Educational Guide: Presentations: Keeping It Simple
At every step of the process, from the first stages of planning to the fine tuning that occurs just before a meeting, it's a good idea to stop and ask yourself: Will this additional element help to achieve my communication objective?
In this context, simple does not mean boring or superficial. Often, by eliminating excess bullet points or hard to read spreadsheets, you make room for a high-impact, easy to grasp photo, diagram, or animated chart.
Good-looking, meaningful visuals help give your audience a point of focus. Great graphics also give presenters a chance to communicate their expertise to the audience in an enjoyable way--rather than just "covering the ground" by reading dozens of bullet points in a boring monotone.
Seeing is Believing
Translating linear, verbal ideas into powerful visual cues is easier when you have the right tools, and a little help from your friends.
Though PowerPoint is a powerful presentation tool, it's easier to present "outside the box" when you prepare graphics, animation, and video with specialized tools, and then import them into your slide show. CorelDRAW Suite 12 offers a great combination of powerful easy-to-use visual tools, including CorelDRAW, Photo-Paint, R.A.V.E (animation), plus thousands of fonts and high-quality clip art images, for less than $400. Corel's new Dynamic Guides, PowerClips, and intelligent export filters make it simple to create stunning graphics and animations that fit seamlessly into any slide show. The many new features include a Smart Drawing Tool that instantly recognizes shapes, such as circles, arrows, and parallelograms as you start to draw them, and intelligently smoothes curves and straightens lines as needed.
Adobe has long been a leader in the development of professional visual creative software. The awesome new Adobe Creative Suite (CS) Premium includes the latest versions of the legendary Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat applications, along with powerful, seamlessly integrated desktop publishing, and Web site creation programs, for less than $1,300. The dozens of powerful new features in Adobe's CS include the ability to create text effects along complex curves and other paths, and to create and light custom 3-D shapes and wrap graphics around them for product mock-ups. Other new features in Adobe CS include the ability to use XML to transfer a print publication's text and image assets for Web use, and integrated support and conversion of Layers across all applications. Easy export of graphics and slides to MS Office and PowerPoint is a key feature shared by both of these powerful software suites.
For video editing, the new Pinnacle Studio 9 provides a wealth of useful and easy-to-use editing tools (including image stabilization, automatic color correction, and audio noise reduction). The sub $100 program enables even novice editors to produce polished video clips for presentation use, yet has capabilities that will challenge the creativity of experienced video pros. Both the ultra-powerful Adobe Video Collection and Apple Final Cut Pro 4 are sub-$1,000 editing solutions worth considering for more serious video post-production efforts.
Help from Your Friends
If presentations and Web-based communications play a big role in your business strategy, it pays to invest in some expert assistance. This is true both for content creation and technology deployment.
A good first step in boosting your content to the next level is to enlist the help of a professional designer to create templates for your presentations and Web pages. If you can't find or afford the right designer, you can buy some preconfigured yet distinctive designs, and learn from the experts for free by surfing their sites. CrystalGraphics, for example, sells its PowerPlugs Templates starting at around $50. Additional packages include more than 30,000 different backgrounds, templates, animations and training discs. XPlane and other top-notch consultants provide creative services to visualize, animate and communicate your business ideas through cartoons and other visual media. Surf their sites for great ideas, examples and concepts. The book Visual Explanations by Edward Tufte is another powerful resource which, according to the Library Journal, "demonstrates simple, timeless guidelines that are independent of special stylesheets or the latest upgrade."
For comprehensive and reliable information on presentation technologies, check out the Web site of the professional audiovisual association, ICIA at www.infocomm.org, and the association's InfoComm conference and tradeshow, June 5-11, 2004 in Atlanta, Georgia. At InfoComm you can immerse yourself in the latest projector, display, audio, multimedia, and presentation technologies from over 600 companies, as well as learn how to select, manage, and use your audiovisual communications systems.
Projection Power
Since the introduction of Texas Instrument's revolutionary DLP technology just a few years ago, projectors have become less expensive, more powerful, and much, much smaller.
With so many great, cost-effective new projectors on the market, it should be a slam-dunk to provide yourself and all your key presenters with the tools to deliver high-impact, easy-to-view presentations.
High-quality, portable projectors from BenQ, NEC, InFocus, Epson and other major manufacturers now sell for less than $1,000 (with available discounts and rebates). The Toshiba TLP-S10U, for example, delivers 1200 lumens of native SVGA (800 x 600) picture power in a 4.8-lb. package.
New micro-portable DLP projectors for the road warrior from InFocus, BenQ and others will fit in a laptop accessory compartment, but are bright enough to fill a big screen in a well-lit room. The new NEC LT10 is a DLP-powered, native XGA (1024 x 768) unit, with a 2000:1 contrast ratio that weighs just 2.1 lbs., measures only 7.8 x 5.8 x2.2 inches, costs less than $2,900, and still puts out 1100 lumens of brightness.
Advances in technology have also made it possible to create a new class of projectors that are very portable, but powerful enough to be used in larger conference and training rooms. The HDTV-compatible, native XGA BenQ PB6200 delivers 1700 lumens of brightness with a 2000:1 contrast ratio from its DLP-powered projection engine, yet weighs less than 5.5 lbs., and costs less than $1,600. Toshiba's DLP-based TDP-D2 manages to pack 2500 lumens of native XGA output into a 5.3 lb. package for just over $3,000, while the Toshiba LCD-powered, native-XGA, TLP-T70MU projector delivers 2000 lumens of top-quality video for less than $2,000. Units with similar capabilities are also available from Philips, Casio, Dell, HP, and Epson.
Flat is Phat
Plasma and LCD flat-screen displays are good choices for meeting rooms where space is at a premium, or where it is difficult to control ambient light. The cost of plasma displays continues to fall, with basic 42-inch HD-compatible models now selling for around $3,000. BenQ's new 46W1 is a good looking, 46-inch unit with Dynamic White Balancing Correction that sells for les than $3,700. Plasma displays with full HD resolution (1366 x 768) are available from Pioneer, Panasonic, http://www.panasonic.com/plasma/index.asp Samsung, Sony and others, with prices ranging from $7,000 to $10,000.
Large-screen LCDs cost somewhat more than plasma displays of the same size, but are much lighter in weight, and typically have a longer useful life (e.g., 60 K vs. 30 K hours). Sony, ViewSonic, NEC/Mitsubishi, Toshiba and Samsung offer a variety of cost-effective displays in the 30-inch range for $3,000 to $4,000. A full range of high-performance, HDTV-compatible LCD panels is available from BenQ, including the stunning DV4680 (46-inch). For industrial applications and signage, the 37-inch LC-M3700 from Sharp provides flexible connectivity, remote control and other features for around $8,000.
Hand It to Them
Handouts are a great way to ensure that the information and ideas contained in a presentation go on working for you long after the meeting has adjourned. Copies of your presentation burned on a CD or DVD are always helpful, but color printouts usually have the greatest short-term impact. Preparing handouts ahead of time can save money and make it easier to include important, detailed supplementary material (e.g., pricing, specifications, project schedules) that you may have covered verbally, but left off your slides.
Printouts created on color laser printers typically cost less per page than those printed with inkjets. The $1,999 magicolor 3300 from Konica Minolta Printing Solutions is among the fastest, most economical color laser printers. With true 1200 x 1200 dpi resolution, it prints up to 26 pages per minute (ppm) in black-and-white or high-impact color. Lower volume color printing needs can be met with the sub-$700 magicolor 2300W, which delivers 16 ppm B&W and 4 ppm color at a resolution of 1200 x 600 dpi.
For printing on the run, Canon's super-portable i80 color inkjet printer weighs less than 4 lbs. (without the optional battery pack), measures about 12.5 x 7 x 2 inches, and costs less than $250. The i80 offers wireless printing, and prints up to 10 pages of brilliant 4800 x 1200 color per minute.
Focusing on your core message and replacing excess verbiage with high-impact visuals facilitates communication between presenter and audience, and makes for memorable and productive meetings.
Sidebar: The Power of Simplicity
- Eliminate excess bullet points:
This gives the speaker leeway to actively present ideas, instead of simply reading from the screen. - Seeing is believing:
Use clear diagrams, charts, animations, and pictures as a springboard for concise, relevant explanations. - Simplify delivery technology:
Equipment that is easy to set up and use helps presenters focus on the message and the audience. - Make presentations easy to see:
Small screens, dim pictures, and cluttered slide layouts increase eyestrain and boredom, and reduce audience comprehension and involvement. - Provide useful and attractive handouts:
Color printouts of slides, along with relevant backup information, will keep your presentations working over time.
Toshiba's TLP-T70 Projector Delivers High Performance at a Low Price
Toshiba's TLP-T70MU projector delivers the rich vibrant colors and crystal clear images that business professionals and road warriors demand. Priced at less than $2,000, Toshiba's TLP-T70MU offers extreme brightness (2000 ANSI lumens), XGA resolution and the clarity to overcome even the most unforgiving lighting situations. The projector also employs LCD technology to ensure increased color saturation and accuracy to any presentation.
Other features packed into the projector include multimedia capabilities such as composite and S-video inputs and integrated audio functionality. Simply plug a video device into the projector to spice up any presentation, or, on the weekends, hook up a gaming console or watch a sporting event for bigger-than-life action.
For more information about Toshiba's full line of projectors, notebooks and Pocket PCs visit www.toshiba.com.
PB6200 Projector: Performance, Great Value
BenQ, a leading manufacturer of DLPTM-based digital projectors, recently expanded its extensive line of projectors with the PB6200. The PB6200 is a sturdy, yet lightweight digital projector that offers an ideal crossover solution for professional installations and personal home theater applications.
With a 2000:1 contrast ratio at 1700 ANSI lumens, the PB6200 has a native resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels, and 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios. The PB6200 is HDTV-compatible and supports NTSC, PAL, SECAM and NTSC 4.43 video systems.
The PB6200 utilizes proprietary BenQ video-processing technology to support the latest DLP chip set from Texas Instruments. The DLP DDR chipsets produce flawless pictures that won't fade or degrade over time, while maintaining the original clarity of the images.
The PB6200 is available for $1,599 through BenQ distribution channels. For a limited time, receive a free lamp (a $400 value) through a mail-in rebate with the purchase of a PB6200. Visit www.BenQ.com or call 866-700-2367.
An Affordable Choice for Every Business
There's never been a better time for you to add a color laser printer to your office equipment roster. An industry leader in affordable printing solutions, KONICA MINOLTA's award-winning color lasers deliver perfect prints for every type of business printing. From the home-office to a Fortune 500 firm, KONICA MINOLTA has laser printers that are priced right, user-friendly, and true workaholics. With exceptional color quality, KONICA MINOLTA color laser printers can significantly enhance your printed communications and help you gain an important competitive advantage.
For more information on how KONICA MINOLTA color laser printers can serve your company, call 800-523-2696 or visit www.konicaminolta.com/printer.
