Fall into the ... Brand.

As a senior in college, I have seen many powerpoints in my day. Powerpoints should not be used as a crutch for the presenter. They are an accessory to your presentation, the icing on the cake. Powerpoints are used to enhance the material being presented not put a damper on the presentation.
Think: Viva la bam!... not viva la boredom.

Being a Communications major, it is most important to appeal to yourself as well as your audience. The presentation consists of two aspects: the verbal and the visual. Perk up your voice and it immediately perks up the presentation. You need to amp up your presentation so the two correlate with one another. Strong use of visuals grabs the attention of the audience and keeps them focused on the message of the presentation.


One downside to this powerpoint was the amount of slides (170!). Although I was overwhelmed when I saw how many slides the presentation had, the more into the presentation I got I became wrapped up on their use of visuals and information the number did not matter. I was captured into learning about the brand world.

It can be overwhelming with more than 20 slides in a presentation. If you must add more slides than around 20, know it is perfectly acceptable to add slides with one or two visuals (if relevant to the topic at hand). Relevant tangents that come from these visuals are always welcome and give the audience more of an opportunity to connect with their audience and you, the presenter.

Keep your slides simple when it comes to adding visuals and texts. Have a few sentences or bullet points. Have confidence in elaborating off your main points. It is important to remind yourself if you are the one giving the presentation, you are the one in the room who knows this information the most. You have been the one doing the research and organizing the findings. You know the information so OWN your topic.

Varying the amount of slides with visuals and texts keeps the audience captivated with your message. It is important to pick a color scheme for the presentation to match the overall feel of the presentation. Color shows off your personality and the feel for how you want your presentation to be portrayed. For the presentation the presenter chose a black/white/grey color scheme. Using black/white/grey is a very crisp, clean design that coincides with the images used for the presentation.

I also found this helpful article with the top 10 tips and tricks for giving a successful presentation.