Preparing Effective Presentations during Your MBA Course

Students who enroll for an MBA programme in one of the top MBA collages are required to make PPT presentations every now and then. Presentations must be such that they are capable of grabbing the attention of the audience who is evaluating you. As a presenter you shouldn't use PPT presentations as note cards. A PowerPoint presentation is not at all meant for that purpose. As an MBA student you must avoid doing this and use presentations as only a map to help emphasize your points.

When making a professional PowerPoint presentation, keep the following points in your mind to be effective with it:

• Go with 6x6 rule. Do not fill the presentation slides with redundant text and follow the 6x6 rule i.e., 6 words per line and 6 lines per slide.

• Use sufficiently big font size for it to be legible. Anything over the size of 72pts is always better. This will make sure that the person sitting in the last row during your presentation can see your point.

• Make use of illustrations. Illustrations are very effective if you want to grab the attention of your audience. Imagery helps in attracting and retaining the attention of your audience. Do not forget that, “An image is worth a thousand words”. Make use of professional PowerPoint templates if you are not very good with designs.

• Do not make your background design loud. Keep the background simple and do not use a lot of colors. Adjust the color text to keep it distinguished from the background. For example, if you are using a light background, keep the color of your text dark. Once again, use professional PowerPoint templates if you are not familiar with use of colors and design.

• Use professional presentation background and avoid using a random photo as your presentation background. It will be distracting.

• Do not use sound effects unless you are pretty sure of its utility as sound effects are distracting most of the time.
• Sound effects distract and thus do not use it unless you are completely sure of its utility.

• AVOID CAPITAL fonts in your presentations, as they are hard to read.

• Use simple and professional fonts and remain consistent with a selected font type.

• And lastly, make your presentations interactive. Keep your audience engaged with questions and other activities.

Following these points, you as an MBA/PGDM student can produce really effective presentations to win your audience. Asia-Pacific Institute of management encourages overall growth of its management students. As such, the management institute promotes activities like presentation and discussions which contribute a lot to the overall personality development of its MBA students.