Welcome
Welcome to Markets View, the newsletter from Young Markets. This month sees a
revised format for Markets View, which I am sending out to all my contacts.
Please feel free to forward this on to your friends and colleagues. If you
have received this second hand and would like your own personal copy of future
issues, please subscribe
here.
Upcoming Courses
For those of you who are based in the UK, I am running Effective Presentation
Skills courses as follows:
- Reading - Wed 15th November 2006 (just one place left! )
- Guildford - Wed 29th November 2006
- Oxford - Wed 13th December 2006
For more information and to book click
here.
Why is an Effective Business Presentation like a motorway (or a freeway or
autobahn)?
Back in the fifties, when the concept of a high speed carriageway was first
envisaged, the planners thought, as they were intended to enable people to get
from A to B as quickly as possible, that they should make motorways as straight
as possible. 
This would minimise the distance travelled and would reduce the number of
accidents, because people would be able to see a long way in front of them and
not have to slow down to negotiate bends in the road. The section of the M1 as
it goes north out of London, is a classic example of this style of design. It
goes in a straight-line up hill and down dale for miles.
However, there are problems with this style of road design. Primarily, it is
boring. Because you can see for miles ahead, you think you know exactly what is
coming, and can easily lose concentration. You start thinking about other things
rather than driving, some people may even start to fall asleep.
On a busy Friday evening, coming out of London on the
M1, all you can see is mile upon
mile of brake lights in front of you. There is little so dispiriting.
Modern motorways are designed with very few straight sections, they
meander across the countryside, frequently turning from side to
side. Despite what you may think, this is not the effect of the
influential and politically astute landowners who lobbied against the
proposed routes of the new motorway. Over the years, motorway designers have learnt that sweeping curves make the
road more interesting. The bends mean that drivers need to concentrate more,
which keeps them more alert. As an added bonus, if you are stuck in a traffic
jam, there is always the optimistic view that it will clear just round the next bend,
rather than knowing that it goes on and on for miles. So bends are actually
safer than straight roads and the journey seem to pass more quickly.
 The same design components apply when creating an effective presentation.
Don’t just rush from the start straight to the finish, take people on a journey.
Add a few twists and turns, so that your audience discovers new things along the
way. Back up your assertions, with a personal story that illustrates the point
that you are making. People usually talk with more enthusiasm when they are
recounting a personal anecdote, which in turn makes your presentation more
interesting to your audience. So, don’t give people the opportunity to fall asleep in your presentations, take
then on a journey of discovery.
A
to Z of Effective Presentations
In previous newsletters, which you can access
here, I have covered A to E , so
now it is the letter “F”
F is for Fonts
Some fonts look good on paper and some look good on screens. Generally,
san serif fonts are better for use on screens. That is fonts like Arial,
Tahoma or Verdana that don’t have little tails and squiggles on the letters.
Unlike Times New Roman,
Century Schoolbook or
Perpetua, which are serif fonts,
and are more suitable for printed matter. In terms of size, the normal minimum size for text on a slide is 22pt. Anything
smaller than that it is likely to be hard to read. 32pt is the preferred
size for most text, with 40pt for titles. This means you can never use standard office documents as visual aids. The
text is never large enough to read, so do not be tempted to try.
If it is vital that people see a new form or other office document, as part of
your presentation, hand out the document and ask people to look at their own
copy. Make sure there is enough for everyone.
Improve your presentations
I hope you have found this newsletter useful and interesting.
You can learn a lot
more about how to structure and give an Effective Business Presentation, by
attending a Young Markets Effective Presentations Skills training course (see
above), or from my ebook “The A to Z of Effective Business Presentations” which
you can download from my website (www.businesspresentation.biz) today, for
only $15 or £8.75 . Please feel free to forward this on to your friends and colleagues. If you
have received this second hand and would like your own personal copy of future
issues, please subscribe
here. |
