Here are two great websites from where you can download high quality stunning photos and illustrations and use it for your presentations. No need to link back to the site. Pixabay Pexels Pixabay is a great resource which has high resolution photos, illustrations and icons.  Check out more sites here . Do read the license or terms before downloading from any such website. Update #1 Here is a new and comprehensive list of 73 websites which offer free images. Not all the sites are equally good though. Read the reviews and check the ratings.  Thanks Joyce from Canva for the tip. #2 Do check out PikWizard too! Thanks David for the tip.

This is a guest post by Jessica. She has written a post before as well. It takes a lot of effort to create a presentation that captures the attention of your audience and makes them stay with you until the end of it. One of the most effective ways to connect with your audience while making a presentation is by telling them a story through it. Why tell a story? Who doesn't like a good story? Be it in the form of a good book, a movie or even your friends sharing anecdotes; as humans, we relate to stories more than we do to mere numbers. Research says that evolution has wired us to pay more attention to stories. Every time we listen to a story, our brains instinctively become more active. A simple cause and effect story does a lot to awaken our interest and make us think. Using stories in your presentations will also make your presentation more engaging and memorable. Also note that optimisitic stories are more powerful in evoking emotions and inspiring action. How can you m...

www.pixabay.com Your slides are important to your presentation. Good looking slides create a good impression on your audience. You are ready with your slides and you have some time. I suggest you use our Graphic Equalizer approach and enhance the look of your slides immediately. It is a slide makeover technique to instantly make your slides more impactful. Words: Reduce the number of words from your slide.  This is the most difficult job and you need to force yourself to do this. Can you replace all the words with an image? Can you convert the text to a SmartArt diagram / info graphic? Think. Images: Increase the visual appeal of your slide. Have one large image (covering the entire slide) or use icons. Having visuals in almost every other slide is the way to go. Bullets: Bullet points are dead and you can only use when there is no other choice. Reduce the number of bullets per slide. If possible, remove them altogether. Fonts: Do not have multiple types o...

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is an interesting comic satire on HBO. The show and its anchor have some very good lessons for all presenters. If you have never watched Last Week Tonight, see this episode first. Most episodes on YouTube are 10 to 15 minutes long. Let us break down this 11 minute video. Part 1 (Introduction): In the  first minute he talks about Halloween and then introduces the topic sugar. Lots of humor at the start. The show was just a few days before Halloween. Part 2 (Making people care): Now comes the serious stuff. Why should we care about this topic (sugar)? Because the average american consumes 3 times more sugar than required. Visuals add to the 'oh my god' factor. Sugar also appeals to all of us naturally and hence food companies add it in everything. So hidden sugar in food is the real story here. Sugar is bad and we all know that. No one will bother with this old news. Its the hidden sugar that's new and interesting (and shocking)...

Management fests in colleges are quite common. I happened to be a judge at a fest last week. It was in St. Stephens College, Hyderabad and the contest was called 'Pitch Perfect'. 9 teams from all over India were given a topic and given an hour to prepare. They had to come and present their suggestions (a PPT) in 5 minutes. A tough task for various reasons: 1. Limited time to prepare 2. Limited time to present Impressing the judges was the toughest job. As a judge, I realised, after a PPT ended I was hardly able to recall what the team had spoken about. I could remember just 2 to 3 things. After each pitch ended, I had to rate the team on the required parameters. So the crux for every team was to make an impact within those 5 minutes and ensure the judges were able to remember some of the stuff they spoke about. So what can you do, if you are tomorrow in the same situation? How should you present? Less Content, More Impact Less Content:   Force yourself to share...

    We are the Presentation Specialists. Write to us for a quote.