CUT Newsletter by Dave Paradi of ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com Vol. 5 Issue 8 Apr 18, 2006 Published & Copyright by Dave Paradi
In this issue: Introducing my PowerPoint Ideas blog Notice of Leadership event in Toronto, ON PowerPoint Tip - Adding audio clips to your presentation Dave's Travel Schedule Reminder of Infocomm Presentation Professional survey Public seminars in Chicago May 31st
Dave's PowerPoint Ideas Blog You have probably heard a lot about blogs, online journals that are becoming more popular because they are easy to update and people can use a news reader or feed accumulator to pull information that they want to read without getting caught in e-mail filters. I have recently set up my own blog where I will share my latest ideas and thoughts on PowerPoint presentations. You can see it and subscribe at: http://pptideas.blogspot.com .
Notice of Leadership event in Toronto, ON I am helping to organize a great leadership training event close to Toronto, ON on May 5th. This week is the last week for early bird pricing, so if you want to hear some great speakers, like Patrick Lencioni, Tim Sanders, John Maxwell, Peyton Manning and Kathy Ireland (BTW, you can learn a lot about presenting by watching those who do it well), check out the info at http://www.max-impact.ca .
PowerPoint Tip - Adding Audio Clips to Your Presentation Last issue we talked about video in your presentation, this issue we will cover audio clips. First, when would you want to use an audio clip over a video clip? Well, sometimes you can't get a video clip because of the circumstances or because you don't have the equipment at hand. Also, sometimes it is the sound and not the visual that is important, like when using a clip from a radio show or noise from nature. And sometimes you want to use music which doesn't require any visual with it. So, what do you need to be concerned with when wanting to use audio. First, the quality of the clip is critical because when amplified, any distortion in the sound will be magnified. Get the best quality clip you can find. Second, save the audio in either the WMA (Windows Media Audio) format or the popular MP3 format. Both are high quality compressed formats that work well in PowerPoint. Don't use WAV files unless it is a very short clip since WAV files tend to be quite large. Next, make any edits to the audio clip before you insert it in the slide. The program I use is Audacity, which can be downloaded for no charge and handles WAV and MP3 files. One edit that I often make to audio files is to fade the sound out at the end of the clip over one to two seconds instead of the sound stopping abruptly at the end of the clip. This makes it sound more professional and Audacity can do this easily. If you want to use music, make sure you have a license to do so (from organizations such as SOCAN, ASCAP or BMI) or you are using royalty free music that allows you to perform the song in public as part of your presentation. Finally, after you insert an audio clip on your slide, set the various options that allow you to control when the clip plays, whether it repeats or not and whether it continues when you move to the next slide. The next time you are using an audio clip or music in your presentation, remember these tips that will make it smoother to incorporate and use.
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Dave's Travel Schedule You can save money by booking me to speak to your organization or conference when I am close to your area for other clients. Here's where I will be in the next few months: May 17-18 Chicago, IL May 19-21 Hanover, NH May 31-June 2 Chicago, IL June 9-11 Detroit, MI/Windsor, ON June 14 Indianapolis, IN (tentative) June 16-20 Toronto, ON July 20-25 Orlando, FL August 24 Toronto, ON E-mail me at Dave@ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com to discuss your upcoming event.
Infocomm Presentation Professional Survey A final reminder to participate in the InfoComm International’s Presentation Professional Survey where you can see how you compare to other presentation professionals. All participants will receive the survey results by e-mail and their choice of a collection of PowerPoint templates, or a Corel Presentations master or an Apple Keynote theme. And you may win one of five $50 Amazon gift certificates. The survey is available at http://www.surveypro.com/TakeSurvey?id=18853 until April 28, 2006. Contact marketresearch@infocomm.org with questions.
See me live May 31st in Chicago On May 31st I'll be delivering two short seminars as part of the Medical Marketing Association conference in Chicago. They have agreed to allow any of my subscribers to register for the seminars without having to register for the conference. If you want to get more great ideas on PowerPoint usage, check out the info at: http://www.mmanet.org/program_events/conference.cfm .
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