How’s your summer conference season going? I’ve only got one presentation left. Of course, I’ll be seeing many of you present at the likes of the SIM conference or SIDLIT. If you’re presenting at either of those (or anywhere) and need some help getting your support materials ready, here are five ways you can make sure your slides don’t put anyone to sleep.
1. Use the 10/20/30 rule
I’ve talked about Guy Kawasaki’s rule for creating slide presentations before–simply put, use no more than 10 slides, time your presentation for 20 minutes, and use no font smaller than 30 points. Read the details, then take a good look at your presentation. How can following these three guidelines help you make a better impression on your audience?
2. Use the 200 slide solution
If you’ve mastered presenting with 10/20/30, why not try Seth Godin’s 200 slide solution? That’s 200 slides in 40 minutes, or a slide every 12 seconds. This one’s much more of a practice than a rule, encouraging you to rethink how much information needs to be on a single slide. How can you break up your ideas to give them each the space they deserve? What points don’t need as much attention? Do you even need slides?
3. Try pecha kucha
If a 40 minute presentation isn’t in your future, or 12 seconds seems like not nearly enough time to give something on a screen, try PechaKucha, a practice that no doubt inspired Godin’s 200 slide solution. PechaKucha presentations use 20 slides total at a slightly-less-brisk 20 seconds per slide, or 6 minutes and 40 seconds for a presentation.
4. Stop using bundled stock images
OK, enough with the time limits–you’ve got a talk to give, and you want to use slides because presentation experts like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte say to use visuals to make your ideas more memorable. Do yourself (and your audience) a favor and don’t even bother opening the folder of stock photography and art that came with your presentation package! There are lots of places to get legitimately free images for free, and if you have a budget you can get professional images online from sources like iStockPhoto.
5. Ditch the slides altogether and use Prezi
Let’s face it–when you get right down to it, slides aren’t the best way to present complex ideas–especially to new audiences. If you need your audience to see both the big and small pictures, or to understand how one concept flows into another, give Prezi a try. The video below shows Prezi in action, and also provides a tutorial on how it works.
Photo: Old Shoe Woman on Flickr
