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Hey! Take a LOOK at this!
 Brain scientists tell us that of all the senses, vision has the strongest influence in what we experience, learn and remember. So are you doing what you can to enhance the visual parts of your presentations?
What's the Point?
Probably the most popular way to add visual interest is through PowerPoint. PowerPoint however has developed a bad reputation - and with good reason! We've all seen the PowerPoint slide that seem to suck the life out of the room. Overly complicated flow charts, impossible to read graphs, word overload on a single slide or a font size entirely too small to read. But if our objective as presenters is to help our audiences, I don't think we can ignore PowerPoint as a tool to create visual interest. So what can we do?
Picture This
Try creating a PowerPoint slides with only pictures and 1-3 words per slide. Yes, a picture says a thousand words. But more than that, the picture can be easily taken in by the audience member, without having to work at reading. That faster absorption leaves the audience members freer to listen to your words.
Make Me Laugh...Make Me Cry
Photos can serve as an emotional trigger for your audiences. People connect better to you and your message if you have an emotional component to what you say. The emotion can range from joy and laughter to sorrow and empathy depending on the topic and what's appropriate. Much better than a slide full of sentences, a photo, combined with your meaningful spoken words, will touch your audiences and draw them into you and your message.
See What's Available
PowerPoint makes it easy with great stock photos for use in internal presentations. If you use the presentation to promote your business or as part of your paid work, then use photos that you have the rights to - either visiting websites like www.istockphoto.com or www.fotolia.com to purchase royalty free picture, or using photographs you've taken yourself.
Don't throw the PowerPoint baby out with the bath water. Instead, use PowerPoint as a visual tool to connect with your audience and enhance their learning.
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