Peace of Mind Tips

To deliver your best presentation

What you will need on stage

1. Stage mobility needs – Do you plan to stay near your computer or walk around? If you are mobile, talk to your Event Technology Specialist about adding a wireless mouse to advance your slides; or add a wireless microphone, if you don’t already have one.
2. Sound needs – Do you have any audio in your presentation? If so, see your Event Technology Specialist about adding the necessary equipment so everyone can hear.
3. Audience interaction needs – Do you plan to ask question and include the audience in your presentation? Verify that there are aisle microphones or hand held microphones, if needed.
4. Use confidence monitors for assistance with details – Confidence monitors can assist presenters with detailed content. Or, use your laptop as your monitor – avoid looking at the overhead screen. Stay focused on the audience and avoid talking to the screen.
5. Time-keeping needs – Are you on a tight schedule? Consider adding a presenter timer to keep you on track.
6. Clothing choice – Wear a light blue (not white) shirt if you know you’re being video recorded. If IMAG will be used for your presentation, avoid wearing a striped shirt (or wear a jacket over the striped shirt). This will help avoid the pattern effect or interference caused by the stripes.

Software Preparation Tips

1. Make shortcut of your presentation – Place the shortcut on your desktop to prevent searching for your file.
2. Create a conclusion slide – so that your presentation does no revert to your desktop when you advance past you final slide.
3. Use readable backgrounds – Dark backgrounds are better than black on white; a yellow background and black lettering is considered the most readable.
4. Consider readability on LCD projectors – What looks good on your screen may not look good on LCD projectors – be prepared to adjust the color. Also, keep in mind that 10 percent of audience members have difficulty with reds and greens.
5. Limit slide content – Limit each slide to 15 or 20 words. Leave space – at least the height of a capital letter – between lines. Use several simple slides rather than one complicated slide. Use duplicates if you need to refer to the same slide at different times in your presentation.
6. Use readable font size – Make sure the fond is large enough; 1” letters are readable from 10 feet away; 2” letters are readable from 20 feet; 72-point fonts work well for large audience presentations. Narrow fonts (such as Time New Roman and Arial) are difficult to read from 10 feet – Garamond and Verdana are recommended alternatives.
7. Save embedded fonts – Save your presentation with embedded fonts to ensure your font choice will be available on the playback computer.
8. Save embedded audio and video files – If using embedded video or audio clips, save these files into the same folder as your presentation for installation on the playback computer.