Wednesday, September 25, 2013

5 Simple Tips for Technical Success when giving a Keynote Presentation


I have facilitated hundreds of conferences and witnessed many excellent presentations on a range of topics. Frequently, the speakers are experts in their field and have useful, interesting and compelling information to convey. It is now common for PowerPoint presentations to include sound files and video clips. Incorporating multi media can add a great deal of interest and variety however it can result in a range of problems occurring.

To ensure your presentation goes smoothly, please consider the following five tips:
1.   If saving your PowerPoint presentation to a memory stick, you must export the presentation as a package so all the embedded sound files are included on the memory stick. Failure to do this will mean that the sound files can not be located and will not play.
2.   Video files should be in a common format such as Quicktime or a Windows Media file. Incorporating a video file that has been saved in an unconventional format may result in the file not playing.
3.   Providing a web link on a PowerPoint presentation to a YouTube video file is risky. It relies on the internet connection of the conference room to be stable and fast. The quality of the video file may also appear pixelated depending on the resolution of the video. Presenting to a room whilst waiting for a video to buffer can be cringeworthy. It is better to save the video file onto your computer or memory stick so an internet connection is not required. The video will play at the correct speed and it can be saved at a higher resolution.
4.   Turning up with a memory stick as you are about to give your presentation does not allow any opportunity to screen or test the presentation. Everything may work correctly, but if it does not then there is no time to make any corrections.
5.   Do not boot up your computer in safe mode if you are connecting to a data projector or an external monitor. The drivers required to display the presentation to an external monitor are disabled. Whilst the presenter can see their presentation on their laptop, the presentation will not display to everyone else.
Keep these tips in mind and you are well on your way to giving a professional and slick presentation. Good luck.

By Daniel Cohen

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