5 Tips to Avoid PowerPoint Plague when Public Speaking
Posted in Business
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By Donna L. Johnson
A few years ago, most meeting planners made power point presentations mandatory for speakers. You had to use it regardless of your talk and if you didn’t, you could forget about being booked. Times have changed and planners are more flexible with allowing speakers to choose the tools that best suit their needs and objectives.
It’s easy for public speakers (especially those just starting out) to become dependent upon PowerPoint presentations to the extent they “speak to their slides” instead of speaking to their audience. Projectors, flip charts, and props should be used as visual aids to engage your listeners. Simply put – it’s a great way to grab their attention and keep them awake! Refer to these tips to make the most of your visual presentation:
Less is More – don’t make your slides too wordy. Your audience will become distracted by having to read so much and as a result, they’ll stop listening to you. Make one point per slide and that’s it.
Steer Clear of Fancy Font – choose simple font families that are easy to read, yet big enough for those in the back of the room to see. Times New Roman, Verdana, and Arial are good ones. Avoid using cursive and script type fonts.
Triple Check Your Spell Check – there’s nothing more embarrassing than typo’s in your written work. It’s best to have several sets of eyes proofread your materials, including handouts.
Setup and Troubleshoot Early – whenever possible, check out the room you’ll be speaking in the day before your presentation. Make sure you have enough electrical outlets and all equipment is functioning properly. Print a copy of your slides just in case you run into a technical glitch.
Let the Audience Use Their Imagination – you can accomplish this by eliminating/limiting graphics on your slides. Remember, it’s your job as the presenter to paint the picture you want your listeners to see by being descriptive and engaging. Insert blank slides throughout to signal to your audience that their attention should be on you.
If a meeting planner forces you to use power point, don’t feel compelled to create some over-the-top deck that will overshadow your talk. Keep it short, simple, and clean. As the speaker, the focus should always remain on you. At the end of the day, you want people to be captivated by your message and educated by your content. I can’t remember a single time when I’ve attended a conference and said, “Can you believe how awesome the keynote’s power point was?!”
Donna L. Johnson, The Unemployed Entrepreneur™, is a speaker and confidence coach who worked her way up from file clerk to management while starting a business at night and on weekends. Her real-life experiences are her secrets to success while her jaw-dropping transparency offers every day women insight and inspiration to become their very best. Get resources and support to succeed by visiting Donna Speaks
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Don’t forget:
Leave the Laser Pointer at Home.
My eyes get so tired whirling around trying to follow those lasers! :-)
Hi Melodee,
LOL! I forgot about that one…thanks! Speakers don’t realize how distracting some of the smallest things can be to their audience.