of boosting your overall self-esteem. Doing so gives you a real challenge and, because it is actually really easy to achieve, can give you a huge sense of satisfaction and achievement.



When I had finished my education and started out in the world of work I was a quiet and somewhat shy individual. But eventually I realized that if I wanted to progress in the company in the sales and business development roles I desired, I would need to change. So I volunteered to attend a training course on presentation skills and the transformation started there and then!



You too can develop as a person by learning the techniques for becoming an accomplished speech maker. But beware because in all endeavors there is the right way and, of course, the wrong way! And here are seven ways to ensure you fail as a public speaker:



#1 Don't Prepare



It is vital that you spend time planning a speech, gathering information for it, preparing it, and rehearsing thoroughly. If you fail to plan your talk then it is simply going to bomb!



#2 Don't Know Your Topic



There are many people who, when making a speech, will simply read from a script, sometimes using other people's material. To them the subject is irrelevant, but that will soon come across to their audience too! It is essential that you speak about a topic you know about, are genuinely interested in, and can enthuse about, if you actually want anyone to listen.



#3 Don't Have Structure



A good speech should flow like a good book. It should have an effective opening, a main body with a number of points which move logically forwards, and an ending that will be remembered. You need to be able to carry your audience effortlessly along with you.



#4 Don't Grab the Attention of Your Audience



At the beginning of your speech you must make your audience sit up and listen. Use a startling fact, a pertinent question, or a challenging quotation - whatever it takes to get them on board.



#5 Don't Look Good



It won't matter how good your talk is if you don't pay attention to your appearance. Make sure you look clean and tidy and dress appropriately for the occasion. And don't stand with your hands in your pockets, or keep hopping from foot to foot. Your audience will soon be put off.



#6 Don't Sound Good



It is vital that when you rehearse you pay attention to how you sound. There's nothing worse than a dull monotone voice, so put expression into your speech. Remember that nerves can make you talk more quickly and affect your breathing. So control your breathing, try some exercises, and don't be afraid to build pauses into your talk.



#7 Don't Leave Your Audience with Something Memorable



No matter how good your subject matter, if you don't ensure your audience remembers it you will have failed. So end with a challenge or a call to action so that they have to act on what they've just heard.



Learning to speak in public is just one way of challenging yourself and developing a new and worthwhile skill. But I recommend it as it helped transform me from a quiet and unsure young man into a confident and successful business manager. So why not take action today and start your own journey to success.

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