Building a Slide Deck

Image from Unsplash by Teemu Paananen

I’ve been fortunate to have had the experience of being on the international stage. The biggest audience might have been in one of the Asian countries, with over 5,000 people in the audience and 50,000 online.

For those who may be nervous about presenting — I’m in the same boat! I actually started as a foreigner, not speaking English very well and having to present in front of audiences. Over time, I’ve learned tricks to overcome the nerves.

Today I’m speaking specifically to developing the slides I’ve used while presenting. I always try to oversimplify things, but those who work with me know that everything that looks simple required a complex path! It takes time, energy, insights, and a whole lot of practice.

I gained insights that could potentially help you build slides for your presentations.

There is a difference between slides that you use for public consumption, and those for private consumption.

For public consumption, I try to keep my slides clean, clear, with simple messages. My presentations will always have an initial slide indicating the name of the presentation, and the organization to which I am presenting.

Then I move on to some type of agenda — what will be covered over the course of the day, to make sure we are all on the same page. Then I always ask any expectations of what they hope to get out of the discussion.

If it’s a big audience and I am the keynote, then clearly, I can’t ask that, because I can’t deal with 5,000 answers when I only have 30 minutes to deliver!

If it’s a smaller workshop, 100 or less — I usually will ask: What are your expectations?

I try to capture them to make sure I address them satisfactorily.

I try to have an image or two in the slides. If it’s an image slide representing certain things, I try to make sure everything is lined up, nothing is overlapping in weird ways, and part of it is making sure that people’s minds stay focused on me, not on the slides.

In between, my slides have 1–3 bullet points, and no more than 6 words in each line.

I also have a “closing slide” with questions and comments, a feedback slide, and a contact slide, and I use no more than two slides per minute of the presentation.

For private presentations, I sometimes use slides that may have a lot of text, or specific images. You may need to leave certain information behind — information that they may have interest in reading, or spending more time understanding the material.

That’s the frame of reference you may want to consider from my style. It might not work for you, you might need something else.

BEFORE YOU GO

We see our blogs as opportunities for dialogue. Please share your thoughts as comments.

1. When you present publicly, what should be on your slides?

2. How can you build them in a way that stays with one theme or one big idea all the way through?

3. What other tools have you used to build your slide deck?

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Faris Alami is Founder and CEO of International Strategic Management, Inc. (ISM). He works internationally, presenting Exploring Entrepreneurship Workshops and other entrepreneurial ecosystem — related ventures.