1 Chapter 1: Speaking With and Without Technology

In this chapter we will explore these presentation tools such as PowerPoint and Zoom – as well as what to do when the tool you expected to use is not available. We’ve all been in a class or presentation when the project fails, the images do not load in the way the presenter expected, or the room changed quickly to a new space with no technology. A good presenter will be able to respond to these changes quickly and still give the presentation. Audiences are sympathetic to these speakers and often impressed by their ability to carry on despite last minute technology changes. This is very different than an audience reaction to a speaker who complains that their speech can’t be given in the way they intended – or a speaker who keeps apologizing that their slides aren’t appearing correctly.

Technologies to Present Visuals

Presentations made with technology commonly utilize PowerPoint slides, known as a slide deck. While we colloquially use the brand-name Power Point, preparing slides in other programs such Apple’s Keynote and Google Slides is also commonly acceptable. When designing these slides there are many things to consider:

How many slides to use?

How many slides do you really need? You don’t want your audience to be annoyed that you progressed too quickly from a slide thy were still looking at. And you also don’t want audience members to be able to read the text on the slide and then become bored with your presentation. Finding just the right number of slides can be tricky.

Our general advice is to use one slide per minute. Make sure that the slide is visible from the back of the room that you’ll be speaking in. This means ensuring that the font is visible, and all images are large enough that their detail can be understood. Also be sure that the slides are meaningful. Ask yourself, do these slides really need to be in the speech? What will the slide contribute to your presentation? How will the audience be informed by the images/text/diagrams which they are shown?

Are the images clear?

Images can make for a more engaging presentation. However, they can also be very distracting. When considering if your images are a good choice consider first the way that they will be displayed. Be sure that your font and color choices will appear clearly on a screen, can be read from the back of the room, and won’t be hard to see if the room is too sunny or the projector’s bulb is a bit dim.

What do the images mean?

Imagine you are an inattentive audience member, and you are only looking at the slides. What is the message you would get from those slides? Do the images support the main ideas of the speech? If the images are confusing, disruptive, or obscure enough to be distracting, you might want to consider using something else.

How much text to use?

Your audience can most likely read faster than you can speak. This is not a problem unless you are presenting all or most of your presentation text on the screen. If you do this, the audience has little incentive to listen to you – they’ve already gotten all the information they need by reading your slides.

Similarly, your audience most likely will be interested in what is on your slides. They might be so interested that they start reading the screen even when you told them to wait. For this reason, be sure that what is on your screen matches what you are saying. Some speakers choose to use automating features on PowerPoint so that only one part of the list is visible at a time. This requires you to use a clicker or otherwise practice advancing your slides. The extra setup takes time, but it can also be a great way to ensure your audience stays with you.

Handouts

Be sure that your handout does not distract the audience. This includes the process of passing out the paper or demonstration object, circulating it around the room, and letting your audience know what to do with the paper or packet that they have been given.

For example, imagine that your speech is about a delicious new kind of cookie. And you’ve brought samples! You might be tempted to open a box of the cookies for the audience to pass around and sample during your speech. But doing so would distract just about everyone in the room. The first person would loudly open the package and crinkle the plastic. Everyone would be focusing on that person, eagerly watching their reaction to the cookies while also anticipating their own sample. The box of cookies would gradually make it way through the audience. Those with cookies already are probably eating them (or didn’t like them) and not paying attention. Those that have not yet gotten samples are eagerly watching the box move through the room and hoping that there are enough left that they can have a sample too. At best, the audience likes the samples (but probably didn’t need the speech to make them like the taste). At worst, the audience doesn’t like the sample and therefore doesn’t need the speech either. What would be a better option? Give a speech about the delicious cookies and then offering samples at the door as the audience leaves is a great option. Passing around samples is a strong one too.

Other Tools:

Clickers

Clickers are tools that allow you to advance slides while speaking from anywhere in the room. Some speakers – even undergraduate students – use clickers so frequently they always have one in their backpack. These tools make a presentation easier to deliver for some speakers because they can move freely throughout the presentation space. However, they can result in the delivery of a distracting speech if the speaker moves too much, over-eagerly clicks through slides, or forgets to click through slides. They also make it difficult for a speaker to use note cards or notes attached to a slide deck. At times a speaker may move across the room freely clicking through slides only to notice that they are on one side of the room and need their notes from the other side. They then must awkwardly and quickly get back to the podium to retrieve their materials which throws off their entire presentation.

Speaking with a clicker is a trained skill – if this is one that you’d like to use, be sure that you practice frequently in low stakes presentations (such as this class!). This practice is much better than using a clicker for your first time in a job interview or other high stakes presentation. Additionally, even if you prefer to use a clicker, be prepared to not be able to do so in every situation. You might not be able to use a clicker if you are presenting using an old computer, if you are not permitted to link to a conference’s presentation computer, or if the technology simply fails to connect. Rather than taking up your speech time trying to correct these problems, it is better to spend a minimal amount of time trying to sort out an unconnected clicker, and then if you must, elegantly present without it.

Pointers

Laser pointers are very popular in some industries. They can help to direct the viewer’s eye to a specific space on a graph or data set which is displayed on the screen. They can also, however, become very distracting if the presenter uses a pointer excessively, can’t get the laser to focus on the correct fact, or just uses the pointer to continually circle the same data. Additionally, when the presenter turns to look at the screen and use the pointer, they at times forget to turn back to the audience. This can result in a presentation in which the speaker’s voice is hard to hear (because they are speaking away from the audience) and is distracting (because they now have their backside facing the audience).

Presenting Without Technology

Even if you have prepared your speech using all the technologies listed above, it is worth practicing your speech once or twice without any technology. Can you still convey your main points? What extra information would you need to give if the slides were not visible? What would be confusing to the audience if they could not see a picture or data set?

Once you have designed your slide deck and practiced your speech, it can be a good idea try to present once more, this time without the slide deck. This will help you to be sure that you really need all the slides that you have included. It will also boost your confidence if it should become necessary to present without the slides.

Presentations focused on Technology

Some organizations – both professional and social, have experimented with presentation methods that highlight the use of technology. One commonly used at Baruch College is known as Petcha Kucha. This presentation style uses 20 slides, and advances to a new slide every 20 seconds. The resulting presentation, which is only six minutes and 40 seconds, is designed to inform about and increase interest in a topic. A speaker cannot cover all aspects of a topic in such a quick format. However, by using this format, an event can feature many speakers in one day. And, event planners can be assured that speakers will not attempt to speak longer than the time allotted to them. The PetchaKucha webpage (https://www.pechakucha.com) has many examples of these kinds of presentations.

Presentations Delivered Through Technology

Remote presentations, or those delivered entirely through computer-mediated means, are increasingly common in the modern workplace. However, there are distinct challenges, opportunities, and considerations involved in a remote presentation. For a full treatment of those, please see the Spotlight on “Presenting Remotely” by Joe Hutcheson, from the excellent textbook Start Here, Speak Anywhere, which follows at the end of this book.