Do your
presentations (and your team's presentations) sell ideas,
products or services effectively to decision makers? Could
they be better? You
are not alone in feeling frustrated at why
your presentations aren't
clear, succinct and visually interesting. You've
tried presentation skills training and PowerPoint technical
training,
but you aren't seeing the effective PowerPoint presentations you need
to see. There is a solution. Dave Paradi is my name and my Think
Outside The Slide™ seminars and workshops bridge the gap
between presentation skills and technical skills training. I
show presenters how to think through the structure of their
presentation, design attractive slides, create the
visuals that will clearly communicate the
critical information needed to make decisions and present the
slides in a way that leads the audience to the conclusion you want them
to come to. Many sales, technical and financial
professionals
struggle with presentations that are best described as "data dumps"
that leave audiences more confused. I show presenters the
power of the "How is this important to my audience?" perspective when
evaluating the data in their presentation. This approach
results in visuals that are clear and deliver the critical information
decision makers are looking for.
A
Think Outside The Slide™
workshop will show you and your team how to create persuasive visuals
that effectively sell ideas, products and services to professionals and
executives. The
cause of most poor presentations you see is that the presenter has not
been shown how to strategically use visuals to
communicate a message. Presentation skills training shows
them how to stand and speak and technical training shows them every
feature of the software. But neither shows them how to think
about what visuals they should produce to communicate their message.
"Your offering provides a unique learning experience in an area not covered by traditional presentation or application training. This workshop has filled a huge void in PSE&G's training program. The helpful hints and tips you provided and the demonstrations of several lesser known PowerPoint tools and techniques are very useful to us. Many of us have already been experimenting with these new techniques at our desks. I have received nothing but complements and praise from those in my group who attended the workshop." - Tony Licata, PSE&G, Newark, NJ
Your organization or department is unique, so every seminar is customized to exactly what your staff needs to learn. I incorporate before and after examples of your organization's own slides so that the material is immediately applicable. Your staff will know why changes were made so they can use best practices in every new presentation. Full-day workshops cover:
- What Annoys
Audiences – avoid the problems identified by over 600
audience members so people don’t tune out when you present
- Presentation
Structure – the seven steps that will ensure your
presentation delivers a clear and organized message
- Slide Design
– How to select colors, fonts and layouts that enhance your
slides
- Principles
of Persuasion – Applying the research on persuasion to the
development of slides so we can create visuals that persuade people to
action
- Slide
Content:
- Text Slides
– how to create crisp, concise text slides so we avoid the
overloaded text slides that annoy audiences
- The KWICK
Method of creating persuasive visuals – five steps that will
transform the usual text only slides into visuals that more effectively
make your point:
- Key Point
– how to analyze data and determine the headline for each
slide so the slide message is clear from the top; why radio station
WIMTT should be the #1 station in your office
- Words that
suggest a visual – recognize the words or phrases to look for
that suggest which powerful visual you should choose for the slide
- In Context
– best practices for creating different types of visuals
(like graphs, diagrams and photos) so that each visual is clean,
uncluttered and connects with the audience
- Crystal
Clear – how to make the point of the visual stand out clearly
so that there is no doubt what your point is
- Keep Focus
– use animation and other techniques to focus the audience on
your message when you present
- Slide
Delivery – tips from the pros on setting up for the
presentation, delivering the slides, handling problems if they occur
and ending your presentation in a way that results in action
The most popular half-day session focuses on the Principles of Persuasion and Slide Content sections of the program. It is ideal for groups who are looking for specific suggestion on how to make their presentations sell ideas, products and services more effectively to decision makers.
Click here to watch Dave speak about the need for visual slides instead of overloaded text slides.
All sessions include
plenty of examples and exercises to apply the concepts.
I prefer to use examples of your own slides
so that the participants see the ideas applied in their own context and
they
are able to implement the ideas immediately.
This results in a very high Return on Investment in a
short period of
time.
"Dave diligently customizes his presentation to his audience's needs."
- Diane Nossem, Marketing Communications Manager, Holland Capital“Effective, clear, concise tools that I can and will use to create powerful presentations – Thanks” – Virginia Dennis, Mental Health Association
Why should you
schedule a Think Outside The Slide™ seminar?
Here are the top five reasons that organizations such as PSE&G,
Bank of Montreal, Nikon Optical, the Professional Association of
Investment Communications Resources, the Medical Marketing Association
and others (Click
here to see a list of organizations who have benefited from my ideas)
have hired me to deliver this session.
- A customized session ensures every participant receives the information they need to go back to their job and make immediate improvements to their presentations.
- My "Practical not Technical" approach makes technology useful and results in a high Return on Investment for this training session.
- My philosophy on presentations is that "it is about the audience, not about the presenter or the slides". In the seminar I explain how the audience is impacted by what the presenter does and says. This allows participants to apply the knowledge in new and different situations in the future.
- My belief that "Clear is more important than Cool" cuts out the wacky slide antics and pulls the real points out that support the message.
- Being an author of "Guide to PowerPoint" in an MBA book series establishes me as an expert that professionals will take advice from. Professionals respect my opinions because they are based in research and tested in real business presentations. Click here to see my full bio.
"Just a note to thank you for the excellent presentation on PowerPoint you delivered. The many tips you described led me to reformat all the slides in my seminar. I consider myself very adept at PowerPoint, however, the ideas you introduced have significantly enhanced my slides. Great job!" - Bryan Walton, CentreLine Publications, Toronto, ON
Not a manager or leader who has the authority to schedule a workshop? Not to worry. Click here to e-mail me your manager's name and I'll call them. If you could benefit, chances are so could your colleagues. Or e-mail me the name of a conference you'll be attending and I'll contact the organizer to see if they want to schedule a pre or post-conference workshop.
Who will benefit from a Think Outside The Slide™ session?
If you and your staff create, modify or deliver PowerPoint presentations, you need the Think Outside the Slide™ seminar. This seminar is valuable for:
- Sales professionals who want to improve the presentations that lead to more business
- Managers or supervisors who present information to superiors or employees
- Business owners who deliver sales and financial presentations
- Analysts and Specialists who inform others or seek approval for projects
- Support staff who prepare presentations that others deliver
Every participant leaves with a detailed handout and most organizations also provide a copy of my MBA text book "Guide to PowerPoint" to ensure that the ideas are used on the job.
"Your workshop presentation was extremely well received and very applicable to the group. Being one of the participants in the group, the information you provided was immediately applicable to my business. You also have the ability to share some of the technical components in an "easy to understand" and enjoyable manner. Your solid expertise shone through in your workshop and contributed to the overwhelming success of our Conference!"
Ingrid Norrish, Conference Education Co-Chair, Independent Meetings Planners Association of Canada
Think Outside the Slide™ presentation training can be delivered in a half-day seminar format or a full-day workshop format. Click here to e-mail me and start planning your Think Outside the Slide™ session or call me at (905) 510-4911.
Looking for an alternative to a live session? Click here to find out more about my web training delivery option.
Workshop recording now available! I recorded the workshop I did in Seattle in September 2007 and you can now purchase the entire workshop recording. Want to get a preview? Click here to watch an 8 minute segment on why presenters should use visuals instead of text. Click here to see the index of topics covered. Then click here to order the whole workshop recording for only $199.