Opening from 2/25/14 Senior Design (ISE 4006) discussion at Virginia Tech: If you only have 30 seconds, then read this. Effective presentations involve engaging the audience and realizing you are married. Tie your materials and points to a core message. Strategically use blank slides to pull attention to you and give the audience a visual break. Go analog when preparing slide materials (turn the computer off and use a whiteboard, journal, and then sticky notes). Build-up slides instead of blasting the audience with info are married too. As a start, use the ergonomics principles of good slide design by Durso and colleagues. Join Toastmasters. Learn how to use images effectively and video record yourself to improve. And yes, realize you are already married – to your data – and your audience is not familiar with your stuff so explain it simply.
Before (1 slide)
After (2 slides with relevant images, bigger fonts, better contrast)
Now click below to read Durso's 4-pager on Evidence-Based Presentation Guidelines:
