by Gilda Bonanno LLC www.gildabonanno.com
This is a great question - here's how I responded:
I love responding to reader's questions. Recently, a colleague who teaches in an MBA program emailed me the following question about the speaker moving in the front of the room while presenting slides:
"Several
students have walked across the room in front of their slides [while
presenting], and it has caused them to be bathed in "slide light." I
have suggested that they only move purposefully, for example, to shift to their
next point or tell a story. I also suggested that they black out their slides
when they do so, if they are using slides.
Anything
else you would add on moving from one side of the room to another?"
This is a great question - here's how I responded:
"You're "right on the money" regarding
walking in front of the room! Presenters should move with purpose - to walk to
the flipchart, to move to the other side of the room so they can face
that part of the audience more comfortably, etc. Most of the time they
should "stand and deliver" (as I was told by one of the Toastmasters
World Champions of Public Speaking, Mark Brown).
Blacking out the screen is a great idea to avoid
being "bathed in slide light." (I love the way she phrased that!).
Another option is to insert a black slide into your
presentation that will remind you when it's time to move (for example, to hand
something out or tell a story from the other side of the room). Just create a
blank slide and format it with a solid-fill black background - I learned this
tip from Garr Reynolds and his wonderful Presentation Zen blog www.presentationzen.com.
And if you are emailing the presentation to people
or it will be posted on a website, remember to remove the black slides or they
will confuse people and use up a lot of ink if printed."
Do
you have any additional suggestions or horror stories of "slides gone
bad"? Post them here on my blog - and feel free to post additional
questions for me to answer.
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Gilda Bonanno's blog www.gildabonanno.blogspot.com