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Interested in Presentation tools, best practices, good technological tools or a memorable speech in public speaking? Then join Office MVP Chantal Bossé in this short ‘How To’ on making a Memorable Speech at a Conference.

Join Office MVP Chantal Bossé in this short ‘How To’ on making a Memorable Speech at a Conference.

Chantal Bossé in an author, blogger, trainer, speaker and presentations & visual communications specialist. She has been in the trade for over 20 years now. She has also been a presentation coach for the TEDxQuebec event since 2012, and helps presenters discover the Pecha Kucha and other presentation methods to improve their delivery skills.
Since 2013, she is one of 16 people in North America warded the Microsoft® PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) title, and the only French-speaking one. First a scientific, then an instructional designer in telecommunications, she started CHABOS in 2004 to share her passion for visual communications. Chantal and her business partner inspire and empower public speakers and business people to craft and deliver world-class presentations that generate success and results. From story, message, design, delivery & equipment, they help their client shine in from of their audience.

Video Transcript:

Hi my name is Chantal Bosséand I’m a Microsoft Partner MVP in Canada and today I’m going to talk to you about the top 10 mistakes that will you should avoid to craft and deliver a memoral presentation or memorable speech at a conference it’s going to be a fast-paced presentation but you have a hand out on which you’ll be able to have the main key points and some extra information to help you with so I’ll start with my number 10 in my list if you have visual elements that look old outdated or are bad quality that’s going to affect you the quality of your presentation by bad visuals remember those old clipboards that we had before they look updated people have been using them for so many years that people are just kind of fed up about them what you can do instead you have a modern twist with some new icons types you even have icons in the Office 365 that are pretty neat you can recolor them change also the way they look and you also have those little what’s called and bubbly guys that have been used a lot so if you try to use them to think about it if your audience will still like them or not a king its presentation look newer doesn’t mean that you cannot use any icons or anything but if they’ve been overused it’s going to affect the quality also my number 10 animated gifs or gifs whatever you want to pronounce it please don’t use them as much because they do look outdated and everything that moves on your screen will just distract the audience for nothing one thing I can save for those type of little animated elements if you have some 3d effects because sometimes now we have 3d animations they can help but just make sure that they will move for a short period of time instead of being moving on the screen like they are right now another thing watermarks images it’s always Mike number ten because they all pertain to the bad quality of visuals so anything watermark or that resolution of your images try to avoid that because it doesn’t look professional and it will affect the quality of your presentation instead go to some of the great image resources that you can find online while the first one should be take your own photographs if you can even with your iPhone or smartphone it will still be better than having some bad quality images you have also images here that’s how the pixabay.com and morphfile.com databases they give you access to great visuals that are free copyright free also and seeking US copyright free if you use Bing or Google Images going to the licensing elements so you will know that you can use the images or not whether they are public domain or the other one I would suggest for conferences make sure you have a license that is free to modify share and use commercially so you don’t get into any problems number 9 now using bad fonts will also be a problem with your presentation by at once let’s just start by saying that you have too big font families the sorry font all those little Wiggly things that you see the thin lines on the fonts they tend to project in a less efficient way with projectors and whatever the type of room you have especially in big rooms so you’re better off if you use psaltery thoughts okay some people will say Chantelle Arial is kind of boring but you know what it’s so safe font and you can still use it without any problems when you change PCs or even Mac’s whatever the type of computer one use number eight now color choices if you want to make sure that people will get engaged with your printer station tried to come to use colors that will really work with your subject to help you with that you can go to the color matters com site and you can see significance of some of the colors that will help you decide what will make sense for you although let’s just point out that you have some bad color choices you should avoid what do you sell this green yet right now red and blue and the red and green mixes are really bad  first for the eyesight they just want to make your ice cream and the other reason is you have between 7 and 20% of the population that just won’t be able to see any text on the little slice that you have right now because they are color blind so think about that for your presentation might as well make sure another percent of your audience will be able to capture what you have on your slides and color choices another thing that’s important to remember is that they will induce more often emotions they will make people think and reflect a little bit more on your subject so make sure you choose them appropriately and according to your subject number 7bag contrast as you can see right now you can barely get a sense that you have the word text on the left box and it’s almost the same on the right box so make sure that when you choose your colors for text and background that you have the biggest color difference for both so they will show properly when you are projecting your content especially in big venues and conferences for your number 6 font size font size is a really big one because sometimes we tend to do our presentation on our computer we see always big enough that it seems to be all good but you know what not all font sizes are equal let’s just start you see right now Arial and Verdana they are the same size but they don’t really look the same size because the width between the letters is a little bit different and if you look at the arrow 20 at the bottom it might be okay on your computer screen but it might be a big problem if you use it in a big venue because not everyone will be able to see it what Iarge to do Google my colleague site based parrot is another Microsoft PowerPoint MVP and it applies to some tables in which you can select the correct font size according to the type of projection that you have whether it’s4:3 or 16:9 and the size of the room it would be a very big favor to do to your audience number five all over loaded slides how many of you have seen such slides before and sometimes we’re even guilty of doing it ourselves don’t make your audience work so are trying to figure out where they have to look first and what’s the story of your content and to that effect maybe you can remember that slide I was proof it was printed in the New York Times or just on their online site it was had a few years ago but it still speaks tons of millions of information at the same time and no one can get the sense of what’s going on so don’t do it with your slides number four right now don’t put all your script on your slides instead trying to reduce the to minimum go to what is really important and remove everything else there’s no point in reading your slides to the people in the audience if they can read they cannot listen to you at the same time another big one too many animations it’s not because an animation exists in your tool that you need to use it make sure that you choose wisely and you know what you can do away with just a basic fade and wipe for all your content and no one will be sad about it they’ll just have a better focus on your content instead of moving different pieces all over your presentation content my number two mistake calming templates they look nice Microsoft and keynote and many other tools they provide some templates but you know they grow old at one point even some new models that we have with Microsoft they’ve been used more and more so what will happen your content will stick out because it doesn’t look like your corporate book even if you’re just a contractor or a self-employed person try to design your own look you can start with a common template but take time to change go in the masters change the font sizes changes the colors and put in some of the graphic elements that look like you then you will be able to stand out a little bit more instead of having Singh look than almost everyone else can have and to that effect this is a totally different type of template not appropriate for everyone but that person was able to stand up wherever she was going because it was looking like her own corporate look and now my number one my biggie number one if you start your presentation in PowerPoint keynote or any other tool that is your number one mistake why because when you start in the tool the first thing you see is clicking to put in some text and by starting to work and the interface what will happen you’ll be focusing on the look well this look good did I put the right color on is that the right size of full of shape or is my graphic big enough for or should I change the colors again instead I was on a paper again put your ideas on cue cards on post-its on the whiteboard work with whatever you have you even have some books out for presentations that’s think about the paper napkin whatever else that is not always technology then you will have a better sense of how you can order and structure your talk and if that’s what you do you’ll get way better results because you’ll be able to really concentrate on what is your main message what’s the story you want to tell and one big question I ask my clients if you want to have three main elements people remember at the end of your talk what would they be if you question yourself about those three elements first then you’ll be able to always make sure that your content will help people remember those three elements you want sequels and to help you with this I have my list of any questions to help you plan if you go through them it will help you really focus on what will be important and why do I have questions for type of environment and stuff like that well is this will it be a big venue how will be the lighting and maybe you already have some content that is available so go through the list and really focus on what will help you give out a better message and you know what a memorable publication is never about you so it’s really not about you it’s about your audience’s needs and expectations and you do have a choice you can so present with text or you can start thinking differently thinking more visually and making sure that this  will make your message to go what I’m showing right now is just to sample a few elements how you can plan your content now you can place it on your slides and think less is more less content on the slide will just help people understand more and it will help you practice your presentation beforehand so I hope that will help you a little bit and if you do have any questions please feel free goon my website and register for a30-minute consultation it’s totally free and sometimes it can help you to grasp a few ideas and I will be glad to give you my take on your next presentation so thank you for listening and please put those ideas in place for your next conference