Often in the corporate presentations I analyze for my workshops, I encounter spreadsheets copied onto the slide. It usually results in far too many numbers being on the slide, and leads to the audience being overwhelmed by detail. It is not uncommon when I suggest alternative visuals, I get the response…
Author: Dave Paradi
Dave Paradi has over twenty-two years of experience delivering customized training workshops to help business professionals improve their presentations. He has written ten books and over 600 articles on the topic of effective presentations and his ideas have appeared in publications around the world. His focus is on helping corporate professionals visually communicate the messages in their data so they don't overwhelm and confuse executives. Dave is one of fewer than ten people in North America recognized by Microsoft with the Most Valuable Professional Award for his contributions to the Excel, PowerPoint, and Teams communities. His articles and videos on virtual presenting have been viewed over 4.8 million times and liked over 17,000 times on YouTube.
What top leaders do when requesting staff to create a presentation
Merge Gupta-Sunderji asked me write an article for leaders on “When asking your staff to prepare slides for you, which type of leader are you?” In the article I explain what typical leaders do and what top performing leaders do when requesting slides from their staff. Typical leaders waste a lot of their staff and…
CPABC Course: Hands-on Tools and Techniques for Creating Effective Financial Visuals in Excel and PowerPoint (July 6, 2016; Vancouver, BC)
OBJECTIVE Anyone can create effective visuals. A background in graphics is not needed. This course will show participants how to create visuals such as: clear, effective graphs in Excel or PowerPoint; diagrams that show comparison of value in new ways; and time-based diagrams. Techniques for focusing the audience and breaking down complex tables will also…
CPABC Course: How to Present Financial Data Effectively Using PowerPoint (July 5, 2016; Vancouver, BC)
OBJECTIVE Accountants often use PowerPoint to present financial data to peers, executives, suppliers, and others. It is critical that others understand the impact of the financial analysis so that decisions can be made and the bottom line positively impacted. Unfortunately, too often the barrage of numbers is overwhelming to the audience and they leave confused.…
Why you won’t find my books on the Indigo/Chapters website
As a Canadian author and publisher, I sometimes get questions as to why prospective purchasers of my books can’t find them on the Indigo/Chapters website. I point people to Amazon.ca, who do carry all of my books, and here’s why: Indigo makes it too difficult to list my books. Amazon takes an electronic feed from…
Showing trends as lines, not clustered columns; Slide Makeover #82
Use a line graph instead of a clustered column graph to show trends
Making text look better; Issue #340 June 23, 2015
Three options for grouping text in shapes instead of bullets and sub-bullets
New book: Select Effective Visuals; Issue #339 June 9, 2015
In this issue I let my subscribers know about my latest book, Select Effective Visuals: The Business Professional’s Guide to Selecting & Creating Effective Presentation Visuals. Learn more about the book and get your copy here.
The cost of executives redoing presentations; Issue #338 May 26, 2015
In the last 12-18 months, I have been hearing a similar story from those who contact me inquiring about my customized workshops. Often the inquiry is driven by a request from an executive. Do they want fancier slides? No. They want to stop spending so much time redoing the slides that their staff create. Executives…
Windy City Summit (May 25-27, Chicago, IL)
The Windy City Summit is the second largest conference for treasury and finance professionals. It is held in Chicago and 2016 is the 30th annual conference. I will be presenting two sessions on Thursday May 26: 8:30 am – 9:20 am: Fixing Common Mistakes in Financial Presentations As an analyst or new manager, having an opportunity…