【正文】 irst 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。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。s worth your time, since you don39。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 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。 advanced management capabilities, followed by one with more detail on Linux and open standards. If those other topics don39。 graphs Charts and graphs can be very effective tools. They can also be annoyingly clumsy, obscuring the very information they39。re ready to Present It — which just happens to be the subject of the third and final section of the IBM Presentation Methodology. The template The IBM Presentation Template (someone reading this has already mentally shortened it to the IPT, no doubt) gives you a few basic options to choose from. Inside of the blue bands (the letterbox area), you can either use a black background with white text or a white background with black text. You can have background imagery on the title slide inside the letterbox or in the blue bands. A few things you shouldn39。re probably forcing your inperson audience to read too much. And if you39。re new to public speaking, you might want to browse the list of remended reading provided elsewhere. However, here are a few general pointers that apply to novice and experienced presenters alike. You Talking to Me? Before you present, try to answer the following for yourself about the people you see in the room, based on what you know about them or, if you have nothing else to go on, their expressions and the way others respond when they speak. ? Who are the critical decision makers of the audience, whose yes or no may be all that matters ultimately? What are their needs and priorities? ? Who are the influencers in the audience, who seem to mand a sense of authority and may be expected to make remendations to the critical decision makers? ? Who are your allies? Not just friends or colleagues you may recognize in the audience, but the 20 percent who appear most receptive to the points you are making and are probably generally supportive to most people presenting to them. While it may seem counterintuitive, present mostly to the people you see in the audience who obviously want you to succeed, while being aware of the decision makers and influencers. Micki Holliday (Secrets of Power Presentations) says: Presenters tend to get distracted and controlled by the negative personality types. They try to convince, cajole, persuade that one person, often to the detriment of the rest of the audience. It is usually a hopeless task. Do not read your slides. Assuming the text (if any) on your slide is legible (as it should be), your audience can read it faster than you can speak it. Few things are more annoying than watching someone merely read or closely paraphrase page after page of text. People will either assume that you don39。s an example of the effective way to transition between slides, given by Gene Zelazny in Say It With Presentations: 1. Continue eye contact with the audience as you finish discussing the previous slide. As we39。t plan to take questions, allow a little time for them anyway. As important as it is to deliver a good presentation, it39。re familiar with, and the remendations for overing them. Change your own slides. While not always possible, depending on the presentation environment, you should generally be prepared to change your own slides. Sometimes, though, you have to have someone else running your slides, or perhaps the audience is stepping through the slides themselves while you speak to them over the phone or in a Webcast. You39。re a novice presenter and too nervous. Explain your slides. Good supporting materials, on their own, will prompt questions in the audience39。t going to be able to stand on its own when you it off to whoknowswhat environment and audience. If you have to a presentation you won39。ll see more guidelines in the nondisplaying margins of its slides, and more detailed explanations are available from the template download menu. For now, we39。t be obscured by this sort of distraction. If your information is