Presentations: PowerPoint and Keynote
I used to hate doing PowerPoint presentations. The ones I saw had way too many words on them, were boring, and were a pain to read. That was less than a year ago. Today, thanks to Garr Reynolds of www.garrreynolds.com and his blog, Presentation Zen, I’m able to prepare and present a much more interactive presentation. Through his website (on Top 10 Slide Tips and How to Design & Deliver Presentations Like a Pro) and blog entries (like What is Good PowerPoint Design?), Garr taught me that PowerPoints (or Keynote on a Mac) are merely an extension of me as a presenter. I learned that anyone can read from a text-filled slideshow, but that it takes a dynamic presenter to bring a presentation to life. I learned to cut out extraneous text or graphs, to increase the font size by a lot, and to include nice, big graphics or pictures to draw attention to the point I’m trying to make.
Though I still have plenty to learn, I feel like I have gotten a solid foundation on what it takes to deliver a great presentation. The photo above is from my Anti-Bullying presentation that I do for some of the schools here in the CNMI. As you can see there is very little text, the font size is legible from the back of the room, and there is also a nice graphic/picture to add emphasis. Thanks to Garr, my presentations are now brief, yet more interesting than ever before!
For those of you reading this, if you do any types of presentation or speaking, go check out Garr Reynolds at www.garrreynolds.com and his blog, Presentation Zen. You’ll learn not only ways to make your presentations stand out, you’ll also learn how to speak more effectively and naturally. Oh, and I’m not affiliated with Garr in any way. I just wanted to share two of the most helpful sites on presentation ever.
Source: www.stevenguyenonline.vox.com