Getting the Message Across: Using Slideware Effectively in Technical Presentations

Create memorable presentations on technical and complex topics in slideware such as Microsoft PowerPoint and Apple’s Keynote for Mac. Learn good pacing and rhythm as well as judicious use of special effects.

Whether the goal is to help a sale or to educate, and whether the final delivery is a live presentation, a webinar, or a short video presentation, this book focuses on the particular difficulties linked to technical presentations. You will learn to create a story when there is none, gain the interest of an audience who may not feel as strongly for the topic as the speaker does, turn abstract concepts into visual models, overcome the limitations of the medium (limited space, two dimensions), maintain interest through rhythm, and use effects, not to look cool or get that "WOW" moment, but to serve the message.

Getting The Message Across presents a number of field-tested ideas for raising interest. The use of various techniques and careful scripting will help you, even if you aren't a natural-born show-person, to communicate effectively, and to make your audience remember your message, and not necessarily your slides. This book will teach you:

• Rhythm and animations, and the use of transitions
• To hold audience interest even with "dry" topics
• To create memorable presentations
• Techniques useful for PowerPoint, Keynote for Mac, and any similar presentation medium or environment

What You Will Learn

• Turn austere topics into interesting stories.
• Give rhythm and pacing to your presentations.
• Build a narrative during transitions and animations.
• Hold audience interest and make listeners feel clever.
• Make people remember your presentation rather than your cool use of slideware.

Who This Book Is For

People who have to communicate effectively on strongly technical topics. This book targets educators and trainers as well as technical consultants who need to present complex solutions to customers or leads, as well as would-be speakers at scientific or technical conferences. Getting The Message Across is a book for people who want to make their presentations not only more attractive, but really memorable. It is for people who aren't looking for a standing ovation, but who are willing to do what they can to be understood and to make their messages remembered. Getting The Message Across focuses on using slideware such as PowerPoint and Keynote. Such slideware, for all its flaws, is still one of the best ways to communicate, not only live, but also in dematerialized communications (webinars, video tutorials) for reaching an ever-growing audience.

About the Author

Stéphane Faroult is primarily known as a database specialist and author. He also has a dotted but regular experience of teaching that dates back to the 1980s. He has taught students full-time so far at two different universities (in Canada and in the US Middle West), with 30 years of consulting in-between. He has also taught part-time at several French schools of engineering, on various subjects. He has given countless training courses and seminars on database topics to professionals. He has spoken multiple times at user group conferences, given a webinar, and given technical sales presentations to customers. More than once he has had to talk many time-zones away from home in a language that isn't his native one (nor, sometimes, his audience's), relying on massive amounts of coffee and solid slides to survive the ordeal. More recently, he has turned some of his presentations into video tutorials that have met much success on the web, and which have proven to be a great way to experiment in techniques he now wishes to share.