Embrace Your Heart Blog

Four ways to tell if your PowerPoint will bore your audience.

If the print out of your slides can double as your handout…
...your PowerPoint will bore your audience.

If you feel the need to annotate your slides…
...your PowerPoint will bore your audience.

If anyone could give your presentation by simply reading the slides…
...your PowerPoint will bore your audience.

If you keep making the font size smaller and smaller to fit everything on…
...your PowerPoint will bore your audience.

At most events my presentation is preceded by a presentation by a doctor or other health professional charged with giving the “facts” about women and heart disease.  More often than not this presentation is accompanied by a PowerPoint which almost immediately causes the audience to tune out. It is information overload.

PowerPoint is a wonderful tool, but it shouldn’t be the documentation for your presentation. 

My advice:

Prepare an information-rich handout as an article, information sheet, resource list or bullet points. 

Use your slides to illustrate your point graphically with pictures, graphics, videos, charts, and
tables. 

Use as few words as possible. 

Check out Jason Kotecki's 5 Ways to Make Sure Your PowerPoint Presentation Doesn’t Suck

Use PowerPoint wisely to help your audience stay engaged and be educated.

Eliz Greene is an award-winning professional speaker and heart health educator on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Her education programs for health care professionals provides the patient's perspective on women and heart disease.   Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com

Honor Your Sponsors -- without boring your audience!

It's a tough thing to do.

You need to make your sponsors feel appreciated, but your time is limited and your program is full. 

How do you hit all of your goals, keep your audience entertained and still get people out the door by 1:00 pm?

Be creative and have fun. 

Use the following tips to put some spice into your thank yous:

• Use the gift bag. Many companies are very creative with the items in the gift bag.  At some events it seems there is a contest to see which company could come up with the best item:  nail polish, chocolate, tape measure, pedometer, etc.   On stage go through the bag and hold up all of the fun items and thank the sponsors.  I always am happy to do this and often try to incorporate gift bag items into my program.
• Give them an award. Present the CEO or owner of each sponsor with an award and have every attendee from that company stand when the award is presented.  If you have the award recipients lined up ready to go, this should be a very quick process.  It also encourages companies to fill their tables!
• Think outside the banner. Sign-age is great, but don't be tied to it.  One window company built a free-standing, self-lit, rotating red dress window to be displayed.  It was very unique and the company is invested in being able to use it again (by sponsoring additional events!)  Ask companies to creatively promote their businesses.
• Ask them what they want. If you ask if the CEO would like to say a few words, they will feel obligated to do so.  However many of the sponsors I've talked with don't really want to get up and speak, they'd rather get to the program.  Do they want a plaque to hang on the wall or would a nice gift basket be better?  Would they like to have dinner with your speaker the night before the event?  Ask how they would feel valued.
• Pick one. It's tempting to thank them over and over, but being thanked well, once from the stage is enough.  Put on a great program.  Give them something to feel good about sponsoring and thank them just once.

Eliz Greene is a heart attack survivor, author and nationally known speaker on a mission to encourage women to recognize heart disease as their most serious health threat and provide down-to-earth strategies for active and healthy lives.  Learn more about Eliz and the Embrace Your Heart Wellness Initiative at www.EmbraceYourHeart.com