Author Topic: Mini Presentation Advice  (Read 5984 times)

Offline kylec

  • Patron Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1090
    • Christmas in Lake Stevens
Mini Presentation Advice
« on: April 22, 2009, »
I am going to be giving a presentation this weekend at our local mini.  The topic is DIY Christmas light controllers.  If anyone wants to take a look at my power point and give any feedback, that would be great!  If there's anything I should add, or take away, or whatever........let me know what you think.

I only get 40 minutes to speak.  I will probably spend at least 10 minutes talking about the LE.  So I don't have a lot of time to go into detail on EVERYTHING.

Thanks!

Kyle   ;D ;D
« Last Edit: April 24, 2009, by kylec »
Excess is Success
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Offline RJ

  • Administrator
  • Sr. Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8519
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2009, »
All I could see was that the Lynx wireless module plugs in, it is not soldered in permanent.


Not a big thing.

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline knguyen916

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 530
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2009, »
Can you up a 2000-2003 version of this. I don't have MS 2007

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login
I am going to be giving a presentation this weekend at our local mini.  The topic is DIY Christmas light controllers.  If anyone wants to take a look at my power point and give any feedback, that would be great!  If there's anything I should add, or take away, or whatever........let me know what you think.

I only get 40 minutes to speak.  I will probably spend at least 10 minutes talking about the LE.  So I don't have a lot of time to go into detail on EVERYTHING.

Thanks!

Kyle   ;D ;D

Offline Ron

  • Patron Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1387
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2009, »
You can download the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack if you have and older office version.  It will allow you to open the file.

You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Ron
« Last Edit: April 22, 2009, by Ron »

Offline Ron

  • Patron Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1387
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2009, »
Kyle,

Nice job on the presentation, I like the way it flows.  One thing I would think about is the color of the text on the background though.  I had a hard time reading the red text on the green background on my PC, so it might be difficult when projected.  You might try looking at a different color font for a little more contrast.

Ron

Offline bugless

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 54
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2009, »
Very good use of images so that your listeners can see what you are talking about.

The red text is somewhat difficult to read, white might be a better color.

You might also want to try using one of the animation options to transition from slide to slide, it usually adds to the presentation as well.

Good luck on your talk

Doug




Offline REM

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #6 on: April 23, 2009, »
One piece of general advice I can offer is how to better handle the way you add bullets to a slide so that they appear one by one.  You typically start by making one single slide with all of the content. Then right-click somewhere and select Custom Animations to open that pane.  Then select an element on the slide like the text of the first bullet. Back on the Custom Animations pane click Add Effect and select something like Entrance / Fly In.  You can manually control when the animation starts by choosing Start: On Click. Then you can choose the speed and direction it flies in from.  Do that for each bullet, picture or element on the page you want to animate.

Using this technique allows you to keep the number of slides down to a manageable number and adds flexibility and creativity.

Ron

Offline dmaccole

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 758
    • PacificaLights.info
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #7 on: April 23, 2009, »
Kyle:

Here are some of my thoughts:

*Between slides 13 and 14,  you might add a slide that defines a coop (a rewrite from the DIYC wiki: A co-operative effort where members pool their resources to make a purchase of an item or items in large enough quantities in order to gain price discounts.)

*I like to think of PPT slides as billboards -- you need to keep the word-count down to something that somebody driving by at 55 miles an hour can read and understand. You have a few slides that exceed the 55-mile limit, but Slide 26 probably needs to be broken down into three or four slides it has so many words.

*In Slide 29, there shouldn't be an apostrophe in "its" (I've always gotten that wrong too and one of the tricks I use to make sure I don't make that mistake is to ask myself whether the words "it is" can substitute; if they can, there's an apostrophe; if they can't, there isn't).

*After Slide 53, I'd add either RJ's or Rick's WMV files that shows what LNT does.

Otherwise, when you include some of the above comments, I think you will have an outstanding presentation.

Best of luck.

\dmc
________________________
The only thing more dangerous than a software engineer with a soldering iron or a hardware engineer with a compiler is a liberal-arts major with either.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Offline REM

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 285
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #8 on: April 23, 2009, »
Good points from dmc. I especially like the 55-mph billboard analogy and meant to mention that too.  Short simple bullet points are best.  You can use the notes section at the bottom to write up more detail to use as your talking points.

Offline kylec

  • Patron Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1090
    • Christmas in Lake Stevens
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2009, »
Thanks for the tips!  I've never done anything like this before, so I didn't really know what I was doing  :D.

I'll work on this tonight, and use all your ideas.

Thanks,

Kyle   ;D ;D
Excess is Success
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Offline abell

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 169
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #10 on: April 23, 2009, »
We technical people focus so much on the details we forget the creative sides to things. I like the presentation, but you need some pictures (pretty ones too) explaining that a mega-tree might take 16 channels or that the mini-tree's can take 3-4 channels. The setup and the howto and the cost awareness is nice with the powerpoint, but let's show some of this beauty while breaking everything down.

Offline kylec

  • Patron Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 1090
    • Christmas in Lake Stevens
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #11 on: April 24, 2009, »
Here is my revised presentation.  I think I hit everything that was suggested.  The only thing I'm not sure about is how to end.  Should I have some kind of "in conclusion" page?

Thanks again for all the ideas!

Kyle  ;D ;D
Excess is Success
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Offline vairmoose

  • Patron Member
  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 827
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #12 on: April 24, 2009, »
For a conclusion, it is always good to go back to your initial position..  in this case it is "why do DIY"...    emphasizing the fun, adventure, control, and  cost savings.   and do it using all the tricks that have been mentioned.       i.e.   one slide, short and to the point bullets (the flyin is very good here).   

and one final line... something like "you are limited only by your imagination" 

Larry
3 today (standing at light switch, holding two lighters)
Going live in 2012

Offline dmaccole

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 758
    • PacificaLights.info
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #13 on: April 24, 2009, »
Slide 41 -- another errant "it's" ... ;) ...

\dmc
________________________
The only thing more dangerous than a software engineer with a soldering iron or a hardware engineer with a compiler is a liberal-arts major with either.
You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

Offline cmorda

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Posts: 138
  • 93003
Re: Mini Presentation Advice
« Reply #14 on: April 24, 2009, »
It looks nice.

There is no price point for the Express.

Chris
Ventura, CA