Making a Good Presentation

(image retrieved from http://parentingnotperfection.blogspot.com/2010/08/feeling-frazzled-mom-up.html)

Imagine that you've just received an assignment to give a huge presentation to a large crowd of your co-workers.  It may be a fairly complex subject that you know will be hard to present to a group of "lay people."  You also know that your future professional success could depend heavily on this presentation as your bosses will be depending on you to come through.  This is not a time to get frazzled as the lady is in the image above.  This should be a time for thought and planning.  The key to a successful presentation is preparedness. 

So how can you begin such a large task?  The first step to take when brainstorming for any presentation should be preparing a storyboard.  A storyboard is basically the first step in the presentation process that allows you to sketch out your ideas on paper.  This process can be as detailed as you would like it to be by actually drawing out slides, images you would like to include and speaking notes for each slide. 



Above is an example of a storyboard that was retrieved from( http://www.deniselynshue.com/storyboard.html)

This is a good example of a storyboard that was probably generated by some sort of computer program but this process can be as simple as grabbing a pencil and paper and physically drawing out each slide with appropriate comments.  This should just be used as a starting ground for your project.

Next I want to talk about the actual powerpoint presentation or whatever software you plan on using when making your visual presentation.  I think it is very important to keep things simple and only include key information that the listener will need to hone in on.  If you do your due research and become very knowlegeable on the subject matter you have to be careful to not overload the presentation that will confuse the listener and make them lose interest.  You want to include images and phrases that catch their attention and that you can elaborate on by speaking.  You also need to be prepared to take questions at any time during the presentation as well as afterward.  By taking questions you are ensured that someone is listening and interested in what you have to say.  Making a successful powerpoint presentation can be very complex but remember sometimes simpler is better.  There are many sites that will turn up when a powerpoint help search is done that will help you to establish what is proper presentation etiquette when drafting your design.

One last point I would like to make is the opening statements of the presentation.  This is the time to catch your listener's attention so you can keep their attention throughout the presentation.  I encourage you to do something different and unexpected that will catch their eye and attention.  This is a time to be funny and witty, possibly even share a short story that leads into the content of your presentation. 

So when you have to make an important presentation just remember that planning is essential.  The more you practice and tweak your presentation the more comfortable you will become which will help to take away any nerves that you may have in front of your peers on the big day!  Here is a link to a youtube video that describes several tips when designing your powerpoints!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2Tky6v0HE8

Excel Project

Over the last couple of days I have been working on the Excel Project for my business computing class.  This project gave me a great opportunity to polish a few old skills and learn a few new ones.  The assignment was to take a large sample of raw data that was taken from 500 people exercising in a gym and manipulate it according the gym owner's requirements.  Their heart rates were measured once every minute while working out and once every minute after the workout.  The gym owner's instructions included me formatting the raw data by adding new columns and formulas as well as using the pivot table function to analyze the data. 

I use Excel 2003 at work almost daily and have become very accustomed to using that version so it took me a few minutes to locate certain things such as the freezing of the first two rows so they will be displayed as the user scrolls down the spreadsheet.  However, the inserting of new columns and the resizing of columns was nothing new.  Another thing that was different in Excel 2007 was the formatting of the print preview screen.  It seems as though I have a lot more capabilities of formatting how the page is printed though.   

In several of the new columns that I inserted I had to write a formula to calculate certain results such as their target heart rate, whether or not that was acheived, and the percentage increase from the start of the exercise to their highest recorded heart rate.  Since I work with Excel quite frequently I found most of these to be fairly simple.  However, I did not know that there was a MAX function.  I think this function will be useful in my professional career as I plan to apply it the next time I have a similar goal at work.

Before this project I had never worked with pivot tables.  When analyzing large samples of data in the past I always found it to be very time consuming and more trouble than it was worth.  But with pivot tables you can analyze a large spreadsheet of data in a matter of seconds.  I am looking forward to applying this to my work in the near future.  Below is a screenshot of the pivot table I made to find the average percentage increase in heart rate for males and females of certain age groups.

Overall, I found this project to be challenging and rewarding.  I hope that I can put to good use some of the new features I've learned such as pivot tables and some of the print options I've learned as well.  I really enjoy working with Excel and am looking forward to learning some more of the advance features.