The questions is how will you save every slide of your presentation as an image file. The answer actually is very simple and this is something I discovered today. In MS PowerPoint 2010 File --> Save as --> Choose Save as type --> JPEG Computer will then ask: "Every Slide" or "Current Slide only". By choosing "Every Slide" all your slides will become separate images. Fantastico!

Today I sat through a 20 minute presentation which was irrelevant and a sheer waste of time. I had to agree to give time to this B2B business development manager. He had come to talk about his company and what they do. I already knew most of it. Moreover, I was not interested. And this presenter flew all the way from Mumbai to meet a few clients like me. What a waste of time and money for his company! What the presenter should have done? Ask me before coming what I wanted to hear. A small amount of market research helps a lot. By knowing what I would take interest in, he could have made the meeting much more interesting and useful. To him and to me. I regret sitting through the 20 minutes. What a waste!

I keep writing about what you should do as a presenter. But most of the times you are part of the audience and someone else is presenting to you. In this post I talk about 1 trick the presenter is playing on you. Beware! Here is a chart which I came across a few days back. Check out how the conversation shaped up after it was presented. Presenter:  "Look at the outstanding growth we have achieved in 2013 over 2012. A growth of 20%. We have really done well as a company." My Colleague: "You have done well. But why does the growth look so high on this chart? The graph makes me feel the growth is way more than 20%." At this point, everyone in the audience realized the trick that was being played upon them. Have you got it yet? Look closely. The growth 'looks' stunning because the bar graph has been 'tweaked'. The Y-axis is not starting at 0. See what happens if we change the axis to 0. This is the proper graph which 'should have...

In every speech or presentation, there comes a time when you make your most important point. Or there can be 2 or 3 places where you say something very important and you desire extra attention from the audience. What do you do in such a case? You can pause . You can pause just before making that crucial point. A silence for even 10 seconds will get everyone to pay attention again. You can also pause after you have made that point. This will let the meaning of the message sink in. You need to give the audience some extra time to digest what you have just said. Since what you are saying is new, they need to listen, then think about it. If you do not pause, where is the time for the audience to think over. In every presentation you make, decide beforehand some slides where you will pause. Pause before and get everyone to pay attention. Then make that important point. Then pause again and let the message sink in. Pause > Message > Pause

1. Go through every slide of your presentation and ask yourself, "What is it that my audience will find difficult to understand?" You will realize that the foreigner  does not know what you mean when you say, South India. He/she might not know the city they are sitting in right now is in North india. 2. Using Maps:  Handhold the audience, go slow and make them comfortable. Give them a nice print out of the map of your country / state (if your presentation requires your audience to understand the geography). Understand that they are totally unfamiliar with your map. 3. Talking Currency. Your audience might not understand what you mean by $10 or Rupees 5, if he has lived all his life in The Netherlands. 4. Keep checking your audience understanding. Keep asking every once in a while "Should I move on, or do you have any questions?" 5. Avoid Jargon all together. Your audience might not understand what do you mean by 'middle class'. In India, we us...

Hello friends I have completely revamped the look and feel of the blog. It is now more user-friendly and easier to navigate. I have also added 3 tabs on the top. In Best of the Blog tab you can discover the best posts I have written in the past 5 years. If you want to access the best stuff on my blog, just visit this section. Click here to check that out. It is highly recommended that you have a look. I will keep updating this page. I do freelance work for my clients and help them make awesome presentations. In Services tab I have shared this info. It also has the name of some of my clients. Click here to check it out. You can contact me if you or your company wants to hire me to help you make your next presentation. Finally in the About Me section, you have my contact details . I am happy with the overall look and feel. There are still a few minor touches to be given. Do check out the blog once. All you guys who are reading this on email or feed reader, visit the we...

When you are sitting in a meeting and you get a 'crazy' idea, what do you do? You keep quiet. You don't share it with your colleagues/friends because it is a 'crazy idea'. You keep it to yourself. And why do you do that? Because, you are afraid of being wrong. You think if the idea is stupid people will laugh at you. You are afraid of being judged. You want to 'maintain' your good image. So, here is the simplest tip ever given to unlock your creativity. Stop judging your ideas and start sharing them freely. When you get a 'crazy' idea next time in the boardroom or the classroom, just share it. Sir Ken Robinson has said in this awesome talk , unless we are prepared to be wrong, we can never come up with something original. Notice what this means. If we are prepared to fail, if we are prepared for some people laughing at us, then only can we really become creative. You need to take the risk. It is worth it. The next time you get a crazy idea...