Don't let powerpoint have all the power!

As a meeting planner, I get to watch many, many (did I say many) powerpoint presentations. Some are very good, some are not. Here are the top seven ways presenters can regain the power of powerpoint!

1. Be the star of your own show! Powerpoint should be used to support your presentation, not be the focus of your presentation.
2. Limit the slide clutter! The audience should be listening to you, not reading the slide. Use text and charts sparingly.
3. Templates........are boring! Quit using the built in templates....believe me, we have seen them before. Either design your own or possibly look to the Mac Apple Keynote program to add some excitement to your layouts.
4. Careful with the clipart! Clipart can look unprofessional. Either choose it very carefully or look for high quality graphics.
5. Video, video, video! If you have an opportunity to incorporate some video that is integral to your presentation, go for it. Be careful with music...it can make you or break you.
6. Bullets shouldn't fly! One of my biggest pet peeves is fly in bullets...on every page. While the odd flying in bullet can be whimsical, 30 slides with bullets flying in each one gets tedious.
7. Discover Pecha Kucha! Applying this simple set of rules to the presentations: 20 slides for 20 seconds. Six minutes and 40 seconds maximum. It is a thing of beauty!

J