NINA KOKOTAS HAHN
Writer, Editor, and Interactive Producer
Welcome! Take a look around to learn more about me and the work I love to do. You'll see that I provide creative copy and content development to organizations across the country. You'll also find I bring substantial management experience to every task I undertake. Add three words—integrity, inspiration, and energy—and voilà, there you'll have me.
My areas of expertise include conversational writing, travel writing, copywriting, blogging and social media posting, SEO, project management, e-learning, and creative direction.
Contact me today to find out how I can help you on your next assignment!
Communicate with style: “I want to love you, PPT”
Imagine creating a PowerPoint Presentation (PPT) that awes and inspires your audience, a wonderfully “sticky” experience that generates the kind of happy joy coming from the Michael Jackson song going on in the background here. It can be done and it’s as easy as thinking about PowerPoint in a different way. Forget bulleted lists, clip art, and 80′s office imagery, PowerPoint is more akin to a beautiful, oddly cinematic experience tied neatly around a meaningful story.
If you’re looking to create powerful and lasting PowerPoint Presentations, follow these tips to do it with style.
- First, forget what you know and start thinking of PPT presentations as an opportunity to tell a short and entertaining story. An interesting story not only creates a sticky experience folks will remember, it also provides an opportunity to explain a complicated idea or underscore and support the key points of your presentation.
- Use high-quality images. Beautiful and inspiring images contribute to the story and actually do a lot of talking for you. Large images are great, too, but it’s best not to use more than four images at a time. And for those images requiring explanation, do it via your live presentation rather than directly on the slide.
- Keep text to a minimum. Try to focus on one point or message per slide and avoid bulleted lists like the plague (unless you’re sharing an agenda). Edit down, edit down, edit down. Repeat.
- Consider what really matters. Throughout the process of creating your presentation, put yourself in the shoes of your audience and stop often to ask, “so what?” If it doesn’t matter, don’t include it.
- Remember, you are the star of the show, the meat and potatoes, the big Kahuna, not the slides. Think of PPT slides as an added dimension and interesting backdrop to your presentation. They are in addition to your ideas and concepts, not a summary or replacement.
Inspired by my favorite presentation gurus, Garr Reynolds and Presentation Zen, and Edward Tufte.
Was this tip helpful? Share a comment and let me know what you think!
