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Health & Fitness

Stand Up and – Toast! On Slide 54, You Will See….

Slide shows have become the mainstay of business presentations. Are they really necessary – and if so, when?

“For my presentation today, I will be reading the slides word for word.” This quote recently made the rounds on social media, and it aptly describes the “death by slides” syndrome.

The tools to create action-packed slide shows are improving, with little “helpers” that include ready-to-use templates, graphics, and easy ways to embed animations, photos and videos. Unfortunately, it’s tempting for many speakers to make the slides the star of the show, instead of connecting with the audience to make the message more compelling – and more human.

There are many types of presentations where slides are not required – or desired. Examples are motivational and humorous speeches, which rely more heavily on emotion. Conversely, for presentations that focus on detailed or technical information, slides can enhance the understanding of your audience.

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When should you use slides?

  • To increase retention of a complex message with a simple visual. Having an appropriate photo or visual will help your audience remember your main point. If you want to highlight that you have hundreds of customers for your product, show a slide with several dozen logos of those customers (but get permission to use them!) If you are speaking about camera settings and focus, illustrate your point with photographs that show the difference in sharpness of the foreground and the background based on different aperture settings. Do not use clip art just to fill space.
  • To present and summarize detailed information. If you reel off a series of numbers while presenting financial results or geographic market share information, chances are your audience will miss your point. If the numbers are important, use slides to present them – but make the information easy to consume, for example with a graph or a map instead of long columns of numbers.
  • To provide a take-away for training and educational conferences and webinars. Conferences often feature hundreds of sessions. Educational presentations typically provide detailed “how-to” information, which is later distributed on a disk. Participants attend dozens of sessions, and without slides as a take-away, will not retain the information. Many even use print-outs of the slides to take notes.  And for educational sessions held as a webinar, having a visual on a slide will give participants something to watch; otherwise they may be tempted to check their e-mail in parallel and tune you out.

 

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If you use slides, make sure they support you and your message as a speaker, and do not detract from your stage presence. Slides cannot connect with your audience, make eye contact, or respond to questions. Make sure you add value beyond the information that you present on your slides, with additional talking points and stories.

In other words, don’t let a “wipe in” effect on your slides steal your thunder.

 

Find out more about clubs in District 4 Toastmasters: http://www.d4tm.org  

 

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