Powerpoint Presentations: 3 simple rules

This was the plan. You schedule one hour to make that very important presentation. You send out the invites with the agenda for the meeting. Your objectives are clear. You want to walk them though the process and then show off with some pretty looking graphs and charts from the data you collected.

Now it’s time to deliver. You run through the slides one last time. Practice, Practice, Practice. You feel good about it. You let out a smirk. You know you are going to blow them away.

Ah! But there is a twist. You are asked to delay the meeting by half hour. An attendee is running late. You can’t make this presentation without your full audience. Now you’ve got half hour less than you had planned for. You know that it’s going to be tight but you tell yourself that you will do it.

It’s time to deliver again. You start off with slide 1 of 10. 20 mins later, you are in slide 4 of 10. You have 10 minutes left and you feel pressurized. Somehow, you manage to finish you presentation. But you are not happy. You don’t feel good about it. Did you blow them away with all the pretty graphs and charts? You are not sure.

So, what went wrong? To start with, you packed too much information in your presentation. Then, you spoke too slow as if you had all the time in the world. You also did not re-prioritize the slides for your revised time slot.

Here are my 3 rules for you to use in your next presentation:

1. Remember the 5-point rule for powerpoint slides. There should be no more than 5 bullet points in a slide, with no more than 5 words in each bullet point. Now, if you think you would prefer a 6, 7, 8 or 9-point rule, sure. This rule is flexible as long as you don’t go beyond the 9-point rule. Please!? See, when you pack too much into those bullet points, you are merely reading them out. You need to grab your audience attention with smart, consise, effective bullet points. The bullet points are the take aways from the meeting. You need your audience to remember them.
2. You’ve to control the pace of the meeting using the 5-point-plus rule. After you apply the above rule, the next step is to make sure you don’t talk away like there is no end in sight. You don’t want your audience to get bored. Stay focused on the bullet points and remember to use no more than 5 sentences to explain each bullet point. Keep your sentences as short as possible.
3. Prioritize you content. Do not give equal importance to all your powerpoint slides. You may have spent an equal amount of time and effort to create them all but your presentation is not about you. It’s about your audience and what is important to them. Use more time on the important stuff and speed through the rest or if you are running out of time, simply cut out the fluff. Prioritize to make the best use of your time.  

These are just some of the tips and tricks to give a effective presentation. Tell me if this works for you like it did for me. If not, what did work for you? 

Your comments, please.

Did this post ignite a thought? Join us and mirror your thoughts on the 13apples facebook fan page.