By James A. Baker
Founder
Baker Communications
So, you have honed your speaking skills, practiced your gestures, fine-tuned your body language and whipped up a very compelling text for your presentation. What is missing? How about visual aids? People remember about 80% of what they see, but only about 50% of what they hear. This means you need to shift some of your content out of your notes and on to visual aids like flip charts, overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides. Wherever possible, use pictures, graphs and simple diagrams. Pictures really are worth a thousand words. Use more pictures and fewer words. People will get the same point in less time and remember it longer. For that reason, let’s take a moment to discuss the best way to use visual aids.
There are a couple of important criteria to consider when developing visual content for your presentation. First of all, you need to choose a visual style that best supports the type of information you are trying to explain. Information falls into two basic categories. The first one is statistical, which relates to issues of number, proportion, scale, etc. Graphs such as line charts, pie charts, and bar charts work great here. The other basic information category is more conceptual, involving particular principles or ideas you want to convey. Pictures, cartoons, and symbols work well here.
Once you have settled on a visual style for those key points in your presentation, you still have to determine the best visual medium for delivering your visual points. To accomplish this, you need to ask yourself three questions: What size will my audience be, and how will a visual aid help support the point I am trying to make? Once you answer those two questions, you can then answer the last question, which is, “What visual aid will work best in this setting?”
When choosing the medium for your visual points, keep in mind that PowerPoint slides, overheads and films or videos and DVDs displayed through large screen projection system work best for in a large room or auditorium. For small audiences of 20 or fewer, videos or DVDs played on a TV or projector, as well as overheads, PowerPoint slides and flip charts all work equally well.
No matter which medium you use, keep the following tips in mind so that your visual aids will achieve maximum affect:
Using flip charts is a low-tech, but very useful and dynamic visual presentation tool to include when you are working with smaller groups. It not only allows you to present prepared information, it also allows you to include and interact with information generated by the group. However, there are few helpful hints to get the most out of your flip chart presentation:
If you are using either overhead transparencies or PowerPoint slides, there are also a few tips to observe. Don’t walk in front of the projector because the slide will project on you. Don’t walk too close to the audience or you will block their view. If you are using a computer-generated visual, make sure you have a remote mouse, or at least someone else to operate the program for you. It does not work for the presenter to be running back and forth to the keyboard, or sitting down at the computer to deliver the presentation.
Finally, no matter what form of visual you are using, follow the Touch – Turn – Talk principle. Touch, or at least gesture toward the chart or screen as you look at; read it silently to yourself in order to give the audience time to read it and absorb the information. Then turn and make full eye contact with your audience again. Resume talking. Always talk to your audience; never talk to your visual.
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October Presentation Quick Tip of the Month – Test Your Equipment Early
The vast majority of important presentations these days make use of computer-generated images, sounds, movies, animation and PowerPoint slides that requires several different components to all work perfectly. Unless you want to appear inept in front of your audience and possibly delay the program and annoy everyone, make sure you check every piece of technology well in advance. Can your lap top play the files you need? Do you know how to make the computer and the projector talk to each other? Do you have all the cords and connectors you need? Is the projector lamp working? Does the remote mouse work with the rest of your equipment? The only way you will have the answers to all these questions is to set up the equipment and test every function as early as you can; make it no later than the night before your presentation. Also, plan to arrive extra early the day of your presentation so you can set everything up and quick test it one more time without scrambling around in front of the group at the last minute.
