How Do You Want To Say It (Part 1)


After determining what to say and who to say it to, the next step is to determine how to present the information to each audience. There are several things to keep in mind while deciding what type of presentation to create for any given audience. These include:

  • Audience

  • Audience size

  • Audience location

  • Amount of interaction needed between the presenter and the audience

  • Frequency of providing the information

Keep in mind that while you may design a presentation mainly for use in one way, you can change from non-automated presentations to automated presentations if you prepare your files correctly.

Audience Size

The first thing to consider when deciding how you want the presentation to run is the size of the audience. If the information is being presented to one person at time, the presentation should be some type of automated presentation. If it is being presented to a large group , it may need to be developed as a speaker-led presentation.

What About Middle-Sized Groups?

Some presentations need to be created to work with both single-person sessions and larger audiences. Sometimes, you may not even know if the presenter is going to be available to run the presentation.

In these cases, you should design the presentation as a speakerled presentation. When the speaker-led presentation is complete, create a second version that can be used as a kiosk or self-running presentation. Be sure to add the feedback mechanisms to help participants gather more information and be sure to add navigation elements to help them move from slide to slide.

Aiming The Presentation At The Right Group

Presentations need to be aimed at the target audience. In Jane's case, she created speaker-led presentations for the corporate representatives to allow them to meet the members of the organization. She then created kiosk presentations for the training modules for the teens and supervisors, allowing them to work through the training on their own time. She also created a self-running presentation with information for public distribution to advertise the service and to gather names of homebound persons needing the service.

Audience Location

Another factor in your presentation design is whether the whole group is able to get together at the same time. If you are going to be presenting a set of information to a large number of people at once, create a speaker-led presentation. If the audience is spread across multiple geographic areas or if the members of the audience will not be all together at one time, create a kiosk-style presentation. If the information needs to reach a very wide audience, you may want to create a self-running presentation so they may access the information on their own.

Presenter And Audience Interaction

The amount of speaker-audience interaction also impacts the presentation design. If you are going to be presenting, you want to ensure the presentation is complete enough to cover all the information, but still leaves room for interaction with the audience. For example, a manager may not want to see all the details on every part of your presentation, but will want to see the detailed information for some parts .

Jane found this to be the case for her presentations to the corporate sponsors. She wanted to establish a connection between the presenter and the audience, so she made sure the design allowed for question and answer sessions, as well as questions during the presentation.

In other cases, such as a kiosk-style training presentation, you know that no one will be available to answer questions. In these cases, ensure enough information is provided to answer questions the participants have as they work through the material. Jane found email links from section slides allowed the teens and the supervisors to email questions. After Jane received and answered the questions, she added the information when she next updated the training.

At this point in your content development, the idea is not to answer each question that may arise during viewing. Instead, define the detail level you need for your outline. If you know one particular section of the outline needs more depth, note it on the outline. You probably also want to note whether you expect the extra details to go in the slide content or in associated notes pages.

Number Of Times To Present

Jane knew each presentation would be shown many times. She also knew she would not be doing the presenting every time. She made sure as much of the content as possible was documented in the notes.

Benefits Of Preparation

When Jane translated some of the presentations into kiosks and training modules, she found the task was much easier than she expected. All of the information Jane needed to add to the slides was already in the slide notes.




Kathy Jacobs On PowerPoint
Kathy Jacobs On PowerPoint
ISBN: 972425861
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 166

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