The appearance of a presentation starts and finishes with you. You are the one on your feet - you must look the part (see appearance under interviews). If you lack credibility due to clothing, grooming or personal hygiene, you are finished before you begin.

The appearance and layout of the room can also have a large impact on your presentation. If you are not happy with the seating, positioning of projector and screen or any other furniture, ask and then move it.

As to your visual aids:

	If you are going to use a flip-chart, sketch in your material using light pencil. This will ensure that you don't forget anything and will tremendously improve your layout.
	For overhead transparencies, use Flip Frames ® or some similar covers to give a neat appearance to the edges of your slides. (Frames can also be a useful place to jot notes.)
	If you are using an overhead projector, ensure that the bulbs are working (carry a spare!) that the lenses and mirrors are spotlessly clean and that the screen is angled forward at the top to give a true, flat image - otherwise you will get a distorted 'keystone' effect.
	Fill the screen - vary your font sizes so that you don't have a small number of words lost in the middle of the slide. If you only need a few words to convey your message, use a great big font.
	If you are building to an important point, you should not reveal the entire slide at once. Your audience will read ahead and your impact will be gone. Mask off an overhead transparency with a Post-it note. For 35mm slides, you will need to make a series of build slides. Computer projector technology allows you to use the build tools in your presentation software.
	A picture paints a thousand words ....
	Use classy, simple colours. The graphics experts tell us that flat backgrounds are hard on the eye - use gradated colours (blue to black or similar) and above all, AVOID using the generic templates that come with your presentation software.

For a tailored consultation on maximising the impact of your presentations, contact us.