Effective Presentations and Use of PowerPoint

1. Effective Presentationsand Use of PowerPoint Don C. Bramlett, PE, SMIEEE IEEE Region 4 – Director IEEE Southeastern Michigan Section DTE Energy – Project Engineer

2. Use of PowerPoint • The Presenter’s Visual Aid of Choice Learn How to Use PowerPoint • PowerPoint is Only a Tool to Help to Visualize the Information in Your Presentation to the Audience • Use of PowerPoint will not Rescue a Poorly Prepared or Poorly Executed Presentation

3. Remember the 5 Ps Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance Boy Scout Motto: “Be Prepared”

4. The First Rule of Speaking • Know Your Subject • Perform the needed homework and research beforehand, until you feel reasonably comfortable with the topic and subject matter of the presentation • Know Your Stuff and Practice

5. Think of Your Audience • Who Will Be Your Audience, and What Do They Expect to Hear • Tailor Your Presentation to Their Anticipated Needs and Expectations • Arrive Early to Set up Audio-Visual Equipment and Practice Its Use

6. Important Communication Ideas • Never Just Read Your Presentation • Use PowerPoint Bullets as Notes • Connect With Your Audience • Be Sincere and Enthusiastic

7. Speak Clearly to the Audience • Speak Loudly Enough to be Heard • Speak Slowly Enough to Enunciate Words Clearly and Properly • Account for Your Accent or Dialect, if the Audience Might Have Difficulty Understanding You

8. Timing is Very Important • Keep to the Amount of Allotted Time for Your Presentation • Allow Adequate Time for a Question-and-Answer Period • Audience Members May Have Time Constraints and Commitments

9. Helpful PowerPoint Hints • Don’t Rush Through the Slides • The Audience Needs Time to Think , Comprehend and Take Notes • No More Than One Slide a Minute

10. Need Better Contrast Between the Lettering and Background • Four Score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

11. Need Pleasant Contrast Between Lettering and the Background • Four Score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

12. More Pleasant and Readable Contrast Between the Lettering and the Background • Four Score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

13. Lettering Font Should be More Easily Readable to the Audience • Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

14. Lettering Font is More Clearly Readable to the Audience • Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

15. Lettering Size Should Not be Too Small or Busy for the Audience to Read Comfortably • But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

16. Wording Should Not Be Too Busy For the Audience to Deal With • But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate – we can not consecrate – we can not hallow – this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what we did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

17. No Unreadable Eye Charts

18. Add Tables

19. Add Charts

20. Add Pictures, Video Clips, Clip Art & Music

21. Reference Resource 21 “Stuff You Don’t Learn in Engineering School” By Carl Selinger IEEE Press 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Inc 16-Aug-14

22. Closing Comments • Plan • Prepare • Practice