PowerPoint and Keynote training

Learn how to communicate effectively using slideshows.

We provide effective training in the use of Powerpoint and Keynote for all levels of usage.

We offer three levels of courses which can be combined with presentation training for a more effective outcome. The courses are:

Powerpoint Basic / Keynote Basic

• Using Powerpoint / Keynote for the first time
• Creating a new presentation from scratch
• Manipulating slides and applying themes
• Formatting and editing slides
• Inserting objects and manipulating objects
• Display and printing your slides

 

Powerpoint Intermediate / Keynote Intermediate

• Creating photo albums
• Inserting media clips and tables
• Manipulating slideshows
• Formatting and linking objects
• Planning and design

 

Powerpoint Advanced / Keynote Advanced

• Customising Powerpoint / Keynote
• Using online resources
• Distributing a presentation
• Encryption and digital signatures
• Publishing and handouts

 

 

All our Keynote and Powerpoint training courses are delivered in-house at your business premises, or, if you prefer an open course solution, please send us an email for availability.

Steve Jobs Presentations

Home > Present like Steve Jobs

Present like Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs had a unique and personable presentation style that was frequently held in the highest regard by professional presenters. Modest to a tee, his uniform of black jumpers and denim jeans were his trademark, and unbecoming to the role he held as CEO of one of the largest companies in the world.

Jobs had a winning formula which you can learn to replicate which included:

1. Being humble. Never let your job title, role or wealth get the better of you, let the audience relate to you as a human being.Keep your manner and language simple, respect your audiences knowledge, experience and education, nobody likes smart arses or arrogant speakers.

 

2. Establish an emotional tie. Use stories and anecdotes to connect you with the presentation, explain the history and the people that were involved and what this means to you as an individual. By establishing an emotional link with your audience will allow them to see the problem from your standpoint.

 

3. Establish common ground or a common interest. Find an area that is shared between you and your audience, play on this common shared knowledge to gain trust, don’t push your audience into a corner with offers or timescales, as most people react badly to threats, however innocent they are..

Win-win solutions are always better than demands.

 

4. Anticipate concerns. Heading off concerns as part of your presentation shows honesty and that you have considered the negative impacts of your proposal, people get hung up on small detail that is personal to them (NYMBY) so address it early on.

 

5. Keep it short. Jobs takes minutes to make his point, and then takes questions.

As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, Be sincere. Be brief. Be seated.

 

6. Dont offer freebies to win approval. Jobs often gets asked to provide free services to win approval, and whilst he doesn’t dismiss the requests, he answers them with a clear no and explains his thinking.

 

Our one day presentation course looks at the language and style of Jobs that made him such an accomplished speaker, through video case study analysis, delegates will learn:

• How to structure a cohesive presentation
• How to inspire and create awe
• How to present difficult data in an enterprising fashion
• How to create slides using the picture superiority effect

This presentation course is run on demand, please contact us for details.

Storytelling in Business

Professional presenters like Jobs, Robinson or even past and present political speakers with vast amounts of public speaking experience are usually great story tellers. The earliest form of storytelling dates back thousands of years as a means to repeat historic tales, or as a means of conveying information. Modern day leaders can use this powerful tool to get difficult points across, engage the audience or even to allow the audience to slip into a light trance while they reflect and live the story in their own imagination.

Our Storytelling training course will teach you how to create compelling presentations by understanding:

 

• Why use stories, and how they can aid modern day presenters
• Why does a story differ from a presentation , and how to use it effectively
• Segues , transitions and the rules of engagement
• The storytelling lifecycle, how the story trance works, and what you have to do to earn it
• Video case studies from modern day leaders, and how they play out their stories
• Key components of a great story, examples and outline to follow
• Language and PSE , using rhetorical techniques  to reinforce and magnify your stories
• Keeping focused. Identifying the real heart of a story and making it relevant
• Sequence and order, making your audience automatically follow your route to a shared conclusion  

 

Our Storytelling Courses  are designed for those who are already familiar with presenting and need to add new tools to their repertoire . This course is run on demand at clients premises. If you’d like to know more about our storytelling training course, please contact us for details. 

Presentation Masterclass Bristol and London

Due to popular demand, we’ve now extended this public course to include London as well as Bristol.

Click here for further details.

Presentation Masterclass 18th Jan

We have a few places left on this course, discounts apply for multiple bookings.

 

Book now

Win of our presentation trainers for the day

yes, you can for free, have one of our Presentation Trainers come into your company and train up to 12 people, for free!

 

To enter our sweepstake click here

Preparing For Public Speaking Perfection

It does not take a genius to be aware that, when it comes to the delivery of perfect presentations, the amount of time you spend preparing and practicing has a dramatic impact on your end results.  You should never be tempted to substitute substance for style.  Yet, whilst content is king, delivery that is either too laboured or too fluffy results in the most brilliant of messages being lost on audiences.

So, start with a study of content first.  Research your subject matter on the internet.  Read books and industry publications.  Take note if your subject matter is currently in the news, and consider if your presentations can be given directly relevant topical slants.  It is also good to talk, so speak with people who are authorities on your subject matter, and also people who are not.  Different angles give you a rounded overview that influences your own unique standpoint.

With key content under your belt, you have not yet won the war, but can momentarily rest on the laurels of having a major battle in the bag.  Your best organisational game face now needs to emerge in order for you to pre plan a script that flows logically and naturally.  Many experienced speakers build their presentations upon initial frameworks of 15% introduction, 70% main body and 15% summary, although there are no specifically dictated hard and fast rules.

Undertake practice runs of your presentations, to yourself, a colleague, a friend or your cat.  Tape record or video yourself when practicing your presentations.  Be open to taking constructive criticism on board and act as your own toughest critic, identifying and addressing your own strong and weak points when listening to and watching yourself back.

When your big day dawns, stay calm at all costs.  It is, admittedly, easier said than done.  Yet you can go some way to remaining grounded before the delivery of your presentations with plenty of deep breaths and a steady intake of water.  Dress comfortably but formally.  Smart suits are preferable for both male and female presenters, always accompanied by ties for men and minimal accessories and jewellery for women.

When taking to your stage, engage, engage, engage!  Adopt a natural and open manner, let your energy and enthusiasm shine through infectiously and never forget to smile.  Involving audiences at the receiving ends of your presentations from the get go is essential to creating satisfactory working partnerships between you and them.  You can build instant rapport by posing searching questions to capture their attention, a public speaking ploy regularly implemented by the pros.

Do not speak in an uncharacteristic or unnatural way.  This will only give your presentations – and yourself – airs of insincerity.  Get in to a groove that is right for you, which should be neither too fast paced nor too slow moving.  By all means harness appropriate humour.  Self deprecation can be disarmingly endearing, so a laugh at your own expense is perfectly acceptable during presentations.  Yet do avoid laughing at the expense of audience members.

Stick with what you intrinsically understand and avoid what you do not.  Throwing in ‘big talk, for the sake of trying to sound clever is a no go area.  Those listening to your presentations may have genuine questions that you are foolishly unable to answer.  With job almost done, redress queries raised during your closing summary with care, patience and tact.

Always bear in mind that the due diligence you invest in your preparation for public speaking holds they key to leaving favourable lasting impressions long after your final thank you has been delivered.

Proficiently Preparing Eleventh Hour Presentations

You share the company of hundreds of thousands of other professionals around the planet if the thought of public speaking fills your mind with dread, and your stomach with butterflies.  Public speaking is often a daunting enough prospect in its own right.  What if you are coerced in to giving presentations at the very last minute?

You know all about failing to prepare and preparing to fail.  You are correct in assuming that even the most competent and experienced presenters remain steadfastly true to the mantra of preparation.  In that respect, being expected to deliver presentations with only 24 hours notice, or even half an hours notice, spins sideways what you have been taught to trust.  Yet happen it can and happen it does.  Just like mastery of the art of public speaking in general, impromptu public speaking challenges are tackled head on with practice, plus a few common sense ground rules in your back pocket.

1)    Plan To The Power Of Three
You need to grasp your subject matter and logically organise it when preparing to deliver presentations happening upon you at the eleventh hour.  The notion of a beginning, a middle and an ending is nothing new you to you.  It is a primary basic that you were taught to apply to story writing during your school days.  The same applies to impromptu presentations.  Your clarity of thought is enhanced and your panic reduced by arranging what you need to say in to an orderly opening, a main body, and a closure.

2)    Start Well To Continue Well
Your opening gambit should pack a powerful punch.  Bear in mind that last minute presentations are not usually random, but are required to address specific issues somewhat urgently.  Direct questions usually make attention grabbing headlines.  Try getting off on a good footing by stating the task at hand –  for example, this is what we are working on, this is where we are currently at, and this is where we intend to be, so how do we go about getting there as efficiently and quickly as possible?  Bingo!  Isn’t that the very essence of what your audience is there to find out?

3)    Remain Committed
Regardless of the duration of your short notice presentations, hark back to the power of three in the main body by breaking it down according to your introductory statements.  Reiterate the current position.  Expose and clarify potential concerns and impediments.  Confirm the plan of action moving forward, addressing the points you have already raised.  This provides your audience with a situation, issues and solutions.

4)    Wrap It Up Potently
The closing statements of any presentations need to be as potent as the openers.  In fact, they become one and the same thing when you bring your closing section right back to start and reiterate your opening gambit.  This is your check back to ensure that all concerns have been addressed and that your audience understands the journey you have just taken them on.  Furthermore, closing questions, and calls to action, give both presenter and audience ample opportunity share their views, clarifying that everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet and are ready to move cohesively forward.

Progressing Presentations From Good To Better To Best

Your first tentative steps in to the art of public speaking are often taken from school age as a youngster. You may be required to fine hone these initial skills throughout the rest of your educational and professional life. Like with the evolution of most skills, practice makes perfect, as you go through many stages of the learning curve, from novice to expert.

Classroom presentations about books on the curriculum are very different to presentations you might be required to give when pitching yourself at a job interview to a panel of employees. Likewise, interview presentations differ substantially from public speaking as an authority on your subject matter to audiences. Yet your lifetime’s worth of presentations, as a student, an executive or an academic, is given the edge by the application of a few basic principles.

Regardless of your age, your level of public speaking experience and your audiences, these tips form bases from which you can continuously improve from good to better to best:-

1) Prepare To Succeed
Knowledge always equates to power, yet words are often hollow. Audience members do not want to be bored by presenters reading out what can already be scanned on an overstuffed screen. Minimising your materials, and maximising your knowledge of the subject at hand, are imperative to the proficient preparation quality presentations, thus enabling you to deliver them with authority and aplomb.

2) Critique Practice Run Throughs
Video yourself doing dry run presentations, and critique yourself firmly but fairly. Ask a trusted confidante to sit in on your rehearsals and be prepared to take their feedback on the chin.

3) Look Them In The Eyes
Aim to gain rapport with your audience by looking directly at them – not at your laptop, your notes, or your feet. However, avoid the unintentional temptation to make a particular audience member your focal point when public speaking. It makes an innocent participant feel self conscious and uncomfortable.

4) Speak With Then, Not Just At Them
Encourage audiences to interact with you during your presentations. Allowing them to interject with doubts, questions and relevant comments is testament to the fact that they are engaged with you. Your competent feedback further enhances their confidence in you and what you have to say.

5) Clock The Atmosphere
Let your emotional intelligence guide you. At certain points during your presentations, the mood of your audiences might get confrontational and heated, or down tempo and low on energy. Drop in anecdotes or jokes at such junctures, to lighten any tension or regain waning engagement.

6) Avoid Useless Fillers
Whether you have a tendency to “um” and “ah”, or use particular turns of phrase over frequently when you speak, weaning yourself off them will improve your public speaking. They are often more irritating to audiences than you realise.

7) Answer Questions Accurately
When preparing your presentations, put yourself in your audience’s shoes and anticipate the questions they might fire at you. This is a great way of forearming and forewarning yourself. Besides taking audience questions throughout the duration of your presentations, make sure you leave plenty of time at the end for closing questions. The answers you provide should confirm and amplify the messages you deliver throughout the session.

Overcoming the fear of presentation palpitations

You might know or work with certain individuals who approach the delivery of presentations with unbelievable gusto – we all do.  Never fear that you are some sort lost cause if you, on the contrary, are totally daunted and flawed at the prospect.  In fact, they are in the minority and you are in the majority, as public speaking ranks highly as a universal worst case scenario, striking untold terror in to millions of people worldwide.

However, like or not – and let’s be honest, in most cases we are definitely talking about like it not – you are more than likely to be called upon to give a number of presentations throughout your personal and professional life.  Confident and proficient public speaking is realistically within your grasp when you learn to believe in yourself and aim to master your craft.  Just like any other skill, it comes naturally to a gifted few, yet requires fine honing for most mere mortals.

You can and you will beat the palpitations caused by looming presentations.  Those ‘in the know’ have done so by learning about what are known as the five Ps of public speaking and by incorporating the wisdom of these simple lessons in to their codes of conduct and plans of action.

1)    Passion
It is imperatively important that you are passionate about the subject matter of your presentations.  If you are not fired up about it, why on earth would anyone else be?  Think about the know-like-trust theory.  The more you know about the topic at hand, the more you will hopefully like it.  Consequently, the more you know and like it, the more you will not only trust it, but you will also trust yourself to share your views about it, cojently and enthusiastically, with your audiences.

2)    Persistence
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try and try again”.  Have a little mettle and do not get too down in the mouth if your first few presentations fall slightly short of the triumphs you had envisaged.  Keep your chin up and aim to deliver your presentations repeatedly if you can, noting the vast improvements you make each time.

3)    Positivity
Just before the delivery of your presentations, focus in on your ‘can do’ rather than your ‘can’t do’ mindset. Tell yourself that you can and you will knock your audience’s socks off with your dynamic presentations and deft delivery skills.  Glasses half full are infinitely more appealing than glasses half empty, so inspire yourself to go for it and spread some joy.

4)    Practice
Going overboard with the practicing of your presentations simply does not exist, as practice makes perfect.  Go through your presentations out loud to yourself, and also in front of trusted colleagues, family members or friends who will offer you firm yet fair feedback.  Then go back to the drawing board to redress any issues with your flow and wording.  If at all possible, it is also a great nerve soother to have a practice in the actual rooms in which your presentations will be delivered.  The environments will feel less hostile and more familiar to you.

5)    Preparation
Comprehensive preparation offsets a multitude of sins.  Once your subject matter has been agreed upon, your first port of call should be your own experience, backed up by copious research.  The coupling of what you know and what you have learnt will make preparing for your presentations much easier, free flowing and logical.  Your preparation also extends to a pre-understanding of your audiences.  Knowing about their age groups and levels of proficiency in the topics under the microscope gives you the competitive edge to pitch your content and style just so.