You need to be creative when pitching ideas to potential investors or presenting a project to your employees. You want to capture their attention especially when the discussion could go on for quite some time. Using slides as visual aids will help you during the presentation. Instead of having their eyes on you all the time, the people in the room could look at the information you present. Some of them might not follow you, and it helps if they can refer to what you show on screen. Remember these tips as you start preparing the slides for your presentation.
Keep everything simple
Although there are tons of designs available for you, make sure that you do not feel tempted to use them. You are creating slides and not an art project. If you start using complicated designs, they might not be visually appealing anymore. Besides, you are dealing with adults and not kids.
Limit the use of text
Slides are essential for summarising information. They do not need to be wordy since it will make no difference if the people in the room are listening to you. It helps if people can get the gist by looking at the bullet points on the screen.
Use high-quality graphics
You want the visuals to be sharp for everyone to see and captivate their attention. If the graphics look dry and dull, no one will feel interested in looking at them.
Use appropriate font style and size
You want everyone in the room to see what you are presenting. It does not matter how many people are attending your presentation. You need to use a font that is big enough for everyone to see. It also helps if you use a projector mount to ensure that the people at the back will not have a difficult time viewing the presentation.
Use the right blend of colours
It helps if you are creative in using colours when doing the slides. You want to capture the interest of the people without making them feel distracted. You also need to think about your brand. You want colours that are similar to your brand to keep reminding people of what you stand for.
Find charts that are worth presenting
Using charts instead of speaking all the time is an excellent way to speed things up. The problem is that people might misinterpret charts, especially if they did not follow what you said. If you need to decrease the size of the text in the chart to highlight the graphic, it might be even more difficult to comprehend. You need to look at charts that are relevant to your presentation and are easy to understand.
You need to visit the meeting room to check if the slides you prepared will look great. If you experience problems with this step, you still have enough time to make changes. Do not wait until the final presentation to check what you did or else you will not have any more time to edit things.