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Without passion, a presentation can turn into the proverbial nightmare. Especially when you are presenting a new idea to a group that has always done things the same way, and isn’t really looking for any new way to do anything. Still, if you are an innovative and inventive type of person it is hard for you to be involved in a group that refuses to progress forward.

There is nothing wrong with you; the problem is within the stagnation of the status quo running the organization. So what can you do, you ask?

Well let me explain how to present a new concept or innovation to the status quo, and why your passion, energy, and strength of character is needed to see this through. First of all, you must realize there will be people in the group that are not interested in anything you say, they don’t even want to be there listening to a new idea. You must not dwell on this or spend your time looking at these people and trying to convince them, you can’t, and they won’t change.

Also, you should not spend your time talking to people who agree with you and looking them in the eyes while giving your presentation, they are already on board and all you need to do is smile at them once in a while when giving your presentation. They are already on your team and will vote if it comes down to a vote for your new concept or innovation.

The people you need to concentrate on are those people who are on the fence, who perhaps make up portions of the leadership of the organization, but also generally go along with the flow and the general consensus of the group. They can be your change-makers and it makes sense to gear your talk and presentation towards them. I hope you will consider this advice and good luck in presenting.

You may want to customize a slide show for a particular audience. Rather than randomly hiding slides for a particular audience you could create three different versions of a presentation inside the same file. One may contain slides suitable for your clients; other custom view might contain slides suitable for new starters and a third senior management. The core presentation might be the same but displaying different levels of detail and nuance to suit.

Don’t forget to add visual effects for moving from one slide to another.

You may want to create a transition effect as your presentation moves from one slide to another. As well as transition effects between slides you may want to add either standard or custom animation effects on the slide. Imagine you were an oil company and wanted to show each of your new rigs flying in from different directions in a predefined sequence.

Why not consider adding action buttons to the slide that can be invoked during the presentation.
You could add links to graphics on your slides to add links to another slide, slide show, or Web page. Other links might be made to Excel spreadsheets, Visio drawings or Word documents
Set up a presentation to run automatically.

PowerPoint also can be setup so that all or part of the slide show can be shown automatically on timers. Once the presentation reaches the last slide it can then be programmed to start again from the beginning.

Short Cuts

PowerPoint provides a wide array of shortcuts for use during presentations. For example 7 and enter would take you back to slide seven.

To prompt questions at the end leave your conclusion slide visible, so that your audience can refer to it. You can bet that your audience will want you to go back to a few of your slides so you should have a handy list of likely slide numbers so you can quickly access the requested slide.

Do create speaker notes and handouts to back up your presentation. PowerPoint can print the slides in miniatures to hand out to the audience or as speaker notes to prompt the speaker.

You must pack up a presentation to run on another computer. A presenter should take good care if they are displaying the presentation on a remote site to ensure that they copy not just the PowerPoint file but all the linked files and fonts that make up the finished products. If need be you can also copy and bring with you a PowerPoint viewer just in case the machine you are running your presentation on does not have a copy of PowerPoint installed.

Beware of Networks and unpredictable Internet Connections. In general it’s good advice to disconnect from the Internet. While you are presenting, there is no requirement to have a network connection you can copy all the files you require to a local directory. Similarly unless you intend to show to show a web site or disconnect network cables and disable wireless connectivity. Don’t take a chance on your computer deciding to download software updates, display unexpected instant messages, or alerting you to the arrival of new mail.

Know your venue. If your venue is offering light pens, dimming options on lighting and a wireless Mouse check then all work and rehearse how to use them. Better still make sure that you have the number of the support person if it all goes wrong. Have a plan B. If the projector bulb blows have paper copies or transparencies at hand.