Welcome to the July edition of PowerPresentations, The Presentation Team's monthly e-newsletter featuring tips and pointers of importance to today's busy business presenter.

Summer is here...and we're turning up the heat with tips on how to organize, develop and present more effectively. We welcome your comments and suggestions, and encourage you to share this newsletter with your friends or colleagues.

In this Issue

• Company News: Credit card acceptance boost sales and customer service…The great server switch...New templates from alliance partner Studio F
• Sizzling Summer Promotions: Free PowerPoint facelifts and custom Template Design packages
• PowerPointers: Using slide builds to convey complex information
• Speaking Tips: Organizing your Speech
• Success Stories: Presentation helps James B. Pirtle Construction win $40M design-build contract.

Company News
Credit card acceptance boost sales and customer service…The great server switch...New templates from alliance partner Studio F

With a steady increase in its Internet-based sales activity, The Presentation Team recently added credit cards as a payment method.  Since 1995, the company has accepted payment only in the form of checks.  The firm now accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express cards. “We’re expanding, society is evolving, and we want to give our clients the convenience of paying on credit,” explained Director of Operations, Rudy Flugel. 

Faster than a speeding bullet, more stable than a Russian weightlifter…it’s The Presentation Team’s new web server!  In mid-June, the company made the switch to move its domains from Valueweb (running Unix servers) to Weberie Internet Services (running Windows NT servers).  Though transparent to visitors, the changeover means faster file transfers, more stability and enhanced functionality.  The server switch also helps position The Presentation Team for the anticipated increase in international web traffic.

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Sizzling Summer Promotions
Free PowerPoint facelifts...and the $695 Custom Template Design Package.

Capitalizing on the high demand for custom templates, The Presentation Team has developed a Custom Template Design Package. For just $695, clients can now get 3 uniquely original variations of Title Masters and Body Masters for PowerPoint. The service also includes up to two hours of presentation consultation. Often incorporating existing photography and branding elements, the service is touted as a cost-effective way for companies- especially startups- to quickly and professionally transform their existing presentations. <Details>

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PowerPointers
Using slide builds to convey complex information

Have you ever looked at a presentation and just felt…overwhelmed?  So much stuff all crammed into a tiny little screen!  Don’t get scared!  Get constructive…with slide builds.  Electronic presentations- including PowerPoint- give presenters the ability to bring in key pieces of information one bit at a time.  More than just making the slide easier on the eyes, studies show that audiences remember information better when it is introduced progressively.

Creating a slide build is like working backwards.  It can be done very quickly in just a few steps:

1. To start, you should have your final build image completed. 
2. Copy and paste your final build slide for each step of the build.  This way, all the items remain fixed in the same location and do not jump on screen when you’re moving through the build.
3. Working backwards from the final image, delete the elements that you do not want to appear, or that will be appearing on future slides.  Each progressively earlier slide will have fewer and fewer items (more deleted elements).
4. Add slide transitions to each of the slides for a more professional entry.  Wipes and dissolves work better than other flashy transitions, which can often interfere with the illusion of the slide build.

There are more advanced techniques within PowerPoint (custom animation) to bring individual elements on screen one at a time, eliminating the need for full page duplications, but this method is a surefire way to quickly and easily enhance your complex information.

You can achieve the same effect using full screen Photoshop images (above), by saving each step of the build as separate images and importing them into PowerPoint. Or, conversely, you can duplicate the image several times and crop out the part that you don’t want to see on the early build slides.

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Speaking Tips
Organizing Your Speech
By Beverly Cohen, Communications Specialist of The Presentation Team

What’s the difference between a speech that leaves your audience hanging on every word…and a speech that leaves your audience asleep?  Organization!  A speech is worthless if your audience can’t follow its message. A well-organized speech is effective because it makes sense to the audience and is easy to follow. 

Like a well-written story, a solid speech leads the audience smoothly and logically to a clearly defined goal.  Every well-organized speech has the following elements: 

1. It has a beginning.  Start with an attention-grabber that involves the audience. It can be a question, a quote, or a challenge.

2   It has a middle with a logical sequence.  Tell the story with a sequence that’s chronological, general to specific, or specific to general.

3.  It has an ending.  The audience always remembers best what it hears last, so make it memorable.  Tell them what you just told them, summarize the highlights, and tie it in to the beginning.

Another hallmark of well-organized speeches is that they are highly focused in their message.  Keep your focus to just a few main points.  Stick to the subject.  And make the transitions smooth so the ideas flow easily from one to another.  Try these simple steps to help organize your next speech: 

• Define your purpose.
• Write your speech on index cards, with one idea on each card.  These can be grouped, shuffled and rearranged until you have the sequence you want.
• Eliminate anything that does not explain expand or illustrate your main purpose.

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Success Stories
Presentation helps James B. Pirtle Construction win $40M school design-build contract

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Coming in August

Speaking Tips: Overcoming stagefright
PowerPointers: Keeping the eyes moving

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