Some Quick Tips on How to Give a Successful Powerpoint/Keynote Presentation

Whether you are looking to do a presentation in a class, at work, or to a potential client, there are some serious do's and dont's of giving presentations - especially if you are going to supplement your presentation with a Powerpoint/Keynote slideshow. There are two different pieces to the presentation that are important. First is the actual presenting, i.e. how you speak, make eye contact etc. The second is whether you use, and how you use an electronic slideshow of some sort.

Regardless of whether you are using any material to supplement your presentation, there are a few simple but critical things that need to happen:

1. Eye Contact: Not only does it show confidence and engagement with your subject, it helps people feel connected to you personally. Additionally, by making constant eye contact with actual audience members (don't forget about the people to your far left and right) this gives you a chance to read the reactions of your audience. You can tell if people seem to be perplexed, excited or bored and you can adjust what you're saying on the fly to make the talk more interesting
2. No Reading: Reading off of a speech or any written material averts your eyes from the audience and doesn't show an engagement with the material. Reading a speech word for word sounds exactly like that, which is not what people are interested in hearing from you. If you need to use a speech, practice it ahead of time so that when you give your presentation, although you may have the speech with you, you know it so well you will rarely need your notes. Don't try and recite the speech from memory, but instead become so familiar with what you want to say, speaking about the topic becomes (and sounds) natural.
3. Use Bullet Points: The best way to transition into making better speeches, or to help you through a talk that has statistics or other hard to remember bits of information, is by using bullet points. Instead of writing up a speech, make sure you are familiar with the topic, and then use a few bullet points to help keep you on track. 
4. Project: Not just voice, but confidence, intelligence and engagement. Speak directly to the people who are the farthest away from you (for example sitting in the back row) to make sure you reach all of your audience. Often people focus on the front row or whoever they know in the audience or is the closest. Projecting to the farther audience member will guarantee you are speaking to everyone closer than them and show you are confident in the subject

The next piece, making sure your presentation or slideshow is up to par, is often overlooked. In these situations, less is more, and a crowded or poorly done slideshow will ruin an otherwise interesting talk. A few quick pointers:

1. Less is more, don't crowd slides with lots of notes or images
   
2. Use the slides as a supplement not as the focus of the talk
3. Don't let the slides or anything else distract people away from you
4. Keep slides simple and without fancy designs, those powerpoint templates are bad news
5. Make sure you are familiar enough with your  material so that you don't need to read off of your own slides.
   

Good slide:







Bad Slide:

The best comparison regarding the difference between good and bad slideshows can be seen in this short article comparing Microsoft's Bill Gates using Powerpoing and Apple's Steve Jobs using Keynote: http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2007/09/steve-bill-redu.html