How to Be Stage Ready with Your PowerPoint Presentation

Alan Ware is a Senior Video Engineer with decades of experience in live event production. In this video, he talks about how to be stage ready with your PowerPoint presentation.

Number one, content. You need to be confident in the content. The points need to be concise, simple, and clear in order to effectively communicate the relevant information to the audience. Limit the number of words on slides and maximize the use of descriptive images and engaging videos.

PowerPoint version. Make sure you created your PowerPoint show in a recent version of PowerPoint and that the version you will be displaying it on is compatible with that. Also, bear in mind P-C versus Mac, can make a difference formatting wise.

Images and videos. Make sure the images and videos are high resolution so that they look clear and sharp but make sure they’re not too high quality. A video that is too long or image files that are too large will cause the PowerPoint presentation to slow down and be less responsive, especially if multiple images are layered onto a slide.

Fonts. If a proprietary or uncommon font is being utilized in the slide deck, make sure a copy of this font is included in the folder with the PowerPoint presentation file. So that it can be installed on the show computer. Now timings. If there are slide transitions, make sure that they are tested and function correctly.

Loop. Select loop continuously until escape, under setup show to avoid a black screen if the presentation is advanced beyond the last slide.

Notes. The most reliable way of providing notes for the presenter is to create a companion notes PowerPoint presentation. White text on a black background with each slide corresponding to its partner slide in the show presentation deck. Taking into account any builds within the slide and a small picture of the show slide can be included in the notes slide.

And importantly, rehearse. The completed PowerPoint presentation should be rehearsed by the presenter before entering the show venue. To make sure the content works smoothly and correctly and that the length of the presentation is correct.