Page 67 - AV Presentations - Student Textbook

Two more tips: if you are presenting slides, always:

• animate your bullets (so the audience can process each bullet as you present it) and,
• use a remote clicker (so you don’t distract the audience by leaning over and searching for the
right key every time you want to advance a slide.)

5. Less is best

The most common mistake with any presentation is to have too much content. In almost all cases, less is
best.

Your visuals are there to add to your message, reinforce key points and create memory anchors that
make you and your message more memorable. Cramming in more content won’t get you there.

“People are only capable of absorbing a very small amount of material at a time.” writes Garr Reynolds,
“Therefore, it is counterproductive to throw up a slide with lots of text or complicated diagrams.”

Every time I delete slides from my keynote presentation the talk improves. I’m less concerned about
clicking the right slide at the right time and I can focus more on connecting with the audience.

And there’s always a bit of hesitation before I hit the ‘delete’ button. I catch myself thinking: ‘But this is
great information’ or ‘What is someone wants to write this stuff down.’

I never regret the decision to delete.

“Leave most stats on the cutting room floor and focus on masterfully detailing the implications of a few
statistics.” Tom Webster

PRO TIP:

If you’re in a habit of designing your slides to also be handouts, you could be making a mistake. Your
visual presentation is there to augment your message, not be the complete message.

If you do need handouts, don’t cheat and use the print handouts option in PowerPoint (or Keynote)—
lots of your slides are there as visual anchors and won’t make any sense in handouts. Instead, handouts
should be created separately as a stand-alone document.

When in doubt, delete—no one will miss what isn’t there.

“Slides should reinforce your words, not repeat them.” Seth Godin

Get Started

When I’m designing a new deck (or doing triage on a deck that’s gone stale) I have three objectives:

1. choose images that support the emotional content (cautionary, upbeat, motivational,
trustworthy, etc.)

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