Have you attended seminars? What do you typically notice with the speakers or lecturers? How do they effectively convey their messages to the listeners or audience? What tools do they use to keep the audience hooked into the discussion?

Wherever you may be, in a corporate meeting, at school, in a lecture, or in a symposium, you always find the need to communicate with other people. So much more when you’re tasked to be the speaker or presentor yourself. You must be thoroughly prepared with it or else you’ll certainly make a fool out of yourself.

Board meetings, class discussions, and talks in symposiums are deemed more efficient when a method of presentation is utilized. You must have surely heard about PowerPoint presentations and how they are overly useful, right? Gone are the days of pure talk and carton-made visuals. Today, PowerPoint presentations are widely used by many individuals for a number of purposes.

Common Uses of PowerPoint Presentations

Your audience would not be able to absorb every word that you say and every concept that you introduce all at once. But, there’s one thing that you can do to help them. And that is by presenting to them a copy of what you’re actually saying or diplaying pictures through a series of slides.

In the corporate world, the PowerPoint presentation is used by individuals to present their projects to prospect clients and in conveying their output to the entire management.

In seminars or symposiums, these presentations are employed to show illustrations, video clips, and the likes to further emphasize the point being delivered by the speaker.

In classroom lectures, PowerPoint presentation slides aid the visual learners in absorbing a new knowledge.

Important Tips to Remember for PowerPoint Presentation

You’ve decided to prepare the slides for your PowerPoint presentation simply because you want your efforts to end up successfully and fruitfully. Hence, you need to put in the best that you can do in your PowerPoint slides. Here are some worthy tips to take note of.

Limit every line with six words at the maximum. Your audience would find it hard to comprehend on the idea that you’re trying to present if they see words crowding in one line.

To avoid a cloud of confusion, there should be a maximum of six lines per slide. Be sure to provide empty spaces after every line so your audience’s eyes won’t hurt.

Refrain from using too much graphics and colors as they are distractions to the readers. Don’t misconstrue it but instead of attracting the audience, overdecorated slides tend to keep their attention away from you.

For more attention-grabbing effects, try adding sounds and movie clippings. Just use them sparingly.

Instead of overly done animations, use diagrams, charts, and graphs to drive at your point clearly.

Be brief and concise with your points so they’ll be easier to understand.

Gauge the nature of your presentation with the type of audience you have.

Use large and simple fonts so they can be readable even at a distance.

Talk to your audience, not to the Powerpoint.

Of course, other than the Powerpoint presentation, you must be the master of your voice and gestures. Project a modulated and convincing voice to keep your points clear and understandable. Gestures would likewise add to the emphasis that you want to convey to them. Bear these tips by heart and you’re sure to be on your way to making the best presentations ever.

For many, standing and speaking in front of an audience is just a matter of confidence; for some, it’s just a matter of having the facility to speak. Some would say it’s just a matter of strategy. Public speaking and presentation skills are not just natural abilities that effortlessly come out every time you are faced with an audience; they are artistic abilities that you can learn, develop and perfect through time by means of proper training, constant practice, and use of techniques. Presentations can really be daunting especially if you are not used to it, but with proper tools, you can surely get your message across.

A Powerful Presentation Tool

PowerPoint is a presentation software that is part of the Microsoft Office system. It is a high-impact presentation tool that allows you to convey all sorts of messages to your audience. It serves as a digital replacement for pamphlets, flyers, posters, charts, and other visual aids. PowerPoint can be all these and more. PowerPoint slides can be incorporated with sounds, videos, movies and images that help you deliver your message more effectively. Through PowerPoint’s graphics and formatting carnalities, it’s easy to design your slides and make them more corporate looking, casual, or fit for a particular theme. PowerPoint allows you to customize fonts so you can make your delivery more emphatic and clear.

Tips to Maximize Use of PowerPoint

Although PowerPoint can be very useful during presentations, they can be ineffective as well when its features are not fully used. Here are some tips on how to maximize use of PowerPoint to come up with a more successful presentation.

• Choose an appropriate theme/ template– There are many pre-designed presentation themes or templates you can choose from. If you are not yet too familiar with MS PowerPoint, you can use these themes to create your presentations. Make sure to pick a theme that matches your corporate identity, the theme of the event or the occasion, and the message you intend to impart to your audience. You may also get ideas from existing themes on how to create your own.

• Customize fonts – Using the default font–which is normally Times New Roman–all through out the slide presentation would be boring. As much as possible customize your fonts to make your presentation more dynamic and appealing to the audience; however, choose font types and sizes that are easy to read. Moreover, be consistent with the fonts you use for the headings and sub headings. Use larger fonts for more important points and smaller fonts for secondary points. Do not capitalize, unless it’s necessary, as this constitutes yelling at your audience.

• Keep slide structure simple – One way to enhance readability of your slides is to keep it simple. You can achieve this by avoiding wordiness. As much as possible, write down only the key words and phrases and not the entire sentence. You can show one point per slide to help your audience focus on a particular message at a particular time.

• Use color to reinforce your message – Colors can have different meanings. Blue suggests calmness and security while red suggests strong emotions. Green is usually associated with money. Use colors that match your message and are pleasing to the eyes. Make sure that they also match or complement the background. Light colors used on a light background would be very difficult to read.

• Use graphs, charts, sounds, videos and images when necessary – Reinforce your presentation by using graphs, charts, sounds, videos and images. These would make it easier for your audience to understand and recall the information you are giving them.

Any average American would have a mortgage or two in his entire lifetime. Mortgages are there to make ends meet and to acquire properties for some. It’s a prevalent fact of life. And when it is you that is at the selling end of the big picture, it is imperative that you equip yourself with all the materials and tools that would help you get your message across.

Most sales pitches for mortgages have been closed through sheer verbal persuasion and some printed materials as visuals. When the borrowers are thinking about your proposal, it is best that you give it your best shot the first time. It is necessary that a more powerful tool be used so that their decision could be influenced.

There are now mortgage presentations on software. With this great tool, the borrowers that you would need to convince would think that you have prepared well for the presentation to appear professional when, in fact, it’s as easy as spending a minute online!

Most of the software are equipped with calculators (the most necessary tool on this type of presentation). This calculator allows financial planners and borrowers to do reviews on their mortgage. So how do you use it? You simply input some numbers and voila, the results come out on the shown page. If you are familiar with rate sheets, then you can easily utilize this tool.

Another good thing about this software is that it allows you to calculate and compare 4 different loans that you can offer to your borrower. These options include interest only, classic option arm, fixed option or fixed option arm.

Now here is a more detailed procedure of using this tool. Make sure to be careful with the numbers you input. Your commission depends on that:

1. Begin by information gathering. Ask all the necessary figures from the borrower. There are also information available from Calyx Point, Processing software, or PreQual Magic.

2. Next, enter all the following figures: current information on mortgage (first and second mortgages); your personal contact information; the amount of their savings; the total of their other debts; and finally, the rates that can be offered to the borrower.

3. The next amount to enter is the sum that you would pay off plus any cash backs. Then you could put in the closing costs. This should be able to suggest the total amount of the loan. The borrower would also see the comparisons when a combo loan is chosen.

4. The loan amount can now be entered and this should result in presentations. It can be the snapshot of the present loan, graphs that show some details, their amortizations, or even hypothetical amounts (say, what will happen in 5 years when they have paid parts of the mortgage or how much they have saved by paying in full on time). Reports can also be accessed with up to four different comparisons. The most important part of that presentation (the one that you should stress to the borrower) is the amount that they can save in settling for the mortgage that is being offered.

Help is now available to those who seek for technological help. Offering mortgage is now more than just plain talk. It is being able to present the facts right out and be able to convince the borrower that what you have is the best.

Anxious about an upcoming corporate presentation, a speech or a lecture? It’s normal to feel nervous every time a speaking engagement gets near. Even best speakers claim to have that feeling from time to time and still ask for presentation tips from fellow public speakers or their mentors.

Winning the audience’s attention is certainly a big challenge to a public speaker or a presenter regardless of how big or small his audience is and regardless of his or her experience as a public speaker. To be able to successfully do that, one must not only be gifted with natural communication skills but must also be knowledgeable enough about his subject matter. Similarly, he must know how to properly communicate his message to his audience.

To help you win your audience’s attention while doing a presentation, below are some presentation tips you can follow:

• Assess your audience’s needs – a big part of preparing for your presentation is assessing your audience’s needs. Do they need to be informed, persuaded or entertained? What do they need to know about your topic? Be sure to match your discussion, your speech or the contents of your presentation with their needs. If your audience realizes that they have nothing to gain from your presentation or your discussion, they won’t be interested to listen.

Communication experts George Grice and John Skinner recommend that when seeking to inform the audience, you must project yourself as a mentor. When seeking support to a belief or a cause, project yourself as an advocate. When aiming to amuse the audience, be an entertainer to them.

In addition to knowing your audience’s needs, it is important for you to determine their characteristics before the presentation. Although they might have the same interests, they may differ in many other aspects such as age, gender, economic status, cultural background and the like. Prepare a presentation that would be able to meet expectations and needs of different kinds of people as much as possible.

• Be presentable – Like an actor performing on stage, you are the center of attention when speaking or presenting to an audience. One way of sustaining your audience’s interest is to show a desirable image to them. You can do this by dressing appropriately, standing or moving confidently without appearing arrogant, and staying calm and unruffled. By being presentable, you exude authority and mastery of your presentation. It’s also one way of establishing rapport with your audience.

• Watch your body language – Simple gestures, facial expressions and hand movements or even sitting or standing positions could communicate a different and unintended message to your audience. They could suggest meanings that could lose their interest or their respect to you as the presenter. Avoid unnecessary gestures, facial expressions and body movements that could distract your listeners.

• Use visual aids – Visual aids are effective transmitters of message. They come in handy when you are lost for words, presenting highly technical concepts, or have been talking for a long time already. It can break the monotony of your presentation or discussion and can help deliver your message clearly and more effectively.

Take note however that they are only tools for your presentation. They must not be used as your substitute or as an alternate speaker or presenter.

There are different kinds of visual aids you can use. Advancements in computer technology allow us to make more effective visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations. They combine texts with images, videos, sound clips, animation and other audio-visual effects.

• Establish rapport with your audience – It is important to make your audience feel like you are talking to them sincerely. You can achieve this by maintaining eye contact, listening to them intently when they comment or ask questions, and responding to their reactions.

If you know of a good public speaker, it would be best to get some presentation tips directly from that person and to know about his public speaking experiences. Nothing beats words of a seasoned speaker who’s been there and done that.

How to give a good presentation? Giving a presentation is like being in total control of a situation. You have to know what you are talking about and how you talk about it – it is the responsibility of the presenter. Imagine giving people the wrong information or giving the right information but it was understood differently.

However, giving a good presentation is entirely different from having a broad knowledge about a topic. How so? Simply because, it boils down to how you effectively presented your topic in such a way that you were able to convey your knowledge to other people successfully. To put it simply, it is the way your audience understood you and was awed by how you made them understand.

There are a lot of tips and tricks in successfully achieving a good presentation. There is really no precise format in doing so. It really depends solely on the person giving the presentation, on what works for him or her. Here are some of them:

Four Objectives of a Presentation

You should, at least, be able to apply any of these objectives in your presentation:

1. Information: Your goal is to inform, to share your knowledge on a given topic. Only discuss related and necessary information. Remember, too much of anything is considered boring.

2. Entertainment: As much as possible avoid jokes, and just try to tell personal stories (short ones) that are related to your topic (if possible). It is a sure way to your audience heart, because you are giving them a glimpse of you as a person and not just the presenter. But do not dwell on it for too long, just enough to get your audience’ attention and then get straight to the point.

3. Emotional Touch: Tapping the emotional side of your audience is only applicable if the topic calls for it. But do not depress your audience, because sad people will not understand or remember anything. Avoid criticism if you cannot offer a solution.

4. Action speaks louder the words: A good presentation does not stop at just presenting your topic. Early on you should know what you want your audience to do after they heard your presentation. Be direct and specific, you should be able to get a commitment from them.

Preparing for a Presentation

In preparing for a presentation, you should think like a journalist. You should be able to answer the “what, who, why, how, when and where” (The Five Ws and One H) questions:

1. “What” is the purpose of the presentation? – Is it for training, seminar, for report, for planning, and etcetera? You have to know this so you can gather the needed information.

2. “Who” is your target audience? – This is also important because it will give you an idea on what content to use for your presentation that is appropriate to your audience.

3. “Why” are they attending the presentation? – This is relatively important too, because you will know that if the attendance is compulsory, you have to be able to make them realize that your presentation is not a waste of their precious time.

4. “How” many are attending the presentation? – Some presenters ignore this, which is wrong. It is important that you know the estimate attendees. Especially if you are using visuals, it is important that every attendee can see it.

5. “When” is the schedule of the presentation? – The date is crucial to your preparation, because it will give you an estimate of how much time you have to finish your presentation.

6. “Where” is the venue of the presentation? – This is sometimes ignored too, and again it is wrong, simply because to know where the venue is will be important in determining what equipment that you will need to bring or to request. For instance you might need a projector, microphones, a podium and etcetera.

Wherever you are, you can never get rid of presentations. You will always be called for during meetings to discuss some points or perhaps to disclose your plans on how to push through with a project that has been assigned to you by your superiors. As you venture into any kind of presentation, you must take note of several things. You are basically going to face a number of people whose eyes will be all on you. The task may be quite tedious for another reason or so but with the proper pointers on presentation packaging to keep you guided, you’re surely going to succeed.

When it comes to presentation, the focus of attention is generally on the talent of the speaker not only in verbalizing the concepts and documents filed all together into one folder but other significant attributes such as how to dress, how to observe proper phrasing, pausing, and phasing, how to keep eye contact, how to play with words, and the list goes on and on. It obviously states that you have to employ some techniques to keep your audience interested, engaged, and educated. Even with limited resources or materials, a good presenter can always come up with a laudable presentation packaging.

So, what are the things that you ought to take note of in order to arrive at a flawless and equally impressive presentation? Here are a few important reminders to take note of.

Gather your materials. Clearly, you’re going to touch on specific topics or agenda for the presentation. Be sure to research as much as you can about the subject matter.

Be creative. Pick out the most effective tools for the presentation of your materials so that your listeners or audience will remain engaged in your talk.

Employ technology. For a more comprehendible discussion, you can make use of the PowerPoint presentation. Visuals are important in emphatically driving your point. But be sure as well that you don’t overdo the use of flashy colors, animation, and other graphics.

Be prepared for possible questions. There are instances when queries would just pop out of nowhere. That is why, it’s very important to be prepared. Anticipate the most possible and related questions and thereby prepare the most satiating answers to them.

Be smart. Always appear smart and in authority of what you’re discussing. Give your audience the impression that you’re someone who knows well your topic and that you can be another good source of new knowledge.

Anticipate the environmental condition. As much as you want to convey your point in a more straightforward way, there seems to be the inevitable instances when the environmental conditions seem to be out of control. With some of the most unwanted distractions, your presentation will be placed on hold. It’s your call to devise some attention-grabbing effects.

Keep your discussion straight to the point. There’s no need to hurry or to bit around the bush. Your main goal is to convey your point so that everyone will understand it.

Touch the audience’s emotions. If it’s possible for you to play with testimonials and other personal stories to reach out to everyone’s feelings, then better do it. It’s one way of keeping your audience attached to your discussion.

Converse, converse, and converse. Don’t stand in front and talk to the PowerPoint presentation you’ve prepared. Direct your words to the live audience. Motivate them to interact with you.

The success of every presentation depends upon how you can become a team player. Presentation packaging starts from how you dress yourself up to how you end up your last sentence for the discussion.