PowerPoint Presentation Pointers

Most presenters at the Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium use Microsoft PowerPoint to illustrate their 20 minute talk.  Below are a few presentation pointers:

• A presentation should include only one slide for each minute of  presenting time. A 20 minute presentation should have no more than 20 slides.  This is a good rule-of-thumb to avoid too many slides for a presentation.
• Use bullet statements, not paragraphs, to show relevant points so that the audience is listening, not reading. An exception would be a short quote. Any text in a slide will be read by the audience, so keep it minimal.
  
• Do not use busy backgrounds or fancy transitions. Bells and whistles just distract the audience from an otherwise great presentation.
• Practice. Even experienced presenters should practice so that advancing slides occurs at the correct time and without hesitation. A practice session is open for presenters to tryout PPLD's equipment during the afternoon prior to the symposium day.
• Keep to the 20 minute time limit. A timekeeper in the audience will alert speakers when they have five minutes, and then two minute remaining. At the end of the 20 minutes the timekeeper will stand-up and the speaker is expected to conclude immediately.
• Leave the audience wanting more. Twenty minutes is not adequate time to cover all aspects of your research topic, so do not try. Keep on time, and end strong. Understanding the limits of time, the audience will appreciate that your vast research cannot be presented in great detail.