Presenting with Impact: How to Level up Your PowerPoint Skills in the Tech Industry

Intro

Creating engaging presentations is one of the most powerful skills in the tech industry as it is very flexible. Regardless if you’re climbing the corporate ladder or an entrepreneur, a good presentation ensures that you’ll take a step up in your career. Also, you'll be seen as an authority in the field you're presenting on.

In this article, we're going to explore ways to enhance your PowerPoint skills in the tech industry.

PowerPoint Slides: An Overview

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PowerPoint presentations are digital, slide-based presentations. To convey what you wish to tell to your audience, you have to break it down into many slides. You must treat each slide like a blank canvas for you to place words and images that aid in telling your story. Its functionalities are easy to grasp, making it user-friendly for beginners.

PowerPoint Slides also have advanced features that are used in high-end presentations. However, you’d want to educate yourself on those features through a PowerPoint course from Acuity Training to understand them better.

How to Elevate Your PowerPoint Skills?

Elevating the quality of your PowerPoint slides requires a set of methods to ensure that your presentation is of high quality. Aside from that, it will make your slides look very appealing to the viewer’s eyes, ensuring that they’ll be hooked on what you’ll present to them.

Here are the ways to elevate your PowerPoint skills to make quality presentations:

1. Form the Goal of Your Presentation

All engaging presentations require a foundation and that’s done by forming the objective of what you’ll present. What is your intent behind the presentation? Is it to inform? Is it to persuade them to try something new or is it a call to action?

2. Set up a Structure for Your PowerPoint Presentation

Once you have settled on a goal, the next way to level up your PowerPoint presentation skills is to use a structure. Your presentation must have a format from the start of the slideshow up to the end. Create an outline of your PowerPoint slideshow so you can have a solid foundation for its flow before moving on to the visuals & product presentation demos.

3. Use Slide Colors With High Contrast

For visuals, the first thing you’ll need to consider is how your slides will look. The ideal color combinations incline towards PowerPoint slides with high contrasts. Examples are slides with dark backgrounds such as a dark purple or a deep maroon color. Whereas the text is a bright or light color such as gold, yellow and white to make the text more visible.

To ensure that you’ll have an easier time coming up with unique contrasting color combinations, you can use a Contrast Calculator.

4. Utilize Fonts That Are Big Enough

The usual rule in engaging presentations is that the text must not be too large or too small. The text you’ll use must be around the range of 24 to 32-point size. Headings and titles use around 36 to 44-point size fonts. Take note that if your text is too small, your audience will have trouble reading and lose track of what you’re trying to convey.

Take note that the sizes presented here are the baseline, it would work in a smaller or medium room. But, if you are going to present inside a larger room, you would want to experiment with larger font sizes outside of what’s prescribed here.

5. Utilize Bullet Point Lists

Instead of using full sentences, you’d want to list down items through bullet points to present key ideas. Make sure not to overload bullets with information otherwise the message you’re trying to convey gets lost. Ideally, you’d want to follow the six-by-six guideline which is using no more than six words per bullet point and slides must not exceed six bullet points.

6. Lessen the Use of Animations

Stick to basic effects such as “Appear” where the text will just show up on the exact spot you’ve typed it at. Even though moving text and graphics may add a layer of personality to your presentation, at times they can be very distracting to the audience as well. Avoid animation effects that are too over-the-top.

7. Utilize Visual Aids Instead of Text if Possible

When necessary, you can use visual aids such as graphs and pie charts if you are presenting statistical data instead of text. It makes for very engaging presentations. People are more likely to get hooked to your presentation whenever they see a interactive presentation of the data you’re conveying.

Another form of visual aid that can increase audience engagement is illustrations. You can place images in your slides provided that they’re relevant to the topic.

Other Notes to Consider

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When you plan to make engaging presentations, you will need to consider a few additional notes so they can leave an impact. You’d want to ensure that your audience’s eyes and attention are glued to you and your presentation. Moreover, these points can help ensure that your message resonates with your audience.

1. Practice Coherence

Brand coherence is a very good way to keep your audience’s attention glued to you. You’d want to create a presentation that’s thematic and relevant to the industry you are affiliated with. The main advantage of this is that it builds trust and people will see you as an authority on the subject.

2. Use Brand Colors and Elements

To ensure your audience's awareness of what or whom you’re representing, integrate brand colors and elements in your slides. The slides can be a color scheme that’s based on your brand’s logo, etc.

You will need to consider brand guidelines when doing this, but when pulled off properly it fosters brand awareness among many people.

3. Try to Reduce the Fluff Present in your Presentation

Don’t lump too many words in your presentation because that’s an ingredient for the audience to get bored. Say too much and your viewer’s likely reaction is going to be a yawn. Declutter what’s presented in your PowerPoint presentation. Check and remove unnecessary images, excess bullet points, and fluff in the presentation.

Benefits of Powerpoint skills in Tech industry

1. Effective Communication

PowerPoint allows you to effectively communicate complex technical concepts, ideas, and project details to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. You can use visual aids, diagrams, and illustrations to simplify and clarify information, making it easier for your audience to understand.

2.Technical Presentations

In the tech industry, presentations are often crucial for showcasing software solutions, product demos, or explaining technical processes. PowerPoint enables you to create visually appealing slideshows with screenshots, code snippets, and diagrams, helping you deliver engaging and impactful presentations.

3. Collaboration and Teamwork

PowerPoint supports collaborative work within tech teams. You can collaborate with colleagues, engineers, and designers to create presentations, share ideas, and gather feedback. This collaboration helps in aligning the team's vision and achieving project goals effectively

4. Training and Documentation

PowerPoint is a valuable tool for creating training materials and documentation in the tech industry business. Whether you need to train employees on new software, document technical processes for onboarding, or create user manuals for clients, PowerPoint allows you to present information in a structured and visually engaging manner, enhancing the effectiveness of your training initiatives.

5. Project Proposals and Reporting

PowerPoint is useful for creating project proposals, showcasing technical specifications, and reporting on project progress in the context of business. You can present project timelines, milestones, budgets, and deliverables to stakeholders, helping them understand the technical aspects and make informed decisions that align with business objectives.

6. Job Interviews and Career Advancement

Strong PowerPoint skills can be advantageous during job interviews and career advancement opportunities within the tech industry business. You can use PowerPoint to create a visually appealing portfolio, showcase your technical expertise, and effectively communicate your achievements and ideas to potential employers or clients, demonstrating your business acumen along with your technical proficiency.

7. Technical Sales and Marketing:

In the tech industry business, PowerPoint is often utilized for sales and marketing purposes. Whether you are presenting a software solution to a client or showcasing technical features to a potential customer, PowerPoint can help you create persuasive presentations that highlight the business value and benefits of your product, ultimately driving sales and business growth

Tune up your Presentation and Present with Skill!

Creating and presenting PowerPoint slides are a great way to level up your career. To ensure that you’ll reap the benefits, you will need to use the methods to elevate the quality of your presentation. You’d want to ensure that your audience will keep their eyes on your slides and realize their value.

They'll regard you as an authority in your field, enhancing your brand's reputation.