Should Your Presentation Include Handouts?

by | Jun 19, 2013

bigstock-Funny-man-with-lots-of-folders-45672487Do you wonder if you should have handouts for your presentation?

Then you have come to the right place.

  • We are going to take you on a journey
  • Far, far away from bullet points and text-crammed slides

Previously, we explored Slides and Presentations: The Perfect Marriage.

Today, we’ll take a closer look at handouts.

Handouts or No Handouts

Not every presentation needs a handout.

And for darn sure, not every presentation needs slide after slide of text. There are other ways to demonstrate your genius.

The Slideshare version of Slides and Presentations: The Perfect Marriage was wildly popular – at least by my modest standard – over 2,200 views in one day.

Do we all yearn for a separation of slides and too much detail?

So when do you use a handout? And what should it look like?

Start With Your Presentation

And if you believe the stories of technology rewiring our brains, you may need to adjust the way you present ideas.

Create a Storyboard

Telling a story is hot advice for almost any form of communication.

There’s a reason that advice is so popular – it works.

One of my favorite tools is one I received when I purchased Cliff Atkinson’s book, Beyond Bullet Points. You can download Cliff’s template at the site’s Resources page.

The storyboard template works for me when outlining my story. I find it also helps trim the fat.

As the template promotes ~

“1-2-3, show me only what I need to see”

The more stuffing you do, the less your audience receives.

 Do you need a handout?

As a supplement to the Slides and Presentations: The Perfect Marriage presentation, I created the following Slideshare focused on handouts.

The presentation answers the question – Handout or no handout?

In a future post, we’ll review suggestions for a professional handout.

What do you think? Do you regularly use handouts? Have they been effective?

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Helping you Keep it simple, clear & uniquely yours – contact me for help with your business writing needs.

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