Engage Your Audience with Multimedia -- Without Losing Yourself by Ruby Newell-Legner

By Ruby Newell-Legner, CSP

This article was originally printed in Professional Speaker Magazine, October 2001

It all started five years ago, when I was looking for a way to enhance an orientation for the Recreation Facility Design and Management School. Recreation is my niche market and every summer, over 100 decision-makers come to Colorado from around the world to visit our state-of-the-art recreation facilities. We tour 16 sites in four days, and I was in charge of the orientation.

We had a lot to cover and not much time to do it, so I decided to design a multimedia presentation using Microsoft PowerPoint. This was my big chance to demonstrate my expertise in the market, while exhibiting my skills as a presenter. It was the first time I used multimedia when speaking. I had never used PowerPoint. I borrowed a laptop, convinced a local company to let me showcase their LCD projector, and created my presentation all in seven days.

Learn from experience. Give yourself time to learn how to use the software and hardware you choose. Take a class on PowerPoint, or your software of choice, so you don't have to learn every lesson by trial and error. Taking the time to learn and practice is essential to success. Although I learned many valuable lessons that week, the learning curve doesn't have to be quite that painful.

Since that first presentation five years ago, I've presented over 750 programs using PowerPoint and I'd like to share some tips to help you incorporate multimedia in your presentations. One note before we start: I always use Microsoft PowerPoint, because I am familiar with it. There are many other fine software programs that incorporate multimedia into presentations, such as Harvard Graphics, Astound, Macromedia Flash and others. Choose the technology you are comfortable with and make it work for you!

Use technology to support, not overtake, your presentation.
In the beginning, I thought it was all about making my slide show the thing. Now I know that PowerPoint is a valuable tool that can enhance presentations, not replace them. People don't come to hear you speak because of a multimedia slide show; they come to hear what you have to say.

It is important to touch all the participants senses, appeal to each of the different learning styles, entertain the audience, present a clear message in a unique format, and maintain a fast pace. Using PowerPoint as a support tool, you can do all of those things. You can also change delivery methods every 20 minutes to keep your audiences attention. Tell stories, emphasize a specific point, display a list, show a graph, or use movie clips, sound clips or music files. All these modalities enhance learning, keep it lively and support your message.

Be innovative without creating distractions.
Early on, I used every bell and whistle available with the software. The audience was impressed with the multimedia but didn't hear what I had to say. Mesmerizing transitions -- the effect between slides -- and builds -- the way in which the words appear on the slide -- can distract the audience. Instead, choose one style of build and one style of transition, and your audience will pay attention to what you have to say, not the coolness of your PowerPoint presentation.

Use technology to take your presentation to the next level. Once you've mastered the basics of PowerPoint, you will be able to incorporate multimedia features to further enhance your presentation. For example, when participants are given an assignment or a writing task, play what I call thinking music. The music is imbedded into a PowerPoint slide, just like a piece of clip art, so when you're ready to continue, just move to the next slide.

Adding a game is another idea that works. With the increased popularity of Who Wants to be a Millionaire?game shows are back in the limelight. You can use a computer and an LCD projector to create a game to review information. A great resource for this is www.learningware.com. On that Web site, you will find Jeopardy®-style games like Gameshow Pro 3and Is that your Final Answer?gameshows, which engage students in the material and promote a fun learning environment. Games can provide a powerful and successful method to reinforce learning for adults.

My latest multimedia addition kicks off my programs. I designed a movie that shows digital pictures of all the places I've visited around the world. This production was inspired by David Zach, MS, the futurist, whom I had read about. He believes one of the best secrets to his success on the platform is a QuickTime movie created by students at a local design school especially for him. It plays before he speaks to reinforce his message.

The U.S. Military unveiled a phenomenal on-screen energizer recently at a big training program for the Morale, Welfare and Recreation Division. Before the program, event organizers took digital pictures of the 200 individuals who attended the training. As participants entered the auditorium, a multimedia show was running that featured each of the attendees. Everyone watched to see his or her picture as it came up! The slideshow was created using PhotoParade Maker® by the Callisto Corporation (www.PhotoParade.com. Their creative software provides us with an effortless way to turn digital photos into entertaining slideshows.

As a caution, whatever presentation software you choose, don't overdo the enhancements. Sound effects, movies and graphics must support the message, not distract from it. Speaking of distractions, a remote mouse makes it easy to advance slides without having to go to your laptop. After using an infrared mouse for five years, I am now experimenting with a radio frequency mouse that allows me to freely move around the room.

Be unique.
Most presenters choose the stock PowerPoint backgrounds. For example, speakers frequently use that blue shaded one (you know the one). What many speakers don't know is that you can have a design firm create backgrounds that are unique to you. Personalize your slide show. Of course, you can add the client's logo to the master slide and use it throughout the presentation and use the client's colors. It's important to make sure the words are easy to read against the background so the audience doesn't have to strain.

Another great resource for backgrounds is www.digitaljuice.com. Their premier software, Digital Juice, includes a collection of 50,000 high-quality color graphics and animated moving backgrounds along with photographs, video clips and textures. This tool will help you spend more time delivering powerful presentations rather than creating them.

Add value to what you offer your clients.
When asked to present at a conference, offer to do other pieces in addition to keynote or breakout session responsibilities. You can design a template for an awards slide show, for example, and simply copy the award names and the winner's names from an e-mail into the slide show template. Clients will appreciate that you added to their awards night and it gives you one more opportunity to help the meeting planner shine!

Add a finishing touch to your presentation.
At the end of the presentation, you can display a finisher slide with a request to visit your Web site or an invitation to attend your next session at a conference. I'm sure you've all seen a presenter advance beyond the final slide and display their desktop to the audience, simply because they weren't sure where they were in the presentation. This is like seeing how a magic trick is done. It takes all the fun out of it! The finisher slide is a visual cue to keep this from happening.

Make your slide show flexible by creating a cheat sheet.
Speakers often complain that PowerPoint is inflexible. Here's how you can overcome that obstacle. Create a one-page cheat sheet that lists the slide number and a one or two-word description of what is on that slide. Anytime you want to change the order of your slides, glance at your cheat sheet and type in the slide number of where you want to go and hit return. That command changes the slide on the screen to the one you typed in. This allows you to move easily in your presentation and is very helpful when a one-hour keynote is cut to 40 minutes at the last minute.

Cheat sheets also allow you to add information to a program. It is not uncommon for me to prepare a slide show of 150-200 slides for a three- to four-hour program. Don't get excited; I don't use them all. As I read the audience and see that some additional information would be useful, I can immediately go to that slide. Likewise, if they are really into a particular topic, I can add another activity to bring home that message; the flexibility is at my fingertips.

Here are additional resources that are both PC and Mac friendly:

For Training:
www.Learn2.com
www.WindowsAcademy.com
www.MacAcademy.com

To Select a Projector:
www.ProjectorCentral.com

For Software:
www.photoparade.com
www.quicktime.com
www.learningware.com

For Presentation Tools:
www.presentations.com

For Sound Libraries:
www.dailywav.com
www.soundamerica.com

For Royalty-Free Music:
www.musicbakery.com
www.freshmusic.com
www.uniquetracks.com
www.iamusic.com
www.Music2Hues.com
www.cssmusic.com

For Unique Backgrounds, Graphic Images, Video and Animation:
www.DigitalJuice.com
www.animfactory.com
www.eyewire.com

For 3D Animations:
www.rab-byte.com
www.presentationpro.com

For Slide Backgrounds:
www.powerbacks.com
www.presentationpro.com

For Royalty-Free Video Clips:
www.fourpalms.com
www.videobits.com
www.videometry.com
www.dgusa.com
www.livestockvideo.com
www.theperfectshot.com
www.cybereyes.com
www.quickfootage.com
www.stockmotion.com
www.artbeats.com
www.triangleimages.com
www.busybox.com
www.flixdisc.com
AOL Users - keyword Multimedia

For Royalty-Free Stock Image Search:
http://www.fotosearch.com

To schedule training or to see when Ruby will be presenting in your area, visit www.RubySpeaks.comor call Ruby's office in Littleton, Colorado at 303-933-9291

Ruby Newell-Legner, Certified Speaking Professional, is considered the pre-eminent Customer Satisfaction Expert in the Leisure Industry today. For over two decades Ruby has been helping organizations make exceptional customer service a way of life.