The countdown is on for the much anticipated Ignite Sydney 4 event, being held here in Sydney at Oxford Art Factory on Tuesday 2nd March. This is part of the bigger ‘Global Ignite Week’ event where 40+ cities around the globe each host their own Ignite event at the same time.

We are big supporters of Ignite, as a showcase and celebration of a series of short presentations delivered by a range of speakers on ……… whatever!  The format: each presenter has 5 minutes to present 20 slides which are set on a 15 second automatic transitions on a topic of their choice. These simple yet effective parameters force speakers to consider their core message and wrap it up into a punchy, succinct and often entertaining pack – the way a lot of presentations should be!

We are now seeing large corporates adopt similar styles for their speakers at conferences and internal team days as way to encourage creativity, refine content and inject a bit of entertainment into what can be tediously long days.

Here’s some quick tips to help you create a short and snappy presentation:

• Know  your audience – this will help you shape your presentation
• Organise your key messages on paper before you even open PowerPoint
• Choose powerful and relevant images that help the audience understand your message
• Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse!  – if you know your content, the rest comes naturally

See you at Ignite!

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One of the most informative and captivating annual wrap-ups for me has to be from ‘Most Contagious Magazine’.

This year, they have included the most contagious ideas in everything from design to branded applications, from technology to real time media. 

One of my favourites is the MIT Media Lab application that featured at TED in February. Their SixthSense application combines a webcam, battery-powered projector and mirror in communication with a cell phone. This allows the wearer to use their hands to interact with information projected onto any surface – from a wall to a hand, newspaper or entire person. Removing the boundaries of where and how you can share information. Check it out here and download the free annual review.

 Merry Christmas from everyone at Presentation Studio and we look forward to sharing more with you in 2010.

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We have all had to sit through them and we sometimes wish we could be somewhere else, crossing things off our ever growing ‘to do’ lists. Nevertheless PowerPoint presentations are inextricably linked into everyday business life, so how can we make sure that our presentations connect with the audience from the go get?

Cliff Atkinson, author of ‘Beyond Bullet Points’ believes you can command attention within the first five slides and the first few minutes if done right.

When planning your presentation content he offers the following checklist for the first five slides:

1. Do they orient your audience to the setting of the presentation?
2. Do they interest them by acknowledging their role in the setting?
3. Are you engaging them emotionally by describing a challenge they face?
4. Are you motivating them by affirming what they want?
5. Do they focus your audience by offering a way to get from Point A to Point B (Call to Action)?

To help you structure your next presentation and create a story that will engage and motivate your audience download this free story template kindly provided by Cliff.

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For great tips on presenting from one of the worlds elite centres of learning have a look at the following link from Massachusetts Institute of Technology…of all places!

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/html/icb.topic58703/winston1.html

www.presentationstudio.com.au

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TURN OFF AUTOFORMAT

First off, why do you want to do this? Because, it stops PowerPoint from resizing the text in titles and text placeholders. Great if you want to fit 200 words into your title – but not great if you want consistency of size and font across your presentation.

Very important when you have spent hours setting up beautiful templates! For consistency in presenting, make sure you do this locally on each of your PCs – advise clients and colleagues to do the same.

So, How to do it: AutoFormat options on or off.

Your instructions for PowerPoint 2007 ::

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click PowerPoint Options.

2. Click Proofing.

3. Click AutoCorrect Options.

4. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

5. Under Apply as you type; un tick the following:

a. AutoFit title text to placeholder

b. AutoFit body text to placeholder

Your instructions for PowerPoint 2003 ::

1. On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options

2. Click the AutoFormat As You Type tab.

3. Under Apply as you type; un tick the following:

a. AutoFit title text to placeholder

b. AutoFit body text to placeholder

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Don’t underestimate what you can find on You Tube!

It’s a great source of topic specific video which you could easily use to demonstrate your point in a presentation, without the cost of video production.

Here’s a great tutorial showing how to do it…and demonstrating our point!

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Converting PowerPoint presentation into online/offline e-learning modules is fast becoming the future of presentation delivery. Here’s a very quick guide to help you understand its place in corporate presentation land:

PS client: Metronaps online training tool

What is it?
Briefly, it involves converting your PowerPoint presentation into a flash format, adding any video, additional graphics, and voice overlay to guide and encourage engagement.
Finally, convert it into a format for easy distribution – either via the web, internal intranet/networks or USB’s/CD’s.

Here are some unique features that can be built into e-learning PowerPoint conversion modules:

Quizzes and surveys
Easily add quizzes, surveys, and assessments-they’ll fit perfectly in your presentation. You can even limit the number of quiz attempts, restrict navigation, and send learners down different branches depending on their results.

Customizable, feature-rich Player
Let viewers easily navigate your content and access additional resources.

Add multimedia and interactivity
Seamlessly incorporate Engage interactions and Quizmaker quizzes, video, Flash, and more. You can even embed live web pages for learners to use inside your presentation.

Publish to the Web
Transform your PowerPoint into a Flash-based presentation that can be hosted on virtually any Web server and viewed by almost anyone.

Publish to podcast
You’re one click away from an audio podcast of your narration. Output a lightweight podcast player for the Web, or create a single MP3 file for MP3 players like iPods.

Add Flash
Integrate your existing Flash movies and interactive content, such as SWF files, FLV files, and more.

Embed live, interactive web sites
If it’s on the Web, you can include it in your presentation. Embed live Web sites that learners can use right in your presentation. It’s perfect for including intranet resources and keeping your materials up to date

Top tips
Your e-learning solution should follow some simple guidelines:

• Create engaging and interactive courses. Engagement can mean that the courses are visually appealing, interesting and have interactive learning elements. Look at what people are doing in more traditional e-learning courses. Try to mimic their styles and see what features you can build in your courses.

• Excellent graphics – it must look appealing as you’re encouraging the user to interact for a period of time. You don’t want them to be turned away by dodgy graphics and cheap images.
• Simplicity and clarity - the point must be clear and concise, just like in a traditional presentation environment.
• Clear navigational aids – make it user friendly. Use common navigation language and direction that the masses will understand.
• Narration – make it clear, neutral and importantly – on brand!

Who should use it?

Trainers:
It’s all about self-paced learning, in which trainees learn on their own, without a live trainer. Deliver more training, at less cost, to a wider audience in less time.

Sales People;
deliver product updates nationwide simultaneously with a built in response. Perfect for incentive programmes to encourage product education and inturn increase sales.

Research: distribute surveys, find and examine results immediately online.

Contact:
Email info@presentationstudio.com.au or call 1300 699 609 to find out how Presentation Studio can convert your PowerPoint presentation into an e-learning solution.

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Creative PowerPoint has changed its name to Presentation Studio and launched a new website (www.presentationstudio.com.au ) to better reflect the growing demands of our clients and the increasing  importance of complete presentation services.

In recent times, the company has grown and matured into a leader in Powerpoint design.

“Over the last 4 years we have delivered fantastic PowerPoint design work for clients all over the world, and will continue to do so. However, we’re being asked time and time again for our input and opinion in presentation delivery, structure and interactivity” said Presentation Studio Creative Director, Emma Bannister.

“We feel the name Presentation Studio truly represents our current service offering, giving our clients a one stop “HUB” for complete presentation services. It also reflects our strong emphasis on creativity, our personal service, and hard work ethic.”

Presentation Studio will always remain the PowerPoint presentation design specialists – it’s what we do best, and why our clients love us.  By being the experts in this field has put us at right at the forefront of the latest presentations trends and developments: from Interactive formats, to e-learning platforms, and 3D animation.

Emma adds: “Pushing the limits of presentation design and engagement is what drives our team of designers and copywriters. This is why our mantra: Impact. Engage. Inspire. has become the filter for everything we do for our clients. Combined with our design ethos “Visual Clarity” we are able to deliver incredible presentation results across a range of services. We love the new name and approach and hope you do too”

Visit the new website: www.presentationstudio.com.au or contact us for more information.

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This a great video (although very long) of presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert Garr Reynolds, creator of the most popular Web site on presentation design and delivery on the net — presentationzen.com –

Garr shares his experience in a provocative mix of illumination, inspiration, education, and guidance that will change the way you think about making presentations with PowerPoint or Keynote.

Enjoy!

Brett

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This is not a new thing, but you’ll be surprised how few presenters make use of such a powerful and easily accessible tool. We thought it was worth sharing…

Audience response systems (ARS) or as a commenter on Techcrunch called them “classroom clickers”, are designed to generate interactivity in a presentation.

PollEverywhere.com using the system at MIT conference.

Put the power back in the hands of the audience by allowing the presenter to integrate polls and questions into their presentation. The audience uses a wireless keypad to respond, which is supplied. This is a fantastic live response mechanism, and can help determine the course of your presentation – adapting to the audience response (see Expedition Blog post). But, one downside – it can be expensive as you have to either purchase the software and handsets, or hire it in for each presentation.

The latest technology to get over this hurdle is SMS messaging. Most people tend to own a mobile phone. This method provides an application that allows the audience to send a text message to a central number, integrated live into your PowerPoint presentation.

The software is low cost and can be set up and integrated into any PowerPoint presentation fairly quickly. The downsides are that users will have to pay for the text – depending on their phone plan.

Another free source is using Twitter, where respondents text to your pre-prepared twitter account. This tends to be limited in text responses, as opposed to polling, but not bad for a free solution.

Get interactive now!

Emma

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