1 Comment

  • I agree, I have developed presentations for “non eval” people to present to others as well as ppts that were sent to different stakeholders as a “we can’t be here but we’d like for you to understand this” in lieu of a formal in person presentation. I am sure there are ways to be effective in different settings, I need to seek them out, great question to start of the day with!

  • Leave a Reply to Karen Anderson Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    “But clients like to read my PowerPoints on their laptop when they’re in bed…”

    Updated on: May 7th, 2012
    Presentations
    , , ,
    Ann K. Emery of Depict Data Studio sitting at a computer and speaking into the webcam.

    One of the best things about evaluation conferences is that you get a chance to see your former coworkers (aka. friends!) all in one place.

    I ran into my former teammate at the Eastern Evaluation Research Society’s annual conference just last weekend. After catching up on all the usual things (our current jobs, his adorable kids, etc.), we started talking about some of the best presentations we’d seen so far.

    I was telling my teammate about the American Evaluation Association’s Potent Presentations Initiative and how there will be plenty of trainings in the near future.

    “They’ll teach us great strategies,” I told him. “Like how to use fewer words on our slides, position the words and images to really get our messages across, and make sure our message is heard.”

    “Why would we want to change our PowerPoints?” he asked me.

    “Well… you know, the whole ‘Death by PowerPoint’ idea. Pasting an entire paragraph into PowerPoint and then reading the paragraph aloud for the audience is pretty, well, ineffective,” I said.

    “But clients like to read my PowerPoints on their laptop when they’re in bed,” he explained to me. “They want the PowerPoint to be like an executive summary of the entire evaluation project so they can read it the night before a big meeting. They expect my PowerPoint to have a lot of text. Clients want full paragraphs, and bullet points, and not too many images. It should read like a book, or at least a really descriptive brochure.”

    Hmmm.

    There are clearly different purposes for PowerPoints – as the backdrop for verbal conference presentations, as a deliverable to clients that should read like an executive summary of the project, or even to use as a handout in a meeting.

    There’s no “one size fits all” PowerPoint design, but perhaps evaluators can learn how to design PowerPoints differently for each of these different purposes?

    More about Jen Hamilton
    A major emphasis in Dr. Hamilton’s work has been social equity and improving the social, academic, economic, and health outcomes of our Nation’s most vulnerable youth. She brings together stakeholders to investigate complex problems from a variety of perspectives, and works collaboratively with clients to provide the right information at the right time. She specializes in evaluation methodology, with a focus on the design and implementation of rigorous experimental and quasi-experimental designs. Dr. Hamilton is a Scientific Reviewer for the Institute of Education Sciences and NSF, a certified What Works Clearinghouse reviewer, a peer reviewer for numerous journals, and Past-President of the Eastern Evaluation Research Society. Her chapter on program evaluation was published in a major textbook.

    1 Comment

  • I agree, I have developed presentations for “non eval” people to present to others as well as ppts that were sent to different stakeholders as a “we can’t be here but we’d like for you to understand this” in lieu of a formal in person presentation. I am sure there are ways to be effective in different settings, I need to seek them out, great question to start of the day with!

  • Leave a Reply to Karen Anderson Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    You Might Like

    Our complimentary mini course for beginners to dataviz. Takes 45 minutes to complete.

    Enroll

    When Graphs Have Multiple Takeaway Messages

    Sometimes our graphs have a single, overarching takeaway message. Maybe the numbers simply went up over time. Or down. Other times, it’s more complicated. Here’s how to explain multiple takeaway messages in presentations: with multiple slides, one per takeaway message.

    More »

    Want to design better slides? Terrified of public speaking? Learn how to avoid Death by PowerPoint by mastering the Message-Design-Delivery framework.

    Enroll

    Subscribe

    Not another fluffy newsletter. Get actionable tips, videos and strategies from Ann in your inbox.