The Key to Creating an Effective Presentation

Planning is the First Step to a Successful Presentation
By Wendy Russell, About.com

What does it take to create an effective presentation? Is it the beautiful colors and pictures? Is it the animations and transitions?

"No", you say. "It is the content".

Well, you are partially right.

Planning is probably the most important step in creating a successful presentation of any kind. Planning helps you decide on the content and the order in which the information will be presented. Whether you are using PowerPoint, OpenOffice Impress or any other presentation software, use the following steps as a guide in planning the presentation.

1.Determine the Purpose of the Presentation

•Is this presentation about a product for a client?

•Is it a business presentation about the latest sales figures?

•Is it about a new idea you are introducing?

2.Determine the Presentation’s Audience

•your staff

•a new prospective client

•a group of small children

•a convention for people in the same line of work -- for example; a group of dentists

3.Gather Your Information

•Remember the KISS principle (Keep It Silly Simple) when designing your presentation.

•Focus on three or four main points only

•Know everything about the topic so you are ready for questions after the presentation.

4.Sketch Out the Slides on Paper

•Make sure the slides emphasize the main points to be made in the presentation.

•Try to have only one main idea on each slide.

•List no more than four points per slide.

5.Determine the Order Of Your Slides

•Although this can be changed later, having a rough idea of the order of your topic points, will help you plan the order of your slides.

6.Create the Presentation

•When creating the slides, be consistent in your choice of background colors, fonts, transitions, and animations.

MY OWN THOUGHTS

Having valuable content, content that the audience will want to know because they need to know about them, is the first step to having a great presenation. You can have all the photos you can flash on the screen, all the animations and attractive fonts and colors but if you do not present the right topic for the right audience, your presentation won't have any lasting impact. If you want to wow your audience, then you should take note of these key powerpoint presentation tips.