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When someone delivers a PowerPoint presentation to an audience, it is not a comfortable experience to remain tied to your computer. This may potentially hamper your interaction with your audience and interrupt the flow of your presentation. An alternative approach is to have an assistant manage the slides and carry out your instructions. That way, you would not be needed to be tied to the screen, but passing on the instructions can similarly affect your flow of speech. You can find a way out of this by using a presentation clicker. Equipped with these presentation or PowerPoint clickers, you will be able to roam the room as much as you want and change the slides or point at different sections of the slides at ease.

These clickers are just like remote controls, which will enable you to manage your slides from a distance. The first of these clickers used to come attached with a wire cable, but the current presentation clickers are wireless ones and afford the presenter complete freedom of movement. A modern presentation clicker or pointer works through the laser technology and comes with other useful features as well. One of them is the automatic time manger. With this, you can pre-set time limit for each presentation slide. So that you will get to hear a warning sound when you are halfway through the time mark and again when you have gone beyond it. This is a very useful feature since you will have a set time to deliver your presentation and you will not like to miss presenting any of the valuable information just because you have no more time in hand.

Typically, a presentation clicker will allow you to navigate between slides, control volume, present a blackscreen and manage your time. The most basic of the clickers would allow one to navigate the slides from a distance of a maximum 40 feet, which is enough if you are presenting your speech before an office audience. However, for public representations, which are generally organized in large hall rooms, you may consider having a clicker able to function from a maximum of 100 feet.

Some of the best PowerPoint clickers that are currently available in the market are SP400 Smart-Pointer Wireless Presenter, priced at USD 39.99; Remote Red Laser Wireless PowerPoint Presentation Pointer, priced at USD29.99; Kensington Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer, priced at USD49.99. For a more sophisticated presentation clicker, you may choose from the range of Crystal Graphics models, starting from USD49, with the high end models costing as much as USD 249.

If you are part of a profession or area of an organisation that is or is at least perceived to be complex, it can be challenging when it comes to presenting information. For example, when I worked in accountancy, there was a perception that it was really complex and in some cases people had a phobia when it comes to numbers. So what are some of the golden rules when it comes to presenting technically complex information?

Golden Rule 1: Think first about the audience

Chances are you will have some people who are pretty comfortable and complex receiving presentations from people in your area. When thinking about the audience, consider what it is they definitely need to know as opposed to the stuff that would be nice to know. When dealing with complex stuff I generally have found that the more you focus on the key stuff the less likely you are to lose people.

Golden Rule 2: Think about something similar that people can relate to

I generally found that if you can relate the thing you are presenting to something that people can relate to then it becomes much easier. I can recall when working in the NHS I had to explain a new funding system called payment by results. Essentially you were paid for the work you did and coded. I used the example of scanning your shopping to illustrate the similarity with coding. If the item does not get scanned the seller does not collect the money.

Golden Rule 3: Keep it jargon free

We all tend to get caught up in the jargon that goes with our particular area. If you are going to use technical terms then make sure you explain them but ideally avoid them all together.

Golden Rule 4: Focus on the key messages

People can only handle so much at any one time so focus on getting your key messages across. If for regulatory or other reasons you need to make people aware of certain things give them a handout and make reference to it in your presentation.

Golden Rule 5: Check understanding and leave plenty of time for questions

With complex stuff less is better than more. At the end make sure that people have understood and build in more time for people to ask their questions.

Bottom Line – Presenting technically complex stuff presents its own challenges and practice really does make a difference.