1. Don’t clutter the slides with everything you know
2. Don’t say to the audience, “I know you cannot read this, but…”
3. Don’t include info on your slides that is irrelevant to the one message you are trying to convey
4. Don’t write out your script in your slides
5. Don’t put anything on your slides that you can’t explain
6. Don’t turn your back to the audience in order to face the big screen
7. Don’t manually advance the slides, thus forcing you to remain tethered to the computer
8. Don’t fill your slides only with text – also use graphics
9. Don’t present someone else’s slides
10. Don’t let arbitrary limits on the number of slides you can have prevent you from using as many slides as you need to convey your content clearly within your time limit
11. Don’t forget that you are the presentation and your slides are only the visual aid
12. Don’t let the slides get in the way of your presentation or interfere with your ability to connect with your audience
© Gilda Bonanno LLC - Gilda Bonanno serves as a trusted advisor to executives and entrepreneurs to transform their communication, presentation and leadership skills. She has worked with companies on 4 continents, from Chicago to Shanghai and Rio to Rome. The instructional videos on her YouTube channel have received over 2 million views and her e-newsletter has reached subscribers in over 45 countries since 2008. For other articles or to receive Gilda's e-newsletter, visit www.gildabonanno.com