Presentation creation

Sometimes people ask me whether they should use something other than PowerPoint to present. For example, software such as Prezi, Animoto or some other cool iPad presentation app.

In short, NO.

Prezi, for the uninitiated, is a cool piece of presentation software that allows you to create a non-linear presentation. You can create lots of different points of interest on one enormous piece of paper and then link these together in a standard, linear way, so you can zoom in and out of all these cool talking points. But, you can also jump to a specific talking point easily, out of sequence. In theory, this is all wonderful. However, in practice, having had a go myself and comparing it with the beautiful examples that you see, it’s really quite difficult to make it look nice. If you’re a graphic designer or you have an expert who can create them, then great. If not, I just wouldn’t touch it. It’s not just the tool itself. Even if you managed to have a lovely Prezi produced, you’ll need to learn how to use it effectively so you look competent. The danger is you’ll spend a lot of time fiddling about trying to make it work rather than crafting a brilliant story, which is far more powerful for your audience.

Similarly, I’ve seen people try and use fancy, iPad-driven, multi-screen presentations that just haven’t worked. It has been a total waste of time for everyone involved and it just ends up making you look unprofessional.

Automated slideshow software that lets you string images together, like Animoto, can be quite impactful, but they still don’t really replace PowerPoint or a proper story-based video. There are plenty of other tools as well, more for creating sections of content within your presentation rather than its framework. They can be a good way of creating nice-looking content cost-effectively, just don’t overuse them.

The real issue is about creating a good story.

Your story is what will connect with your audience, not the fancy technology that you use. It’s the old adage:

Don’t waste time with a lot of fancy software. Instead, spend your time crafting a really strong message. If you’re creating a video, make sure you remember to spend a fair chunk of the production schedule on the script, ideally with a scriptwriter, not just the graphics or filming. We typically allow half of the limited production time we have for collaborative working, on the script vs. actually producing the video.

The best presenters barely even use PowerPoint, or use it sparingly at least. They don’t get lost in the medium. They create a good story and a powerful message and then use PowerPoint as visual support to back up what they’re saying.

You might wonder why I say this as a video guy? It’s because for me, video is all about the story. It’s far more important to have a great story in your video than it is to have an amazingly beautiful video with a poor story. Simple graphics will tell your story if it’s a good one.

What about using a Microsite? Unless you really know what you’re doing, I would just not go there. Once you give people buttons to press and things to do, what do they start doing They start pressing the buttons and looking at the twiddly bits, rather than engaging with your story. It works against you! We want them engaged and focused on what you are saying. Not wasting time.

The trick is to keep it simple. When we’re confronted with a huge range of options, we often feel overwhelmed. As the audience, they want to hear the story, not be confronted with a lot of options that they don’t really understand yet.

The same is true when it comes to your PowerPoint slides. We’ve all seen good presentations and some really bad ones. Usually, corporate presentations are at the worst end of the scale. Why this is, I really don’t know - it’s not like PowerPoint is new! Don’t show up with 50 slides packed with dense content and expect your audience to be interested and to understand your message. They can’t possibly absorb that amount of information.

As I said in the section on psychology and the chimp, if you pitch with information-dense slides you’re really only appealing to their logical minds. This kind of information is useful, but it generally doesn’t seal the deal. You’re in there pitching. It’s far more about emotion and engagement than it is about conveying facts.

The big not-so-secret secret about PowerPoint is to try and use lots of striking images and a few bullet points here and there as an aide-mémoire to you when you’re speaking. Recent studies have shown that if you’re almost reading off your slide, people actually remember less than if you just spoke or just gave them the slide alone.

And finally, spend just five minutes Googling how to create a nice PowerPoint presentation. Trust me, it will be time well spent. You want them to remember you, right? So go with:

• A simple presentation
• Know your stuff
• Tell your story
• Not wasting time