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

The arrival of autumn brings a crispness in the air…and a refreshing series of tips and pointers 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: Strategic Partnership with All Pro Duplication… New Flash-enabled Web Site nears completion…Record sales and new templates from Studio F
Specials and Promotions: Free PowerPoint facelifts and custom Template Design packages
PowerPointers:  Working with Bitmap and Vector Graphics
Speaking Tips:  Body Language Myths
Presentation Tools:  The Resolution Solution
Success Stories: Smart Intranet's Smart Presentation

Company News
Strategic Partnership with All Pro Duplication…  New Flash-enabled Web Site nears completion… Record sales and new templates from Studio F

Creative Multimedia Corporation, parent company of The Presentation Team, recently forged a strategic partnership with All Pro Duplication.  The alliance will provide clients of Creative Multimedia/ The Presentation Team with low-cost pricing, rapid turnaround and superior quality on media duplication.  Conversely, All Pro Duplication’s clients will now have the powerful resources of The Presentation Team to aid in CD-ROM and presentation development.  Based in Hallandale, Florida, All Pro Duplication has long been a leader in Audio, Video, and CD-ROM duplication.  The two companies plan joint marketing campaigns and other strategies to help capitalize on their complementary services.

It’s fast…it’s flashy…and it’s coming soon.  The Presentation Team’s new web site is nearing completion and should be online by November 1st.  The new site is designed in a Newsmagazine format to give users quick access to company-related information as well as objective news articles about presentation graphics.

The firm has invested over 120 hours of development so far to create the innovative site, which is expected to draw over 100,000 visits monthly.

Studio F's strategic relationship with The Presentation Team remains strong, as the stock-image firm releases several new template products. Designed to help presenters quickly and cost-effectively enhance their presentations, Studio F's PowerFinish Templates offer strong, dramatic backgrounds to reinforce a powerful message or soft, moody designs to complement a subtle concept. Color choices range from rich jewel tones to conservative corporate palettes, exiting primaries, textured neutrals or muted organics. The templates are available for Mac and PC for download through the Presentation Team's web site.

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Specials and Promotions
Free PowerPoint Facelifts...and the $695 Custom Template Design Package.

With the increased prevalence of amateur PowerPoint presentations throughout the corporate market,  The Presentation Team has launched a unique marketing strategy: send them your best- or worst- presentation (at least 20 pages) and they'll pick one slide to enhance and improve... absolutely free. The Free Facelift Service is aimed at companies which have existing PowerPoint presentations but are considering an enhancement. "We want to showcase our value, efficiency, creativity and customer service with this challenge that we can improve any standard PowerPoint presentation," explained executive director Kevin Lerner. <Details>

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
Working with Bitmap and Vector Graphics

By Kevin Lerner, Executive Director of The Presentation Team

Your presentation content is solid and now you’re ready for the graphic sizzle.  Adding pictures in PowerPoint is relatively easy.  But which pictures?  And what formats?  There are two fundamental types of computer graphic images: Bitmap and Vector.

In Bitmap graphics, an image is displayed on the screen as a collection of tiny squares called pixels, which together form a pattern.  Bitmap images- sometimes called Raster images- are the most commonly used graphic type.  Nearly all photographs and images on the internet are Bitmaps.  Here are some hallmarks of bitmap graphics:

• File size is dependent on: Data x Resolution (pixel dimensions) x Bit Depth (number of colors per pixel)…as well as the compression technique used to squeeze data together.
• All bitmaps are rectangular and respond relatively the same way.
• Bitmap file formats include TIF, BMP, GIF, JPG.  The difference in formats is usually seen in the file sizes.
• Common Bitmap programs include:  Photoshop, Corel Paint, Painter, Photo Impact, Windows Paint.

The second type of graphics- Vector graphics- are a way of representing pictures by designating coordinates and drawing lines or geometric shapes in relation to them.  In vector graphics, the image is saved as a file containing instructions for drawing it, as opposed to Bitmap graphics in which an image is stored as a collection of pixels.  One advantage of vector graphics over bitmap graphics is that a picture can be enlarged or reduced without losing quality.  Vector graphics are most commonly seen in clip art, fonts and logos.  Macromedia’s Flash is a program that extensively uses Vector format graphics on web sites.  Other hallmarks of Vector graphics include:

• Small file sizes.
• Files are resolution and bit-depth independent.
• They can be any shape, as opposed to the rectangular dimensions.
• Vector file formats include WMF, EPS, AI.
• Common Vector programs include:  Freehand, Illustrator, Corel Draw.

Knowing the difference between these file formats can give your presentation a more professional look, reduce its file size, and enhance its playback efficiency.

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Speaking Tips
In the Beginning…Know Your Audience
By Beverly Cohen, Communications Specialist of The Presentation Team

When starting on a new presentation, it’s helpful to know your audience.  But just who is your audience? Who are those nameless, faceless people who are coming to hear you? The more you know about your audience the greater the chance that you can create a presentation that is tailor-made to their intellectual, emotional and physical selves.  The stories you choose and the examples you use depend on who they are, where they are, and what they already know.  Consider these points when starting your presentation:

1. What is the gender? More male than female? More female than male? Or is it equally balanced?

2. What is the age range?

3. How many people will there be?

4. What do they know? What information is my audience starting with? What is their level of knowledge about the subject? You don't want to intimidate them or talk above or down to. Have they heard it before? Don't waste their time or yours.  Give them something new or a different perspective.

5.  Why are they here? Is the audience attending voluntarily?  Is it for personal gain, or did the boss send them?

Knowing your audience can help you target your message.  And having a targeted message will improve audience receptivity…helping to make your presentation more successful.

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Presentation Tools
The Resolution Solution:  Picking a High Resolution Projector
By Daphne Jongejans-Bousquet of International Audio Visual

This is the third in a three part series of three factors that will determine the best projector for your presentation: Brightness, Portability and Resolution.  This month we explore Resolution, and why the weight of a projector is an important consideration when you select a projector.

Resolution refers to the amount of pixels a projector uses to create the image.  The higher the resolution, the more pixels are on the screen.  The resolution you need depends on the notebook computer that you hook up to it.  In order to get the sharpest and clearest image, you should match up the resolution of your computer with that of the projector.  Projectors can convert the computer input to match its resolution, but the picture quality will suffer.

The following are the resolutions available now:

SVGA, or “800 x 600” – The lowest resolution available today, it is very popular and cost-effective.  It performs well for general presentations and video.

XGA, or “1,024 x 768” – This resolution is better if you present a lot of spreadsheets and numerical data.  The detail is better, especially now that XGA computers are becoming more and more popular.

SXGA, or “1,280 x 1,024” – This is high resolution and are primarily used for engineering applications.  The technical detail in blueprints and other technical drawings requires this kind of resolution.

UXGA, or “1,600 x 1,200” – Few projectors with this kind of resolution are on the market.  This is generally used for high-resolution workstations that are very detail intensive.

If the projector has multiple users with different resolution computers, the rule of thumb is to go with the highest resolution.

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
Smart Intranet’s Smart Presentation

When Miami-based technology firm Smart Intranet sought to promote their organization, they selected The Presentation Team to create a dynamic PowerPoint presentation that combined custom and stock imagery, as well as other cutting-edge graphics. Smart Intranet President W. Arthur Stone shared that The Presentation Team, “took my basic ideas and turned them into something that absolutely amazed and surprised me.  The result is a presentation that, I am sure, will help us deliver our messages much more efficiently and persuasively.”

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