If you are anything like me, you probably spend a significant amount of your time stuck in meetings. You end up seeing the same boring PowerPoint presentations in the same boring format over and over again. It’s one of the reasons why I started this blog, to inspire better presentations. Sometimes however, inspiration isn’t enough; sometimes people need a more concrete approach. With that in mind, I thought as an early holiday gift, I’d give you 4 fun things to add to your next presentation!
Choose your own adventure
On the surface, PowerPoint is very linear. You create a deck and move from slide 1 to slide 2 to slide 3 etc. What if though, you gave your audience only the content they wanted to see, in the order they wanted to see it?
It’s actually very easy to accomplish. Simply add a title page with links to the different parts of your presentation. Then at the end of each section, you have a return link to the title page. During the presentation, ask your audience to vote on what they want to see. The voting will engage your audience, and the selection will ensure they want to watch what you show them.
You can of course, be as creative as you want with this format. It’s your presentation, so why not try taking your audience on an adventure? Get them to make choices and give input that changes your presentation before their eyes! Since it is the holiday season, I’ve created a mini-template to get you started. All of the images used are from unsplash.com and free to use for corporate / personal use. You can download the template here! https://alesandrab.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/choose-your-adventure.pptx
Embed a Functioning Excel Worksheet
Did you know you can have a totally functional Excel Worksheet embedded in a PowerPoint slide? This is super easy, just a couple of clicks. Click the Insert Menu, then choose Object from the menu ribbon. Then either click on Excel Worksheet under ‘Create new’ or click ‘Create from File’ and browse out to an Excel worksheet and select it. Obviously a large format worksheet isn’t going to work well here, but if you create or insert a small functional worksheet, it should be easy to navigate and use.
This can allow you to brainstorm new ideas, or to update a project or even to decide on dates etc., without ever leaving the presentation! I haven’t created a template for this one, but I think you get the idea.
Blankety Blank
Adding a quiz is another easy way to add interactivity. And a fill in the blanks quiz is even easier. To do it, simply insert a slide with words and phrases with blanks to fill. You can either add this at the end of a section or at the end of a presentation. You’ll get some entertaining answers, and insight into what people remembered. Again, I’ve not created a template, but I think you’ll get the idea from the picture below… This one isn’t as visually stimulating as I would like, but you can make it as pretty or as visual as you want! You don’t even have to have the words on screen. You could simply have one slide with a picture saying quiz and read out the quiz questions. Then engage the audience to fill in the blanks!
Insert a live poll
Did you know you can have polls embedded in your presentation through PowerPoint add ins. My favorite is Poll Everywhere, which requires Windows 7 and office 2007 or later.
Poll Everywhere is a web-based audience response system. The audience responds on the web or via SMS texting on their phones and the chart in your presentation updates automatically with their responses. Check out the quick video below! It’s fun and easy to use and adds an element of interactivity that is unmatched!
And that’s it! 4 fun things to add to your next presentation. Hope this helps!
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