TheRodinhoods

“B” in PowerPoint – Secret sauce of Master Chefs

The secret to the great recipes of Master Chefs are little secrets rather than some grand techniques. There is chef in the ITC hotel whose cheese preparations are so good that people come to taste from them all over India. The secret to his cheeseballs-to-die for is the sourcing of cheese from a particular village in Belgium. Similarly, there are little known gems in power point that master Presenters use.  I will share one such little known power point gem than can make a big impact to your presentations.  Have you ever used the B Button while making power point presentations?

 While you are making a presentation, the attention of the presenter should be mainly on the Presentation rather than the PowerPoint . The PowerPoint is there to support the presentation by illustrating the points, graphics and charts . But there could be times during  the presentation when the presenter wants the audience to focus on her rather than the PowerPoint. One such example is persuading audience with emotions. Effective speakers use emotions more than logic and data when it comes to persuasion. Emotions can be better demonstrated by the presenter using voice modulation and  body language rather than PowerPoint slides.  The PowerPoint slides are likely to make atleast a part of the audience look at the slides of focusing on the presenter. So, the best way to ensure that the attention is not divided is by simply switching off the PowerPoint during parts of the presentation where the audience needs to focus on the presenter.

 Fortunately, there is a very simple way and discreet way of doing it. There is no need to resort to a hard switch off. Just press the B button when PowerPoint is in slide show mode (which is typically the mode when presentation is being made ) .  In order to get back to the PowerPoint mode, simply, press any key and the slide resumes. 

Before delivery of the presentation, some amount of planning is needed. The presenter needs to decide where she would like to display the PowerPoint and where to switch it off.

Being a great presenter is an important skill for an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are all the time trying to persuade people with their ideas.  PowerPoint presentation is the most frequently used tool to present the ideas. Successful entrepreneurs like Steve Jobs were masters at the art of presentation. Mastery is possible by continuously adding new tips and techniques  like the one above to your presentation arsenal.