Traditionally, presentations begin with a title slide, but communications consultant John Windsor thinks it’s time to change that. He calls for the end of the title slide, reasoning that audiences, whether meaning to or not, can make a snap judgment of the presenter and the presentation solely by seeing the first slide. And what’s wrong with the traditional title slide? According to Windsor, the title slide “tends to be formal, rather than active or engaging.” Nothing that is usually written on the title slide causes audience members to sit up in their seats and engage themselves in the presentation.
Instead, Windsor suggests populating the very first slide of a presentation with either the presenter’s goal or the audience’s goal. “You’ll still get a chance to talk about your product, service, or idea, but you’ve given it a strong, personal context (your audience’s) into which to be considered,” Windsor writes. “That’s a much more powerful position to be in.”
In the rest of his article, appearing on ManageSmarter, Windsor explains how to create a winning “goal slide,” which you can read here.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Jessica Helinski