Choosing a Presentation Remote Control

If you deliver electronic presentations using PowerPoint or other programs, you can manually move forward to the next slide with the keyboard or the mouse. One way, however, to deliver more effective presentations that improve your connection to your audience is to add a remote control to your presentation tools. What features should you look for when selecting a remote control?

Remote Features

Many projectors come standard with a remote but features vary and may not always be easy to use. A better choice is to buy your own personal presentation remote control. When evaluating a remote, look for these features and decide what is important to you:

• Ergonomic and easily fits in your hand. Keep in mind that you might be using the remote for an hour or an entire day. Plus, a smaller remote will usually have fewer and more accessible buttons, fits in your pocket, and is great for travel.
• Simple to use. In most cases, a smaller, ergonomic remote is easy to use but test it before buying. One of my friends loves her small remote which is only about the size of a matchbook. The tradeoff is she needs to press 2 buttons together to make the screen go black, a feature that does not always work. I was reminded of the importance of an easy to use remote recently when I watched an excellent presenter pull out a huge remote that looked a price scanner gun from Home Depot. As he fumbled with a large panel of buttons, the remote dropped to the floor and broke open with batteries flying across the stage.
• Transmit distance. Remotes operate with three different technologies: RF (wireless radio frequency), IR (infrared), and Bluetooth. A huge drawback with IR remotes is that you need to point the mouse directly at the receiver for it to work. Bluetooth remotes use the latest technology but currently have a maximum range of about 30' while many RF remotes have a range of 50 to 100 feet. With some remotes, you can have your back to the laptop and move to the middle of an audience. What do you need for your presentations?
• Built-in mouse. Some presenters will sacrifice a bit in size to get a built-in mouse, usually a small button like you see on some laptops. The Logitech Cordless Presenter, for example, combines a full-size mouse and remote with a 30' range and is priced under $200. Other remotes have a track ball or a touch pad. I prefer a separate wireless mouse that I use for portions of my presentations. I find a built-in mouse to be too awkward but it might be great for your purposes.
• Visible laser pointer. If you would like a built-in laser pointer, make sure to test it for visibility and practice moving it slowly. Some of the pointers have such a small laser dot that it does not show well on screen. Would an animation be a better way to highlight parts of a slide or a process?

When evaluating features, it is still not that common to find a wide range of remotes at your local computer store or office supply outlet, and so, your best option is to find someone who has a remote and try it out. My favorite is the RemotePoint Navigator from Interlink Electronics which is easy to use, fits comfortably in my hand, and gives me up to 50' of movement from my laptop. Another top model by the same company is the RemotePoint Presenter, with up to 100' of movement, a mouse button, and 32 MB of storage for your presentation; it is priced at about $150. The Phaser Mouse from IOGear is a budget-minded model for as little as $60.

There are many other models and brands to consider. Personally, I do not like remotes loaded with tons of features that you might not need; these remotes are typically bigger or more complicated to use. Remember, you should be using a remote so that you do not call attention to the technology and your audience can focus on your content.

Practicing with a Remote Control

After you buy a remote, practice with it before you use it. Do not just try it at your desk, you need to also setup your laptop and remote and actually run through your presentation. The first time I did this, the screen kept going black or I would accidentally advance to the next slide. The problem wasn't with the remote. The problem was that I was holding my presentation handout in the same hand and accidentally hitting a remote button through the handout. An easy adjustment but not obvious if my only rehearsal was in my office. I personally like to choreograph my slide actions into my presentation notes to avoiding looking back at the projection screen to check my location. Or, setup your laptop in the meeting room so you can glance at the screen and still keep the connection with your audience.

Practicing with your remote should be a built-in part of your presentation rehearsal to avoid distracting your audience and accomplishing the goal of communicating your message.

Bonus Tips: Always bring extra batteries; many speakers change out batteries for every presentation. To protect your investment, label the remote or put several business cards in the carrying case in the event that your remote is misplaced.

© Dawn Bjork Buzbee Dawn Bjork Buzbee is The Software Pro® and a certified Microsoft Office Expert and Microsoft Office Specialist Master Instructor. Dawn shares smart and easy ways to effectively use software and technology through her work as a speaker, trainer, and consultant. Discover more tips, tricks, tools, and techniques at http://www.SoftwarePro.com

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Public Speaking Without PowerPoint - Three Ways to Engage Audiences Without the Screen

If you have seen many speeches in your professional life, you have probably seen a boring PowerPoint presentation. It contains of a great host of slides that form a bullet-pointed outline of the entire presentation. The speech consists of little more than reading the bullet points. If you were in a darkened room, a nap might have overtaken you.

If you have given many presentations, you may be a perpetrator of such boredom. Challenge your self and give your audience a break. Next time you present, leave the projector at the office and try one of these techniques to engage your audience.

ENGAGE THEIR IMAGINATIONS WITH WORD PICTURES

Long before visual aids became common, speakers, storytellers and authors used words to trigger the imagination. The faux Martian invasion staged by Orson Wells through radio broadcasts caused a panic. People are very capable of conjuring up compelling images from their own mind; you can use this as a speaker.

Creating a word picture is not difficult. Start by imagining for yourself what you want your audience to see. Make the image as vivid as possible with colors, motions, sounds, scents and textures. Next, put it in words. Write down what you imagine including as many senses as you can.

You will probably need to revise your word picture to keep it short enough. Organize it, pare it down and tighten it up. It only needs to be detailed enough to evoke the imaginations of your audience; they will do the rest.

ENGAGE THEIR EYES WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

Before there was PowerPoint, speakers used photographic slides, chalkboard, white boards, flip-pads and fingers in the dust to provide visual aids for their presentations. These tools can be just as misused, too. The interminable travel slide show is cliché. So is the droning lecture accompanied by squeaking chalk.

Hand illustration has the advantage of being slower than clicking through electronic slides. You have to be selective about what you write or draw on your board. Write or draw selected words or images to reinforce the most important points of your presentation and show how they related. Focus on creating visual aids; if you are just producing an outline of your presentation, you could have used PowerPoint.

We are attracted to motion and color. Your use of hand illustrations can bring this into your presentation, adding interest and drawing additional attention from your audience at critical moments.

ENGAGE THEIR BODIES WITH MOTION

An important part of learning is doing. Look for ways you can get your audience to do something, even if the task is more illustrative than practical. It provides you with one more pathway to their mind.

Motion may also be a way to reengage an audience that is tired. People can only sit still for so long. If they have been sitting in a dim room for a while, they may welcome the chance to get up and stretch.

Activities can be difficult in large groups. You can get much of the benefit by drawing a few audience members up to perform the activity. This supplies a visual aid and stirs up the sympathy of the audience who will feel for their fellow who were unlucky enough to be picked or foolhardy enough to volunteer.

Be careful that your activities are not embarrassing or injurious to those participating. You want your audience to feel good about what they have done.

Preparing a presentation using these techniques can take more time and effort than typing your outline onto electronic slides. However, if your audience is not attentive to your presentation, it is a waste of effort. Think of the extra effort to use one of these techniques as an investment in your audience and the effectiveness of your message. Challenge yourself try your next presentation without PowerPoint and use these techniques to connect with your audience.

Keenan Patterson is a manager at Infra Consulting LC in Jefferson City, Missouri. In addition to consulting and he provides training to nonprofit and association boards, governing boards of municipalities and special purpose districts, and regulatory commissions, and speaks to diverse audiences.

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How to Organize a PowerPoint Sales Presentation - 7 Easy Steps For a Perfect Pitch

Like any good performance, a presentation must have a beginning, a middle and an end. Plus, it must be easy to hear, so your audience "gets it" and responds positively. Let's be clear; you present to sell.

To deliver a winning sales presentation you must:

* differentiate yourself from your competitors 
* convince your audience you are worth listening to--by being easy to hear 
* deliver information so that it is understood and appreciated 
* keep your audience listening and engaged from the very first word.

Too many presenters waste their most important opening minutes with the standard "Thank you for inviting us" quickly followed by the "My name is..." and sailing right into the "I'd like to introduce you to our team." If that's what you do, you are achieving the exact opposite of what you intend. First, you sound like everybody else. Secondly, your beginning is instantly forgettable. And finally, you have given your audience good reason to disengage right from the get-go. Indeed, you are seriously out of tune with the needs of a listening audience.

When you want to win, you need a perfect pitch. Here's the how and why in 7 easy steps.

Step 1

Begin with your Big Message--the one you have polished until it sings.

Benefits

Research tells us that most people confronted with a stream of information forget almost all of it. In fact, you'd be lucky if your audience remembers two or three specifics from your presentation. In reality, the details you present are not the essential factor in making the sale. Your Big Message is. Open with your message and your audience will remember it.

Your Big Message is the main thing you want your audience to know about you. It is the strong statement of fact that sets you apart from your competitors and resonates with your audience so they listen up and respond positively.

Your Big Message is the big reason--in sentence form--that convinces your audience they need you. Polish it, refine it and open with it before you get to a word of content--even before you introduce yourself. Once you state your message--if it's a good one--your audience is engaged. Now you may introduce yourself.

Step 2

Organize and deliver your content around three--maximum four--main topics. These are the topics or subjects that support or prove your message.

Benefits

People understand information only when they can organize it into a coherent structure so it makes sense. Make remembering easy by organizing information into three distinct topics.

Imagine your message is something like: Our equipment is better built, more reliable and easier to use than any other on the planet. The topics you then choose must support or prove that message. So let's say for this message your three topics are technology, design and return on investment. That's it. The rest of your content must go under those three headings.

Now, whether you are asked to present at warp speed, or are expected to speak for twenty minutes or considerably longer, you can bet your audience will forget the detail, the minutia, the facts and the figures. Short or long, a well planned presentation follows a three-topic structure. The difference between them is in the amount of detail you put under each heading.

So--and this is the kicker--no matter how long your presentation is, when it is structured in three sections--or maximum four--your audience remembers your message because you opened with it. What's more, even if they forget all the details, they will remember you talked about three big concepts that prove your message: technology, design and return on investment. And after all, that's what is really important.

Step 3

Reinforce your big message with a visual metaphor.

Benefits

Pictures are more memorable than words. Pictures can instantly engage your audience and subliminally reinforce the message you want to convey.

Words matter. Visuals make a difference. The more careful you are in tieing everything together with an underlying theme, the more memorable your pitch becomes. If, for example, your big point is that you are the best at putting all the pieces together, you might use a carpentry image as a background throughout and reinforce your message with titles that tie in to the image--titles that begin with words like Building or Crafting or Cementing. Or if you want your audience to know you have a specialized team to work on their behalf, you might use a sports metaphor with a team picture as the background on your slides. Your topic titles should then fit with the sports theme.

Picking appropriate titles to match your theme adds a touch of creativity while highlighting your underlying message.

Step 4

Use your slides as a visual aid, not a reading exercise; eliminate as much text as you can.

Benefits

Good eye contact is the key to connecting with your audience. You cannot connect when everyone is reading from the screen. If you must, use bullet points to keep yourself on track or to point out key features or benefits. Eliminate sentences or anything else that requires reading.

Do not give your audience text to read while you speak. Research explains that people process visual material and verbal material in different areas of the brain--on separate channels. Listeners can digest information on only one channel at a time--which means that if they are reading, they cannot listen to you.

Research also reports that the more senses you can stimulate, the more you improve information retention. If you can stimulate the visual cortex with a striking picture while you orally deliver information to stimulate the hearing sense, you have doubled the chances of your audience remembering anything you say.

Don't worry about forgetting something. This is your stuff and you could talk for hours about it. What's more, if you do leave something out, your audience will never know.

Step 5

Do not print your PowerPoint slides to use as handouts. Create separate, reader-friendly documents.

Benefits

A well written handout is proof that the presentation you delivered is valid and true. PowerPoint slides are designed to be visuals--the exact opposite of reading documents. Slides are horizontal; documents are vertical. Slides are on dark backgrounds; documents are on white paper. Slides use huge fonts; documents use reading fonts no bigger than 10-12 point because bigger than that is actually harder to read on paper. There's lots more, but you get the idea.

And while Microsoft suggests you use your slides as a handout, it's a big mistake to do so. Handouts that look and read like real documents provide a huge advantage because they are readable and people actually read them. Imagine that! Feel free to include all the facts, data, detail and minutia you want, and distribute them before the Q and A.

Step 6

End your presentation by returning to your opening Big Message.

Benefits

Your Big Message is the hook on which everything else hangs. Once you finish delivering content, repeat the Big Message you began with--to remind your audience what sets you apart. What's more, when you end where you began, your presentation has the seamless and satisfying quality of a good performance.

When that's done, it's time for Q&A.

Step 7

Practice with a coach to be sure you present with warmth, energy and real language. It's all about your "likability factor."

Benefits

A good coach can make the difference between an amateur performance and a professional one. Remember, your goal is not to be slick, it is to be likable--which requires a careful blend of confidence, energy and enthusiasm.

It's hard to assess your own performance. It's nearly impossible to gauge how likable you are to an audience. A coach will check to be sure you make good eye contact and speak conversationally, that your body language is open and welcoming, that you appear warm and friendly. A coach will make sure your voice is pleasant, that your passion shows, and that your delivery hits all the right notes.

When making the sale is important, you want a professional's insightful feedback to help polish your delivery.

Follow these 7 steps and become the likable, memorable, easy-to-hear presenter you know you can be. That's a perfect pitch!

When companies need a dynamite coach to help them reinvent or polish their presentation, they call Fern Lebo--because it pays off big time. Author, consultant, trainer and coach, Lebo is President of FrontRunner Communications, adjunct faculty at Auburn University and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, retreats and meetings.

When companies need a dynamite coach to help them reinvent or polish their presentation, they call Fern Lebo--because it pays off big time. Author, consultant, trainer and coach, Lebo is President of FrontRunner Communications, adjunct faculty at Auburn University and a frequent keynote speaker at conferences, retreats and meetings. For nearly 20 years, Lebo has helped Fortune 500 companies create and deploy star performers. In seminars, workshops and individual or team coaching sessions, participants master the skills they need to compete and win more often. Whether it's a presentation renovation, strategic business writing, 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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