Arsenal of a Busy Person

 People often face the situation when statesmen, successful businessmen and famous scientists represent their ideas and the results of their work, but fail to attract the audience attention because the information does not reach their listeners‘ ears and eyes. Listeners miss important aspects, and they are often bored. Nowadays most people are overloaded with information; that is why to attract their attention the information should be represented in a particular way. Moreover, it should be remembered that the format influences not only interest, but in many respects comprehension – the depth of material mastering and detail remembrance. 

 The main goal of the presentation is to form an opinion on the ground of which people will take proper and right decisions. At present standard presentations in PowerPoint format are often used. However, their shortcomings are linearity and static nature. Such a format is not interesting because the presenter may rely only on his charisma. When a session of questions and answers begins, he often fails at it because he has no tools of “extracting” reference elements and the audience only hears “The previous slide, please.”
In this article we are going to tell you about tools which will help you to bring the proper information to the audience.

Tools of influence

 The presentation to be effective, one should take into account the main principles of influencing the audience. Specialists mark out several levels.
Notional (or intensional) tools are those that refer to the contents of the presentation: a peculiar type of presenting the material, the depth of its elaboration, the transparence of logic conversions in the narration, the relationship of the material with audience interests. One should keep in mind important information tools which give a possibility to give proof of the points and findings with the help of data and facts, represent them in various forms (textual, graphic, schematic, video) and detail levels (modern HTML-presentations). Technological tools are means which enable to demonstrate the presentation (sensor screens, online broadcast, etc.) Designing tools include design, the level of visual material presentation, brilliance and intelligibility of visual images, their utility for the material remembrance. And, finally, personality tools are presenter’s personal skills to “infect” the audience with his mood, convince, put notional stresses and find proof and facts for conclusion grounds.

 The usage of all these tools is necessary to influence the audience which may be divided for convenience into three stages: interest, comprehension, decision making (the transfer to actions or action planning).
Information tools of influence are of biggest interest because they are at the joint of notional and technological tools. It is information tools that are so poorly submitted in standard presentations in PowerPoint. Such instruments are used for simultaneous analytic (e.g., transfer of texts into diagrams, graphs, selection of key points) and technological (use of modern tools) processing.
The striking example of the efficient usage of information tools is the report of Victor Vekselberg to Dmitry Medvedev concerning the activity of the Fund “Skolkovo” in 2011. President of Russia had an opportunity both to see the presentation remotely and independently go into details on issues interesting for him. 

 Let’s make a small digression and consider peculiarities of psychological perception of the presentation. It is necessary to take into account how the quality of information and technological tools influence the audience interest and comprehension. The usage of standard tools (PowerPoint presentations in particular) provokes almost an allergic response, but the main problems are attention scattering and decrease in remembrance: ”We have already seen it.” 

 With audience low interest the presenter fails to reach the comprehension because people are set against considering the presenter’s arguments and findings. The same occurs when the presenter speaks in a low voice, he doesn't sound confident, distinct and expressive, i.e. he does not possess orator’s skills.

If the presenter uses innovational tools (interactive presentations, sensor screens) comprehension is reached thanks to two factors –audience high interest (“It is something new!”) and extensive possibilities of tools themselves. It may be usage of video fragments, demonstration of detailed (or brief) data at the proper moment, storing important facts and findings on the screen, online information presentation or by means of interactive panel. The use of such innovation results in an interesting phenomenon: the presenter himself gets ready for the presentation better and learns the material more deeply and carefully.
As for the main topic – the influence on the audience- one should point out that the stage at which the presenter should do his best is the one where listeners comprehended and acquired all information. This stage is the basis of the main purpose of the presentation – taking proper decisions and transfer to action.

Improvement of presentation quality

 Unfortunately, presentations of most managers are given in a standard format PowerPoint. The frequent reason for this is three problems arising before top managers or statesmen: lack of time, 
lack of tool knowledge and lack of a qualified look from an outsider's viewpoint.
However even the busiest top managers have got opportunities to improve their presentations by some available means. 
Firstly, a top manager can involve specialized companies in cooperation; they will carry out analysis, write the text, make illustrations and prepare a modern interactive presentation. Perhaps, some people are afraid of such complexity, but only until a top manager realizes the value of a qualitative presentation. Factors which should be taken into consideration when looking for a contractor are the following: a detailed study of information (it can’t be just a slide design, it should be a directional use of tools) and confidence in major clients. The obvious advantage of this choice is the fact that the company will do work for you, provide you with equipment and even help rehearse a presentation.

 Secondly, for effective presentations and their elements it is possible to use online toolset. Among them there is sliderocket.com , a site to prepare a presentation from the very start. It is integrated into “Google Chrome” and contains diagrams, video and flash animation, images from “Flickr”, reels from “YouTube” and “live” Twitter channels due to integration with social networks. To set up dynamic animated presentations it is possible to use prezi.com. Those people who prefer to use flatbed computers and mobile devices as a basis for demonstration choose slideshark.com. The site enables to download PowerPoint presentations to iPad and other mobile devices with animation storage and insertion of video and other objects, to transmit a signal to a projector or plasma panel. Site infogr.am will quickly help to set up inforgraphic elements and interactive graphs for an online presentation.
Managers who prepare presentations in a group may use site mightymeeting.com, which gives a possibility to add presentations and video to “selected cloud storage”, have online demonstrations with a computer, flatbed computer, Smartphone and projector. If you face an urgent presentation, it would be very convenient to use a built in site Companion, providing joint work at presentations, file exchange, fast data collection via group messages and voice communication. 

 The fault of such tools is sometimes necessity to understand a principle of their work, therefore they are not always useful to prepare a presentation in short terms. But all tools guarantee audience interest and give a manager new opportunities to create unforgettable presentations.
It should be noted that the main topic for a manager in his presentation is its purposiveness and utility. The presentation should provide with new information, a new look at the world, new opportunities, and the presenter himself should love his material, know it well, be able to present or… charge professionals with his presentation. One should remember that everything is aimed at interest and comprehension, on the grounds of which a proper decision must be taken.

Good luck to prepare effective and efficient presentations!