【正文】 red effectively to an audience. Presentations are not about showing a series of slides。 they are about you, municating a message, with visual elements in a supporting role. Where to begin Here39。s the flawed technique behind many of the more overblown, leaden presentations you39。d choose? Composing this basic sentence might take two minutes, or it might take an hour. It doesn39。re clear about the point you need to convey. But it39。ll probably have to revise it a few times anyway. The anizing principle behind this is a pyramid: each statement you make will have one, or more likely several, supporting pieces of information under it. As you build your presentation in this outline form, a pyramid will form, with your basic statement at the top and everything else arrayed beneath it. Don39。s take a look at a hypothetical presentation and how you might anize its various elements, using this technique. From the top down Let39。s assume, four reasons. First, IBM products work together. Second, IBM offers the flexibility of open systems. Third, IBM services tie everything together. Fourth, IBM has experience in the customer39。t worry yet about which will e first. Take each of your supporting arguments and do the same again. Build another pyramid under each of the four. Under products work together you might have information about each of the elements in the solution: servers, middleware, storage. You might want to talk about interdivisional efforts in IBM to integrate technologies across our product lines. It would look something like this: For this example, we don39。t resonate with or be understood by your audience. Move things around. Add or delete, but keep the anizing structure intact. Once you have a pyramid that seems to represent your theme and the various points you need to get across, you39。t even created your first slide, the most critical (and often botched) work in creating your presentation is plete. If this all seems too plodding, too restrictive and structured, don39。ll notice that the pyramid more closely resembles a classic outline structure. Unlike an outline, however, the relative equality of the boxes make it much easier to restructure and reorder your presentation and establish new relationships to item without altering the entire anization, as often occurs when creating an outline. Where to begin Visual elements such as graphs, charts, and text can enhance your ability to municate, helping your audience follow your message and quickly understand various types of information. Used thoughtfully, they can be valuable tools. Used indiscriminately, or constructed poorly, however, they can actually detract from your message. They can clutter your presentation and confuse your audience. This template will facilitate the preparation of your presentation and will help to continue establishing you as one of the best expressions of the IBM brand. ? It reflects IBM39。t automatically assume you need to use presentation software to make your presentation! Some of the most effective sales jobs are done just by speaking directly, sincerely and informatively about the subject, without hiding behind charts. In Say It With Presentations, noted presentation designer Gene Zelazny gives three basic types of media you should consider if you need visuals to help convey your message: Lap visuals, so called because each member of the audience receives his or her own copy of the materials at the start of the meeting, if not before. Best for small groups, their use can open up discussion and help everyone participate as equal partners. The downside is that they may read ahead and start asking questions you would prefer to deal with later in the discussion. And you can also miss opportunities for eye contact if everyone is looking down reading. Easels or white boards. Great for increasing interactivity among 15 or fewer people, since you39。ll be working on in this section. Title screen By using a standard title chart and following the style consistently, we will add a professional touch not only to our individual presentations but collectively to all of IBM39。s worth your time, since you don39。 they have e to hear you municate. Use visuals to support your message. ? Less is more. A graph that shows (for example) levels of customer spending on certain technologies can reveal at a glance trends in the market, but it remains your task to explain that data39。t want them too, either — reading takes their attention away from what you are saying. The most effective way to use text is with short phrases that can be read at a glance. Presented this way, text can remind people of your key points, or help them follow the progress of your presentation. Here39。s time only for a moment, and demands that they listen to what you39。s a question of how much information someone can easily retain at one time, especially while listening to you speak. But what if you have more than three or even five points to make about IBM servers? Perhaps you want to talk about the technologies that give our servers their priceperformance edge, and cite some benchmark studies as evidence. You have more to say about management capabilities, too. It simply won39。 module, this should already be clear.) The solution is to create another page which focuses in greater detail on one of your topics. In our current example, you might progress to this: Here again, you are giving your audience a limited, manageable amount of information at any one time. If you have benchmark data (in this example) that simply demands a graphic treatment, don39。 advanced management capabilities, followed by one wi