"No matter what your product is, you are ultimately in the education business. Your customers need to be constantly educated about the many advantages of doing business with you, trained to use your products more effectively, and taught how to make never-ending improvement in their lives. "-Robert G Allen
 

Next month my husband, Philip, will be doing a presentation on Artificial Intelligence at the Rutgers's meeting. It has been interesting to watch it develop. As a designer and author of Presentational Skills for the Next Generation, I have, several times, mentioned to him that instead of using pictures in a folder, he should make them into slides with PowerPoint. Quietly, he took half my advice and created a garish colored background and put all his speaking notes on them. When he proudly turned to me and said, "What do you think?" I was at a loss for words.

After a brief pause, for contemplation as to how to answer, I told him that he should probably add some interest to the background. As I continued to gently nudge him in the direction of PowerPoint, he finally realized that it might be a good idea. "And hey," he proudly exclaimed, "you could design the slides and I could say, designed by DocUmeant Designs."

With my current workload, that wasn't quite what I had in mind. But I agreed, since I would be in attendance and people would probably think I had made the presentation slides anyway. Dutifully, so as not to offend him, I designed the slides with an attractive background, and put every bit of text on his text heavy slides.

While working on the slides I mentioned to him that he needed to add pictures to bring out the points, but his scientific mind wouldn't wrap around that idea. So, I quietly add a couple small images to just three slides.

When I was done, I told him he should go over it and continue to edit the slides and rearrange them as needed. As he went along, he asked me if it would be okay to add example notes at the bottom of a few slides, so he wouldn't forget to bring out those points and perhaps even spur the audience to ask about them. Egads! His already text heavy slides were going to topple over the projector!

This is when I had to tell him that perhaps he should cut down the points to just a word or two and talk through them, rather than putting all the text on the slides. Perhaps even to use pictures to spur your words, I said, rather than all that text. After a brief rejection of that idea, he understood and embraced the idea. He finally got it!

Have you suffered through your fair share of boring, text heavy slide presentations? I hope you will learn, through this experience, how to make your presentations interesting and powerful rather than boring and dull. If you need help, I would be happy to help you too design your next PowerPoint slide set. Contact me and let me know at ginger.marks@documeantdesigns.com.