Stick with What you Know

I have a rule of never buy the first round of technology. Broke it last week when I bought the Droid. It doesn't sync with Outlook. I run my business with Outlook. So, back to the store it went and I bought the upgraded Blackberry Tour. Oh, so much happier!

Now I need to work on getting my recorded webinars edited so people can purchase, download and learn from them. However, the software I have is pretty limited and I only need to make a couple of quick edits. Should I purchase new software? Should I hire someone that actually knows what they are doing? I am thinking of leaning toward people help. Must get that into the budget and start making contacts.

I believe in letting the people that know what they are doing, do what they do best. Since I already learned from breaking one rule this past week, maybe I should pay attention to this one of sticking to what you know.

Take the Pitfalls out of Presenting with PowerPoint

I have seen a lot of really good presentations go bad with the use of automation. Here are some of the problems I have found:

• Presenters reading their screens (this is not a teleprompter)
• Information overload on the screen
• Animations for the sake of animating, just because you can
• Sloppy transitions between slides or other programs
• Presentations that need the room completely dark for anyone to see the screen
• Emails and automatic updates popping onto the screen
• Technology problems - can't get it to run!

I am sure there are many more, but these are some of the most common problems that I see out there and they don't have to happen. We have come to gather information and/or entertainment from your talk - so now we need you to deliver. There are some very simple rules to follow, easy ways to smoothly transition, and preparations you can take to avoid issues.

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Please feel free to share your tips and ideas regarding PowerPoint presentations here.