Welcome to the August edition of PowerPresentations, The Presentation Team's monthly e-newsletter featuring tips and pointers of importance to today's busy business presenter.

Summer is here...and we're turning up the heat with tips on how to organize, develop and present more effectively. We welcome your comments and suggestions, and encourage you to share this newsletter with your friends or colleagues.

In this Issue

• Company News: Remote Access Development pays off … Instant creativity with new stock photo server… New templates from alliance partner Studio F
• Sizzling Summer Promotions: Free PowerPoint facelifts and custom Template Design packages
• PowerPointers: Keeping the eyes moving
• Speaking Tips: Turning Platform Panic into Personal Power: Harnessing the fear of Public Speaking
• Presentation Tools:  A brilliant presentation
• Success Stories: Printech’s Presentation Facelift brings new business

Company News
Remote Access Development pays off … Instant creativity with new stock photo server… New templates from alliance partner Studio F

It’s a RADically new way of doing business, yet The Presentation Team’s Remote Access Development strategy is paying off.  Over half of the firm’s current projects are being developed for clients outside of the South Florida area.  Company executives say their reliance on Internet file transfers and overnight delivery has given them a competitive edge by allowing their products and services to be used on a global scale.

Presentation Team developers now have instant access to a huge library of digital stock photography thanks to a new 80-gigabyte hard drive and file server.  The new server eliminates the need for developers to locate and search image files on CD-ROMs, resulting in greater efficiency and creativity in project development.  The firm has over 100 titles online featuring images of business, technology, industry, science and medicine, and education.

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Sizzling Summer Promotions
Free PowerPoint facelifts...and the $695 Custom Template Design Package.

Want your presentation to sizzle without spending a lot?  The Presentation Team’s Custom Template Design Package may be the solution. For just $695, clients get 3 uniquely original variations of Title Masters and Body Masters for PowerPoint. The service also includes up to two hours of presentation consultation. Often incorporating existing photography and branding elements, the service is touted as a cost-effective way for companies- especially startups- to quickly and professionally transform their existing presentations. <Details>

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PowerPointers
Keeping the eyes moving
By Kevin Lerner, Executive Director of The Presentation Team

Like a lazy river flowing gently along a countryside meadow, well-designed presentation visuals should also flow easily and comfortably.  Whether you’re designing in PowerPoint or simply drawing on a chalkboard, your message will have more impact when you keep the viewer’s eyes moving. 

When designing visuals, keep innate scanning tendencies in mind.  Large, simple geometric shapes will be the first thing your audience focuses on; text will generally be the last. Failure to take this pattern into account when designing a presentation can cause momentary confusion in the audience -- an obvious barrier to effective communication.

We can use this principal to clarify our visual message, as demonstrated in the two left slides. When our eyes scan the first slide, we see the text as two separate columns. We don't make the connection between the columns until we've actually begun to read the text. The second slide uses graphic shapes to clarify the relationship between the two columns, making the slide a much quicker read.

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Speaking Tips
Turning Platform Panic into Personal Power: Harnessing the fear of Public Speaking
By Beverly Cohen, Communications Specialist of The Presentation Team

Does public speaking frighten you? When you stand up to speak do your hands sweat?  Does your whole body tremble uncontrollably? Does your heart beat so loudly that you think the Philharmonic Orchestra is in your head?  You are not alone! Millions of people experience these symptoms often enough so that public speaking is ranked as the Number One fear.

This irrational fear of speaking often limits success and results in missed opportunities for personal and professional advancement.  Conquering this fear by turning nervous energy into positive excitement and enthusiasm takes commitment and practice, but the results are enormous and well worth the effort.

Apply the PAD Principle (Preparation, Attitude, Delivery) the next time you have the opportunity to speak in public, and watch your anxiety dissolve.

Preparation

·         Know your material. Practice your speech. Be comfortable with it.

·         Know your audience. Arrive early. Talk to the people so that they become allies not adversaries.

·         Know your room. Become familiar with the physical set up and boundaries.

·         Eat a light meal and avoid alcohol or caffeine.

Attitude

·         Believe you will succeed.

·         Reframe the situation as an opportunity for growth, rather than a source of embarrassment.

·         Visualize yourself confidently delivering a perfect speech in front of a receptive audience. Do this daily.   

Delivery

·         Concentrate on your message, not your anxiety.

·         Increase your personal impact by avoiding pacing back and forth, rocking at the lectern, clasping your hands and stammering. These are indications of nervousness.

·         Maintain eye contact. Select 3 people, one in each corner of the room and one in the middle. Focus your attention on them and look at them often throughout your presentation.

Remember that experience builds confidence, and perfect practice makes perfect. By concentrating on Preparation, Attitude and Delivery, you can turn Platform Panic into Personal Power. As Ralph Waldo Emerson proclaimed, “Do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain.

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Presentation Tools
A Brilliant Presentation
By Daphne Jongejans-Bousquet of International Audio Visual

Great!  Your presentation is completed and ready for prime time.  Now you need to make sure that you can share it with your audience.  In other words, you need a projector.  But what do you look for in a projector? As with any presentation, it depends on your audience.  In this case, the size of your audience and the ambient light. Other considerations are weight, especially if you travel with your projector…and how many people will be in the audience watching the presentations from the projector.

Over the next three months we will examine three factors that will determine the best projector for your presentation: Brightness, Portability and Resolution.

Projector brightness is measured in ANSI Lumens.  The more ANSI Lumens a projector has, the brighter it is.  In recent years, projectors have gotten brighter and brighter.  In this market, projectors are available starting at 700 ANSI Lumens and go up from there.  Here are 3 main considerations when choosing your projector’s brightness:

1.       Audience Size

The number of people in the room determines the size of the image you want to project.  The larger the image, the more brightness you need.  Since the Lumens are spread out over a larger image, it diminishes the apparent brightness of the projector.

2.       Ambient Light

If you can darken the lights in the room, you should have no problem using a lower brightness projector.  However, the brighter the room, the more ANSI Lumens your projector should be, as the light surroundings can wash out the light on the screen. 

3.       Application

If your audience will be taking notes during the training or presentation, you will need a brighter projector, since your audience will need the lights on to see and read their notes.  If you are mainly showing graphics or video, a lower brightness projector should be sufficient.

If the projector has multiple users, always buy the projector for the most demanding task.

International Audio Visual has friendly, knowledgeable people standing by to help you find the right projector.  With over 150 models from more than 20 manufacturers, you can also expect the right price. www.iavi.com

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Success Stories
Printech’s Presentation Facelift brings new business

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Coming in August

PowerPointers: Have a Fontastic Presentation
Speaking Tips: Body Language Myths
Presentation Tools:  Taking it Lightly: Portable Projectors

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