by Wai Heng Kelvin Lee

Created on: March 26, 2009

It's five minutes before your presentation, and you are waiting for the time to pass so that you can begin your presentation. Meanwhile, the audience is doing a variety of things - communicating with each other, using their phones, looking at the projection screen or looking at you.

What if I told you that those few minutes could be used so much more productively?

Well, in actual fact, you can make use this time to get your audience interested about what you are going to share with them even before the presentation has started.

This is important, because a study has found that within the first 15 seconds of your presentation, the audience has already made up their minds as to whether they are going to be receptive to what you have to say. And audience receptivity is crucial it could make or break the success of your presentation!

In the light of this information, being able to engage your audience before the start of your presentation would be an added advantage.

So how can this be done?

You could just allow the audience to view a mini slide show related to your main message before the actual presentation.

This technique can be carried out as follows:

First of all, select particular parts of your main presentation that will spark the audience's interest or imagination. Insert these interesting quotes, facts or questions into not more than 6 slides, and save them as a separate file. Next, set the slides to run on a loop. (visit http://www.figtree.com.sg/tips/powerpoint_tips200903 09_long.htm to read detailed instructions)

In your main presentation, draw a rectangle and place it at the lower left or right corner of a slide. After you change it's "fill" to 100% transparent and remove the outline, hyperlink your invisible rectangle to the mini slide show and save your file.

And that's all you have to do!

Applying this helpful technique is simple too:

- When the audience arrives and starts moving into the room, launch your actual presentation file.

- Click on the invisible rectangle to start the mini slide show.

- As the mini slide show runs, the audience would naturally look up and read it.

- When the time has come to start your main presentation, just hit "Esc" to close the mini slide show.

The anticipation created by the mini slide show can then ensure that your audience develops more receptive hearts and minds to your main presentation.

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