How to Bring Your Presentation to the New Age
As time progresses, technology seems to increase at an impossible rate. It seems our ability to stay focused on one thing has deteriorated. Everybody has somewhere to be, something else to do, and can’t give their full attention to one thing at a time. So how do we as presenters adapt to the restless learners?
In this blog we will discuss some of the ideas that we at Slideshop think may give you the edge needed to stay ahead of the curve with your presentation!
Upgrading your Visual Aids
As we mentioned before, the old standard is being surpassed by restless learners and sensory overload. Audience members don’t want the same boring pictures that they have been subjected to in every other presentation – ever. Here are 4 good and trendy ideas on how to upgrade your visuals and trigger off the audience’s curiosity!
1. Infographics
They are numbers and graphs put together in a perfect combination of design and content. They are an interesting way to present information by combining key words, graphics, pictures and icons. Infographics are exciting, and visually appealing which will be sure to impress your audience and will appeal to multiple styles of learners within one form of media.If you need some inspiration, have a look at visual.ly which is one of the major Infographics sharing platform. You can even easily create your own there!
2.Mind mapping
3. Live Presentations
Live presentations may be the most innovative presentation method in this blog, and will be sure to have every audience member reminiscing about it for days to come. Try adding bits of theatre to your presentation. Animate your body language, elevate your voice, and become part of the presentation. Have a particularly important piece of information? Try This: while giving your speech, have an artist there depicting key points you are making. It will keep the crowd so enthralled with what your are saying they won’t be able to keep their eyes off of the drawings, and their ears off of the information. Because the pictures and audio will be interacting in a live format, it will excite all types of learners!
4.Wordle
Wordle is a great way to captivate your audience from the first slide of your presentation. It presents ideas in word/picture combination that vary by size according to their relevance. It is an interesting way to combine art and text to give the audience a preview of the information that is going to be presented. Wordle is not the format to present key points in depth, rather a fun way to give a quick glimpse into the key points while you give your introductory statement. Start editing your word cloud right now on wordle.net
Now that your visual media is on the cutting edge – let’s talk about combining it with the rest of your presentation.
Combining Media
With the rise of the realization that everyone learns in a different way, presenters are starting to offer their information in a wide variety of formats. Here are some of the new tools in the presentation world that can help you remain at the cutting edge, whilst keeping your information organized in a visually captivating fashion.
1.Prezi
Prezi is like a blackboard of information that allows the presenter to zoom in, zoom out, and take the audience member on more of a journey than the typical powerpoint can do. It is a dynamic way to present text, pictures, audio and video into the same fast motion presentation. Basically, it is more of a living powerpoint that is much more aesthetically appealing to the audience member. This is not to say that slides cannot be used, because they can, and should be. Rather, this is to say that the vertical or horizontal one slide following the next format may be rather outdated. Presenting slides in a prezi format is being used by some of the leading presenters in the world, including the marvelous TED Talks. Here is a basic demonstration of Prezi in action
2. Animoto
No longer do you need to be a professional video editor to have professional quality videos! Animoto is a great way to combine your audio, visual aids, and photos into one dynamic video presentation to add to your powerpoint slide deck. More So, It gives the audience member the chance to be entertained in between slides with smooth, new age transitions between pieces of information. Animoto and powerpoint slides go hand in hand, as Animoto is really just a more visually entertaining way to present your powerpoint slides, media, and visual aids. Commissioned blueprint did a quick demo showing some features, check it out here.
So in recap, Here’s how you get and keep the attention of the restless learners : Keep things new, exciting, and on the edge. Present information which captivates, in a media which is convincing and appealing to all the senses. Firstly, try upgrading your media, and secondly, combine it in one seamless, free flowing dynamic presentation that will be sure to captivate and keep your audience engaged. With these new tips and tools you will surely be on the cutting edge of the presentation world, and will have an audience that remains attentive and interested throughout the entire presentation.
Hi,
This is a useful post – it captures many of the trends and tools out there which, if used well, can help everyone communicate a little better.
Mindmapping in particular is an underused way of getting thoughts down on paper as well as figuring out structure and flow of content. There is a great online tool just released called Exobrain.
Gavin
Hi, like Gavin says, this is a most useful post. We have so many exiting tools to choose from, we don’t have stick with the standard PowerPoints!
I’m glad to see mind maps here. They are a great tool in many ways. E.g. if you want people to participate, just put a huge paper on the wall and let them draw!
Outi
That’s a great idea Outi!
This will get the audience engaged from the beginning, as it’s their creation! Plus the speaker can directly interfere with the audience’s mind map to correct it or add more ideas.
Thanks so much!
Cédric.