Visuals aids play a big part in public speeches and business presentations. Through visual aids, the presenter will enjoy easy access of information needed during the speech. This will give the presenter more time to concentrate on how the data is presented and interact with the audience.
Tools in public speeches can cause success as much as they can cause failure. While your visual aids could help you give information packed speech, you might end up giving a boring speech. What you might do is merely concentrate on what was written instead of interacting with the audience to provoke interaction. Visual aids should be properly used so that it can become a tool for a better presentation instead of additional burden during presentation.
General Visual Aid Tips
While there are many things you could do with visuals aids in public speeches, there are few things that you should avoid doing with your visual aids:
• Do not choose a single person to read the presentation – you can read some information on your presentation but do not choose one person to read the presentation. Your audience knows how to read and the person reading might not provide the same enthusiasm as you have.
• Avoid too many flying texts – for computer aided presentation, avoid confusing your audience with too many effects on your text. Flying texts are hard to read and effects do not provide any significant message in your presentation.
• Do not allow the aid to take over – this can happen especially when you have too many data in your presentation. Instead of controlling the data through visual aids, your movements will be limited.
• Avoid looking at the visual aid – constantly facing your visual aid instead of your audience means that you are not familiar with the visual aid.
Computer Generated vs. Flip Charts
There are basically two types of visual aids: the computer generated and the flip charts or any presentation aid that’s not computer generated. These mediums have advantage and disadvantages to the presented. To choose the right medium, consider the size of your audience. Flip charts are feasible when you don’t have a large audience while computer aided presentation could be improved with a projector for larger audience.
Using Flip Charts
As already indicated, flip charts are highly recommended for small business presentations or when you have a chart that is large enough for everyone to see. The advantage of flip charts is that you can write on top of the data written for additional information.
Flip charts will require you to be clear in your writing. Since this presentation could be manually written, write in bold letters in black for everyone to see.
Computer Generated Presentation
Technology has greatly aided public speeches. Through technology, the user can now speak to millions worldwide in real time. Visual presentation has also greatly improved through technology. Computer applications now allow everyone to create stunning visual presentations.
But just like any tools in public speech, computer aided presentation will only work if you are able to use the technology to your advantage. Before you decide to use your computer for presentation, make sure that you have the right equipment.
For a better presentation, consider the following tips:
• Use bullet points – they are easier to understand compared to full sentences.
• Readable text – bold, large letters is a must especially when you are talking to a large crowd.
• Use readable colors – if you really want to use additional colors in some text, use dark colors so they could be read even from a distance.
• Be conservative on graphs – if you want to use graphs and charts in your presentation, limit the variables for improved visibility.
• The right number of slides – avoid using too much slides because it can easily bore the audience. Just have the right number of slides so that it could be educational and even entertaining.
Controlling the Presentation
Always remember that visual aids are just tools. While you may impress the audience with your familiarity with the latest in technology, your presentation will be stale if you do not know how to use it. Practice your presentation, know each slide that you present and let the audience see the presentation clearly for an impressive public speech.
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