Make the Most From Your PowerPoint Presentation

For many people in the corporate world, the term "PowerPoint presentation" causes a distinctly negative reaction. The truth is that PowerPoint, while a marvelous presentation tool, and one of the most effective ways to convey information during meetings, is often used incorrectly, and thus many people believe that it's ineffective, boring, or even cheesy. But it shouldn't be.
Creating an effective PowerPoint presentation for your next conference or business meeting doesn't have to be difficult, and it should certainly be a positive experience. Here are four key tips to get you started on the right track.

1. Don't get carried away with special effects.
This one is important. Remember that you're creating a business presentation, and while PowerPoint is a great tool for creating vibrant and effective visual aids, it's possible to go too far. The result is a business presentation that's confusing, distracting and difficult for clients and employees to focus on. The key is to strike the right balance between colorful, graphic-employing slides... and mayhem.

2. Make sure each slide has a purpose... and make sure there's a separate slide for every purpose.
Some of the key mistakes people make when creating corporate PowerPoint presentations are either using too many slides, or not using enough. If you have an itemized list of five points or less, they should all fit comfortably on one slide. If, on the other hand, you have a huge list of multiple statistics and facts, cramming them from top to bottom on one slide is going to make your audience glaze over. Use the following rule of thumb: if the slide takes less than ten seconds to present, consider consolidating it with another slide. If it takes more than ten minutes, consider breaking it into separate slides so that your audience stays visually engaged.

3. PowerPoint isn't just a script.
Whether you're presenting a new budget or making a pitch to a corporate backer, there's one thing that's certain: your audience will get bored and frustrated immediately if you read to them directly from your PowerPoint presentation. The presenter should have his or her own note cards in hand, which are then used to give the speech or conduct the meeting. Meanwhile, the PowerPoint slides should be designed to echo the key points being covered- preferably in a consolidated way, perhaps with some language reworded. That way, the audience is required to interact and stay engaged with the presentation. They are following along with the slide and making their own connections to what is being said. Simply reading to them from the slides is sure to alienate them, so avoid it. Not to mention, chances are that if you try it, they'll just read ahead, and then tune you out.

4. PowerPoint is a great tool... if you're not afraid to use it. The last, but certainly not least important, of our rules today is this: when creating a corporate PowerPoint presentation, don't be afraid to have some fun (without violating rule number 1, of course)! Mix up graphs, arrows, bullet points, and paragraphs of text to keep each slide interesting and visually engaging. If necessary, find someone with aesthetic artistic taste to help you lay out a pleasing outline for each slide before you begin, from choosing the proper colors to aligning text to a certain side of the screen. You are presenting information, but there's no rule that says that it must be dull - in fact, your audience would much prefer that it wasn't.

If used correctly, PowerPoint can be the strongest resource at any business's disposal. Let us here at X2 Media help you create the PowerPoint presentation that will make the right impression.