Motion Path is a powerful animation technique in MS PowerPoint. If deployed effectively it can work wonders for you. Know when to use them and it will bring a lot of value to your presentation. For the uninitiated, Motion Path is an animation feature (Animation -> Custom Animation -> Add Effect -> Motion Paths) which allows you to move objects/text/shapes across the slide. You can move objects in any direction you want to. You can also draw a custom path and make things move.
If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I have recruited 24 interns and they are working on a project. They have been divided into 4 teams namely Victory, Superstar, Nawabs and Prince. Every week I review their performance and I present to them, among other things, their cumulative team scores.
While preparing one of my review presentations, I noticed that the Prince team had done really well and came up from the last position to the second position. So after showing them the score charts I wanted highlight this very point. So what did I do?
I could have just put up the slide and told them "Look how the prince have come up so fast, from the last position to second place." But, this is what everyone does and I wanted to do something different. I wanted to bring this fact (of Prince coming up so fast) to life. So I relied on Motion Paths.
Step - 1
I drew an arrow and animated it 'Entrance + Fade (On Click)' and placed it where the Prince line chart started
Step - 2
I selected the arrow -> Add Effects -> Motion Paths -> Diagonal Up Right
Step - 3
I adjusted the path to suit my exact direction of movement (just below the Price chart). Then I animated it 'On Click' and set the speed to slow.
Step - 4
Put another arrow at the last stage of Prince, where they are at the No. 2 position. Animated it 'Entrance Fade (On Click)'.
All of it in just two minutes!
I presented it thus:
After putting up the chart I said "Let us look at how Team Prince has been doing over the past few days". (1st Click - You see the arrow appearing. Indicating that Prince were at last place). They were at the bottom at the initial stages. (2nd Click - The arrow starts to move underneath the Prince line chart) Look how they continued to be in the last place as the week progressed. Last all the time. And now... (3rd Click - Another arrow appears where the chart is ending). They are No. 2. Pumped Up Prince indeed."
This is a better way of presenting this kind of information. It brings your data to life and brings immense amount of clarity and drama to your presentation. There is however a word of caution. Motion Path is animation. And you should know when and how to use it. Use animation sparingly and use it to highlight something very important.
Have you used motion paths ever? Can you think of a situation where you could have used this technique in your last presentation?
My experience teaches me that presentations that are dramatic do well. Before I share with you why, let me define what I mean by drama.
Drama would mean creating some curiosity or suspense or humor. Something like a play or a movie. Ideally at the start and only in presentations which are not formal. You cannot dramatize a quarterly review presentation. Can you?
This month I gave 3 presentations to a group of 24 interns (if you have been following my blog you would already know I recruited these MBA interns and am getting some work done from them for my company). These 3 presentations were for the weekly review of their performance, collecting feedback and motivating them. Formal situation but required humor and there was a strong need to connect with the interns. To motivate as well as to make them comfortable.
The presentations were well received. The measure of success being the active audience participation and the fact that no one dozed off! (the review presentation used to be post market working when people were pretty tired).
There was something I did in every presentation. I gave every presentation a dramatic start.
Presentation 1. Image of Mahatma Gandhi's 3 monkeys
Presentation 2. Image of Sri Yantra with 4 numbers written on the four edges
Presentation 3. A scatter plot (with only dots and no x & y axes)
Every presentation started with an image. And this image used to be there from the start. While the students were entering the hall, were settling down. It was there staring at their face, making them think about it, discuss with each other trying to figure it out.
Day 1. They did not even know what it all was. Seeing the three monkeys they just laughed. But when I started my presentation, I talked about the 3 monkeys, asked them what they were doing on my slides. The 3 monkeys are supposed to 'see no evil, hear no evil and say no evil'. I asked them not be like the famous monkeys and to actually speak out everything in the 'feedback' session.
Day 2 was when they came across the Sri Yantra. Hardly any one knew what it was. The numbers at the edges made them make a lot of guesses but none were right. The numbers represented there were indicators of how the best and the worst students were doing in the project. Best and worst students and two parameters of evaluation. Hence the 4 numbers.
Day 3. A seasoned audience knew something would be on the slides again. They put their best fight to explain what it was. One came close and won a chocolate from me as well. But none could guess. Then I completed the chart, added the axes, put labels and went on to explain that the 24 dots resembled their performance on a 3rd evaluation parameter of the project.
These presentations taught me an important lesson. The importance of dramatizing a presentation and that too right at the start.
Honestly the first day was lucky for me. I put the image because I wanted to tell them not to keep their mouths closed and tell me how they were doing, what problems they were facing. It worked. And post that, I used an image in the next two presentations.
The reason it clicked was that every image was related to the theme of the day. Something that I wanted to discuss and something that was very important.
Day 1: Do not keep your mouths closed and speak out.
Day 2: Improve your numbers. Increase your performance.
Day 3: In chasing numbers do not lose sight of productivity (quality).
Obviously the choice of image matters and I did choose good images. But what matters more is the connect. The images gave me a platform to create enough drama at the start. Got the audience involved and all ears. And then I drove the point into their minds.
If you want to give a dramatic start to your presentation, try this out. First choose whats the most important thing you want to focus on. What's the so called theme of the day. Then choose a good image which creates enough curiosity. It should not be so obvious that you kill the suspense. Then add a bit of drama in your voice and body language and pull it off!
You will feel a lot better about life. Trust me.
Wish you luck!
If you are a regular reader of my blog you know that I have recruited 24 interns and they are working on a project. They have been divided into 4 teams namely Victory, Superstar, Nawabs and Prince. Every week I review their performance and I present to them, among other things, their cumulative team scores. 
Step - 1