Chiz Web

Purpose:  Providing the audience with information that

• is too detailed to present completely in the speech

• is too small in size to project

• that the audience will wish to refer to after the presentation is over.

Handouts can highlight key points just like any other visual and include charts, graphs, illustrations, photos, etc.  They can also provide supplemental information like thicker texts or bibliographies.  

Composition:

• Why do you need to use a handout instead of another method?  (see above purposes)

• Make enough copies for everyone, plus a few extra.  Expect to run out.  Have a sign-up sheet ready and promise to send copies to those who request them (and follow-through!)

• Always create these professionally, using a computer program.  Visual interest is important:  consider spacing, font size, etc. just as you would for any other visual.  Thick pages of information will be ignored.

• Use a variety of visuals--charts, text, pictures, etc.

• Color is nice, but expensive.  Use it sparingly for now.

• Always include a cover/title page with presenter names and contact information

• Don't use PowerPoint's® automatic audience handouts with replications of the slides, etc.  These are tacky, poorly reproduced, and provide little good space for the audience's notes.   I have more successfully pasted the "outline view" from PowerPoint® into Word® and then edited the points for appearance. 

Presentation:

• #1 Rule:  Whenever you pass them out, the audience will look at them instantly.   Therefore, choose when to distribute them and how that will impact your presentation.

  • Before presentation.  If there is information you will be using throughout the entire presentation or if there is a substantial amount of information that you know they will have to read at a later time.  I usually do it this way.

  • During presentation.  This may interrupt the flow of your presentation.  Don't stop talking as you do it.  Better, have a partner distribute while you speak.  Even so, be prepared for distractions, which means that distribution during a break or transition period where audience attention isn't so critical is a good idea.

  • After presentation.  Only for information that is completely a supplement to the presentation.  Even information on slides and overheads could/should be offered during the presentation so the audience can take their own notes next to the ideas presented.

• Refer to them.  Always talk about the handouts and make use of them during the presentation.  Don't read them to the audience (they are literate, after all), but highlight key ideas.

• Be conscious of page-flipping.  Not only does it make noise (especially if 400 do it together), but it interrupts the flow of the presentation.  Try to build transitions into the presentation at points where you think they will flip pages.

• Complement with projection.  Some of the best presentations take handout visuals and place them on a projector or overhead for emphasis so that the speaker can point directly to items.

Video

Video is a space break for longer presentations and should be used, if appropriate and specific to the presentation.   It's also good for testimonials, demonstrations, and animation.

• Unlike slides and other projected visuals, the speaker is often sidelined during these, so videos should be short to keep the speaker's credibility and presentation intact.  One rule might be that videos should not be more than 20% of any presentation.

• Alternatively, longer videos can be silent or play quiet music for the speaker to talk over.  Or, the speaker can record his/her own voice on the video (though if the recording is bad, it's not worth it).

• Therefore the video does not have to follow the line of sight rule for other projected visuals.  It can happen anywhere in the room so long as the audience can see it easily.

• Always set up a video, talking about its value and what the audience should be watching for.  Having a handout for notes or an outline of key points to accompany the video works well.

• Always debrief after a video to place the focus back on the speaker and make certain that the message was received.  Solicit audience feedback through written or Q&A responses.

• Always double-check equipment, especially for sound levels and image size, prior to the presentation.  I've seen countless presentations where the speech stops while we fumble with tapes and buttons and grow exasperated.  Get it set up first so that the only buttons needed are "Play" and "Stop."  Use a partner.

• Watch lighting.  If the room must be darkened, be prepared for handling this and realize that the speaker is now out of picture, so to speak!

Overheads

Still the most versatile and easiest visual, they allow prepared slides and freehand notes, but have drawbacks as well.

Drawbacks:

• Often requires some darkness near the screen.

• If writing on an overhead, the speaker can be drawn down into the screen instead of looking at audience.

• Distracting "flip flip flip" of slide after slide.  Always awkward.

• Fan blowing can obscure speaker or distract audience

• Blinding audience with white screen!

Recommendations:

• Use multi-colored markers and practice writing largely and neatly with them

• For size, you should be able to read an unprojected  transparency's letters at a 6 foot distance.  Also, use the formula:  the audience should be no more than 5x the width of the screen in distance.  Therefore, a four foot screen can accommodate an audience 20 feet away.

• Talk through your switching of transparencies; don't stop to switch. A good pattern is to summarize what the last slide said as you switch or preview the next slide

• Frame transparencies.  Mount them in a cardboard frame to make the edges clean and avoid the scattered look on the screen.  Office supply stores carry these to fit in binders and with plastic overlays to write on.  Cool.

• Create a "bumper" with masking tape on the projector to help you align the transparency easily rather than let it be juggled across the projector and screen.

• To avoid blinding the audience with white light between transparencies, try one of these approaches:

  • Turn the projector on and off between slides.  However, this is hard on the bulb and creates a distraction in fan noise change in the room.

  • Try overlapping the new transparency on the old one and then slipping the old one away.  This requires two hands, but can work well.

  • Create a simple flip cap out of cardboard and tape to hide the top projector lens while you change transparencies.  This has worked for me. 

The key advantage to the blackboard, whiteboard, or easel is that it is interactive.  Use them for interaction!

Ten Ideas:

• Practice writing largely and neatly on the boards.

• Use multi-colored markers or chalk for visual interest

• Consider using audience members or partners to write for you--adds interest and motivation

• Avoid turning to face the board for too long--this creates either a "wait time" (dead time) or you end up speaking to the board instead of the audience.

• Don't lean against a chalk board or white board--clothes get marked! 

• Write what the audience says.  The interactive part of the board demands that you use it for this.  Otherwise, another more professional visual form of your own ideas should be used.  Use it for Q&A, brainstorming, or other interactive work. 

• Write key points, never sentences or lengthy phrases.  You don't have time or space.

• Try to avoid flipping easel pages noisily or clumsily; practice.  If you choose to tear pages, tear by grabbing the bottom edge of the paper with both hands and pulling swiftly and strongly down, not carefully and slowly. 

• Try breaking the audience into groups for multiple responses on different easels or finding information to different questions.  Additionally, audiences can rotate to different easels to respond to other groups' answers.  Also, multiple easels can be used to place marks/stickers on ideas as a kind of active voting. 

• Consider visual placement of the easel so that it is easily accessible to writers and visible to audience.  Some can collapse to sit atop tables.  Others can be placed against walls behind speakers.