Tips for Creating Better PowerPoint Presentations and Webinars:

(Collected from Microsoft.com, Adobe.com and Focus.com)

1. Approach Your Presentation from the Audiences Perspective

This philosophy should influence everything from initial planning, content preparation, and delivery style. That is not to say that your own goals are unimportant. You should have a clear and explicit statement of intent for your webinar. Why are you hosting it in the first place? Look beyond the surface-level delivery of information.

a. Start with Your Title

Addressing the audiences perspective begins with the seemingly trivial task of picking a title for your webinar. Lets assume you are providing important information about new government regulations that affect your audience. You could pick a short, factual title such as New Regulations For 2009. It tells prospective attendees what information will be presented, but not why they should care. Step back and think from the audiences viewpoint. Find a value proposition that resonates with their priorities. If you are presenting to workers, your title might be How New Regulations Impact Your Health and Safety. Alternatively, if you are presenting to business owners, managers, and executives, you might choose a title like How New Regulations Affect Your Business Operations and Profitability. In both cases, you have changed your event from something of academic, objective curiosity to personal, subjective interest.

2. Grab Viewers Attention

Creating slides that grab viewers attention is not about fitting as much as you can on the screen. It's about using the space on your slides effectively. Don't crowd your slides, and only include elements that contribute to the points you want to make. When you use graphics on a slide, choose images that serve a purpose (such as a chart or diagram that displays a direct benefit of your idea). Compare the slides that follow, for example.
Two versions of the same content: The simple graphic replaces much of the text and makes a much stronger point.

a. Use Graphics to Emphasize Key Points.

A well-chosen chart or diagram can often convey much more to your audience than can bulleted text.

b. Use Animations and Transitions Wisely.

Having text and graphics appear on screen just when you need them can be a nice touch. However, overdoing animation can detract from your presentation's content.

To emphasize your points without overwhelming your audience, limit animation to key points and use consistent animation choices throughout the presentation.

3. Clearly Communicate Your Information a. Start by Outlining Your Presentation

Take the time to outline your presentation before you create your slides. Doing so can save time and help you give a more clear and effective presentation.

b. Keep File Size Manageable

A common cause of stress when you work in PowerPoint is that the file becomes too large to edit or for the presentation to run smoothly. Fortunately, this problem is easy to avoid by compressing the media in your files and using native PowerPoint features whenever possible.

4. Slide Design
Avoid using text slides as a presentation script that you read to the audience. Break up key points into individual slides and find graphics that help to emphasize and complement your vocal presentation. Use high-contrast colors that let foreground text be easily seen and read over the background. Remember that some attendees may be watching on small screens. Make text and graphics large and easy to read at a glance.

a. Find expendable content

Plan your content so that the most important information is up front. Identify slides near the end of your presentation that you can skip in a worst-case scenario when you are short on time. It is better to eliminate content than to rush through it in a panicked attempt to jam everything into a time slot. If you do elect to leave out information to meet your schedule, dont call attention to the fact. Let them think you had always planned to deliver exactly as much material as they heard.

5. Maximize Audio Quality

Never use a speakerphone or cell phone to deliver your presentation. Speakerphones pick up extraneous noises such as rustling papers and squeaking chairs. Cell phones are prone to audio dropouts, fuzzy sound, loss of battery power, and inconsistent volume levels. A good quality headset is worth the investment if you do several presentations. Otherwise, use your telephone handseta device specifically designed to deliver the human voice clearly over the limited bandwidth of a phone line.

6. Presentation Tips
Presenters can use many techniques to make their delivery more engaging and effective. Here are some of the most important to keep in mind when speaking on a webinar: Energy Find ways to keep your energy level up while presenting. You may wish to stand up and pace while you speak, or make hand and arm gestures while talking. Physical activity encourages greater oxygen flow in your bloodstream, which translates to a more energetic delivery. Finish sentences as strongly as you begin them. Watch out for dropping your energy at the end of a list of items. Enthusiasm Demonstrate to your audience why they should care about the information that you are imparting. Keep enthusiasm in your vocal tone and in the words you use. Make technical facts more interesting by adding explicit statements of their value: Now heres a fascinating piece of information or Whats fun about this fact is that it lets you Remember to smile every so often. Your audience can hear the change in tone that accompanies a smile. Smile As silly and simple as it sounds; its a proven fact that audiences can hear you smile. Variation Watch out for a monotone delivery style. Consciously change the pitch of your voice and your speed of delivery. Every small change in your delivery style refocuses your audiences attention on your voice and your content. Addressing individuals Address your audience as individuals rather than as a group. Use the singular you in your statements and questions. Instead of saying I wonder if anyone out there can answer this question, say I wonder if you know the answer to this question? Each listener should have the feeling that you are speaking directly to him or her. Audience interaction Invite participation in the conference by including polls, but remember to frame these in terms of value to the audience, not to you. If you start your presentation with a poll asking people to provide you with demographic information, you put them on the defensive. Make sure you have given value to your listeners before you demand value from them. Each time you ask for information, tell them how answering your question benefits them: This will let me customize my presentation to make sure that I am addressing the things that you want to hear about. If you get typed comments or questions from the audience, refer to the questioner by first name, putting a personal touch on the communication and letting people know that you are truly paying attention to them as individuals. Include visuals Include as many graphs, pictures, and diagrams as possible. This holds your audiences attention. Everyone knows that webinar attendees multi-task. If you want to keep them engaged, give them something to look at.

Focusing attention Use small arrows or circles to occasionally draw focus to specific parts of your visuals. focus, and then as you approach your focus, add the arrow. Dont overdo it. Script Script the first and final paragraph of your presentation. Everything else should be conducted conversationally. Starting and finishing with a comfortable strength and confidence is very important to leaving a lasting impression on your audience. Use polls and/or quizzes This forces action out of your viewers and keeps them engaged. Make. Every. Word. Count. Eliminate the "um"s and "ah"s from your presentation. Because you know that many of your participants will multi-task, you are doomed to lose them if you ramble or babble. Keep your verbal content crisp, clear and concise. Identify expendable slides Its good practice to identify specific slides near the end of the presentation that are expendable if time gets short. Control your environment Limit potential distractions by refraining from presenting from an open air environment. Close the door, turn off the phone. Keep viewers over-informed Presenters should begin by stating their objectives for the webinar, how long they will present, how long theyll do Q&A and what topics they intend to cover. Viewers will appreciate that. Practice Rehearse your webinar by yourself. Get comfortable with the platform delivering the content, and the content itself. best instructors know what slide is next without seeing it. The Start with the visual without the

Have a hard copy. Murphy likes to make an appearance when youre juggling multiple technologies to deliver content. Instructors should always be prepared for technical difficulty. This also allows instructors to keep notes on specific slides. Content they want to verbalize, and not necessarily visualize. Presenting with confidence There is no need to say things like I was going to tell you more, but Im running out of time. Instead, continue your confident presentation style with a statement such as I have given you some additional information in your handout that you can review at your leisure.

Webinar Best Practices:

Listed below are some best practices for creating a presentation in PP: Limit bullets and text on each slide Use high-quality graphics including photographs Your slides should have plenty of "white space" or "negative space." Transitions built in work well, but timed transitions do not. We suggest using it sparingly and only if needed Please list your contact information on the title slide. Include a bio slide for slide two and an Objectives slide for slide 3 We recommend not to use a company logo on every slide Last slide should be a reference slide listing websites, articles and Papers, etc. as resources for further study. Audio/video embedded in the slides does not work. Online videos can be shared during live presentation Flash embedded in the slides will not play Case studys and real life examples work well Create a Bonus Material section at the end of the presentation. If you get a lot of questions and dont get to this materials attendees wont be upset that it was not covered, however, if no questions come in you will have material to go over while waiting for questions to come in. Note: We ask that instructors use ASCEs PowerPoint template that to help with ASCEs branding efforts.

References:
http://www.microsoft.com/atwork/skills/presentations.aspx http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobatconnectpro/webconferencing/pdfs/Best_Practices_for_Webinars_v4_FINAL.pdf

http://www.focus.com/questions/webinar-best-practices-what-are-your-3-tips-having-webinar/

Additional Resources:
https://files.asce.org/Department%20Space/Continuing%20Education/SD/ASCEInstructorManual.pdf http://www.nhi.fhwa.dot.gov/downloads/freebies/172/PR%20Pre-course%20Reading%20Assignment.pdf http://www.garrreynolds.com/Presentation/slides.html