The ultimate presentation

Designing presentations has always been fun. Normally we write, add, delete, edit and finally arrive at what seems to be our best effort. This is after losing a night's sleep and sipping lots of coffee. What makes the presentation, which is a 10 minute affair in most cases, so important? What should it contain to attract attention and drive home your point? Lets see...

• Make is as visually appealing as possible
• Use fewer words(best presentations have 40 words in 10 slides)
• Check each slide, header, point if it is absolutely necessary
• Avoid repetitions
• 'Create' the template yourself or check for an apt one
• Deliver it yourself dynamically
• High energy, movement, attitude, dress... everything matters
• Lend your personality to the presentation (it always contributes. Why not shape it?)
• Get a critical view before you actually present
• Practice, rehearse
• Smile

Have a lot of confidence in the topic and area of presentation. You are ready to rock!

How good is your Support Team?

Any event to be successful needs many inputs from many people. Those on the stage and those off it. The ones on the stage are alwyas recognized but the latter are ignored. Most of the times they make it to a line in the 'vote of thanks' speech. But the contribution is much more than that.

I was at Manipal Institute of Management, Manipal to participate in the International Conference on "Harnessing Entrepreneurial Potential of Women for Economic Growth" organized by Manipal Institute of Management, Manipal held during January 22-24, 2009. I presented a paper co-authored with my Prof. Chowdari Prasad, Professor of Finance & Registrar, Alliance Business School, Bangalore on 'Women Entrepreneurs and Networking'.


There were 30 student volunteers from BBM and MBA batches of MIM and the way they conducted the event was amazing. All of them were very eager to help, always smiling and proactive. The work day was almost 16 hours, included running up and down 3 floors around 3 rooms, handling around 250 people from different locations, faculty, press, judges and guests. It was an event of perfection, thanks to them and wouldn't have been a success if they had not put in the extra effort and passion into what they were doing. This impressed me.

In a world full of escapists, it's rare to find such commitment and passion. If you have the support staff of this character, DON'T lose them. If you don't, you know what to do. A good support staff/team is the backbone to the success of any venture.