Preparing the Room

The room in which you present can have a huge influence on the success of a presentation. Unfortunately, we often have little say over the kind of room we present in. If you're lucky, yours will be about the right size for your audience, and it will be clean and attractive so as not to distract from what you're doing.

Several other room conditions, however, can be controlled. Unfortunately, too often speakers show up with so little time that they can't take advantage of room features that might help them. To the extent possible, you should try to find out all you can about your room and make adjustments before you begin your presentation.

How's the Lighting?

One of your first concerns should be the lighting because lighting is more critical for a PowerPoint presentation than for traditional ones. You should consider the following:

• Where is the screen located? If you're in a typical convention center, often the screen gets placed right beneath a set of fluorescent lights, which wash out the screen and make it hard to read beyond a few rows (see Figure 15.1). If you can, you should at least turn off the offending lights.

  Figure 15.1. Lights, especially fluorescent lights, can wash out the screen, making slides hard to see.

  

• Does the room have canister or recessed lights that shine directly down and don't spread out toward the screen? If so, you should turn those on and turn off fluorescent lighting altogether. This enables viewers to take notes, see each other, and still clearly see the screen (see Figure 15.2).

  Figure 15.2. Canister or recessed lighting is ideal for PowerPoint slide shows.

  

• Is there lighting on you so that the audience can connect with you? If you're standing in the dark, it's difficult to take advantage of your ability to smile, gesture, or catch the eye of an audience member.

• Is there enough light to see your keyboard or other equipment you have to operate? You lose precious time and credibility if you have to fumble around in the dark. Even if the room doesn't provide the right kind of lighting, all is not lost: You can purchase miniature lights that plug into the USB port of your laptop to light your keyboard.

Adjusting Seating

An important concern for presentations is the seating. Often, you have little control over this, but where you do, you should consider the following:

• Try to make sure that seats aren't blocked from clearly viewing the screen.

• If the room is too large, try to cordon off back rows or invite the audience to move closer.

• If the room is too small, try to make sure everyone's seated or at least comfortable before you begin.

• If you want to engender discussion, try to arrange seats such that audience members face each other as well as you.

Determining the Speaker Location

Find out where it's expected that you'll be standing or sitting. Some rooms have specially equipped podiums (see Figure 15.3) where speakers can connect laptops. Unfortunately, you sometimes are nearly forced to stand behind the podium. Like the Wizard of Oz, you secretly maneuver your equipment, but you never step out to be seen by the audience. Later in this chapter you'll learn some ways to overcome such limitations, but you should try to become familiar enough with the setup that you know where you can move and where you can best be seen and heard.

Figure 15.3. A presentation podium contains all the necessary equipment in one location, but it can seem like a prison to a presenter who likes to move around.

If you're in a large hall or if you don't have a loud, clear voice, you might need to use a microphone, unless you plan to have your slide show do all the talking! If possible, you should try to arrange to have a wireless microphone so you can move around freely. Even having a handheld microphone with plenty of cord is better than being forced to stand behind a stationary microphone stand.

Don't forget that the computer needs to be heard, too. If you have sound or video clips that are important to the presentation, find out if there's a way to connect your computer to the room's sound system. Typical computer speakers are rarely robust enough for a large room.

Remember that if you've never presented in a room before, you owe it to yourself to check out the room well before your presentation. You might not be able to make many changes to lighting, seating, or speaker location, but at least you'll know ahead of time what you're dealing with and that you've made the best adjustments you can.