The power of presentation in the digital age

by Thomson Reuters Foundation
Monday, 27 February 2017 15:39 GMT

Eight seconds is now the average attention span. The New York Times argues that emails now resemble text messages, TV shows rush through shots at hyper-speed and mobiles have rewired our brains. So when you have people in the room, are you doing to the right things to hold their attention? 

We asked our professional trainer and former Reuters Journalist Camilla Reed for three tips on creating a persuasive presentation. 

1. Ditch the power point 

If you’re bored of seeing the same tired, stale-looking PowerPoint presentations and want to do something new or different but don’t know where to start, then this is the course for you. We show you what’s on offer internally and externally and let you try out a number of different tools like Prezi and Piktochart so you can see which suits you best.

There’s been an explosion in new and free tools to make your presentations have the polish and panache that used to only be available to costly professional designers. We share an array of these easy to use tools that will allow you to create a fact sheet, infographic, slide deck or animation in the same time or less. Participants have been amazed to discover what’s out there and how quickly they can master them to create something memorable and interactive.

2.Good looking presentations are key

We’re bombarded with information and our attention spans are shrinking, making it more difficult for us to get internal or external clients to listen and act on our key messages. We also need to recognise the difference between documentation and presentation tools and how the brain processes information. There’s powerful new research showing what works and doesn’t work in designing presentations that get a response and we’ve had great feedback from pparticipants who have been delighted with the results they are getting.

3. How can I make my presentations more interesting? 

Three-dimensional presentations, videos and infographics are appearing more frequently on company intranets. But if you think you’d still prefer to stick with PowerPoint, Thomson Reuters Foundation training can make your presentations more interactive and visually stimulating.

Camila Reed is the workshop Director and a communications expert. She delivers our Presentation Toolkit - a must for anyone wanting to impress an audience with engaging and interactive content without hiring a design team. You will learn how to apply the latest web based applications to create dynamic and memorable presentations.

Find out more about our corporate communications training. 


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