Effective Presentation Techniques #1 – Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something Different

Don’t be afraid to try something different. It pays to think different from the herd.

For the final project during the Business-Smart IT Applications course, Vinayak and I were assigned the McDonald’s IT mega-failure case. The objective was to research the case and present a case analysis via a presentation. If you are interested, you can download some reading material here.

This was the presentation we came up with. The background and a few images appear distorted; I guess it’s a processing problem with slideshare.net.



Here’s what we did different for this presentation:

• On slide 2: We used a single image covering the entire slide. This unorthodox approach instantly captured the audience’s attention and was very effective in building up the story.
• On slides 3, 4, and 5: We used quotes to effectively illustrate the magnitude of the failure.
• We varied the font size and font color within a single sentence to highlight key facts. This helps your audience to zero-in on what is really important.
• While speaking, we would pause for a second to stress on key words such as “most expensive,” “mega,” etc. I recommend that you practice voice modulation in front of a mirror before unleashing it in public.
• The opportunity presented, we used expressions such as “It’s what we call a beautiful lie” for maximum impact. This was an expression I had read the previous week in a book titled “Traders, Guns, and Money.” It really pays to be well read.

The result: A perfect 25/25.