\ fu $henlbuild PowerPoint presentations for myself or revise them for corporate speak-%* b& ers,here are the seven steps I follow:

AVOIDING DEATH BY POWERPOINTByTedJanusz

1- Begin with the end in mind. Do not begin by simplyfi11ingthe first slide. What is the main pointyou wantyouraudience to take awaywith them? Eliminate aq,thingthat does not serve your intended purpose.

2.Eliminate bullet points. When 1,ou think of Power-

Poin! you may think that it is 1,our job to fill slides withtext. Trust me-that has been done already, and poorly!

Bullets ki1l audiences.

3.Limit text. Have you ever been to a presentation inwhich the presenter placed entire paragraphs oftext on

the slides? They must have beiieved that they needed

to pay for PowerPoint by the slide, because they try to

cram so much information on each one. The presenter

will begin to read the paragraphs to the audience, butthen quit and say, 'You can read this for yourselves." Ifthey are doingthat, wh5, i611,6 need a presenterlz

I recently attended a conference at which thekeynote speaker was a frenetic ball ofenergy. He,

too, had placed paragraphs of text in a tiny font oneach of his PowerPoint slides (along witl-r bunchesof whirling and twirling graphics). Because he had

memorized his presentation, he didn't rea1ly need theslides, so he gave us just a sneak peak ofeach slidebefore whizzing on to the next one. By the end of i-ris

presentation, I was exhaustedl

4. Don'tjust show the end result of a complex diagrarn.

A presenter will project an intricate diagram on thescreen ard then introduce it with the words, 'As you

can clearly see . . ." This always makes me yearn for the

times when presenters u,'ould use paper on an easel oreven overhead projectors. Theywould have no choice br"rt

to build the elaborate diagram rightthere, step-by-step,

and I could easilyfollow a1ong. PowerPoint tempts us to

hare a graphic artist render the entire process ahead oftime. The presenter simplydisplays aco1orfu1mgiad ofbeautiful bubbles, long lines, pointing arrows, and tinytext, and says, 'As you can clearly see . . ." Unfortunately,

I can't. Neither will your audience, and most of themwill not try to figure it out.

5. Remember that most audience members are visuallearners. Theyu,on't recall most of the facts and figures

or the charts and graphs, but a striking image can be

quite memorable. I was the master of ceremonies for a

recent CEO conference where a CEO presented on the

presence ofpoor controls. He flashed on the screen a

TED JANUSZ is a

professional speaker

on the topic of"Social Media for

Baby Boomers,"

author, and marketing

consultant. He is the

author of the Socral

Media MarketingGuide for Parking

Professionals, whichis a free publication

for lPl members and

can be downloaded

from parking.org/

socialmediaguide.

He can be

reached at ittl,g::l t : *ilp l*S*irti;i!r:ll.C*;::

or 614.440.7487.

photograph ofa road with a gate across it that ser-ved as

a control to stop trespassers. The photo u.as taken fromabove. Light snow had fallen so it was easyto see the tiretracks. You could see by the tire tracks that motorists inboth directions had simpiy driven offthe road and onto

the grass to bypass the gate.

Always remember that you, not your presen-

tation, are the attraction. Audiences love stories.So te1l stories, using your slides as a backdrop. As

renowned leadership expert Dale Carnegie said, a

great 30-minute presentation simply consists of 15

two-minute stories.

6.T?ansition with grace. Make sure the audience has

visual cues thatyou are transitioningfrom one pointtoanother. Remember, a confused mind does not learn.

In the case of a sales presentation, a confused mindcertainly does not buy.

7. Use images to create humor. Mark TWain once said,

"Humor is our most effective but least used weapon."

You may argue, "I'm not funnyl" Let PowerPoint invoke

the laughs for you. Just pop up a humorous slide at an

unexpected moment and shut up.

Boring overdone PowerPoint presentations do more to

kill audiences than anl,thing else. Make yours different,unique, and more effective to reach more people. O

oq@otsoId

d:*I*lrl_ $*-.e

#F'f :--

12 TNTEBNATTONAL PARilNG NSTTTUTE I LUL' ZO',S