When you need feedback from a marketing focus group, a room full of shareholders or a few score people attending your conference breakout session, that’s where CRE’s Audience Response System rentals (ARS) really shine. The Audience Response Systems are fully integrated with Microsoft Office applications, letting you turn a flat, boring PowerPoint slideshow into a two-way, interactive mutual learning experience. A simple, easily installed PowerPoint plug-in enables real-time audience polling, as well as the acquisition, analysis and display of the collected information. And you do it all from within the PowerPoint application.

It is not difficult to get going with the presentation once you have the plug-in installed. It provides a new toolbar that lets you edit professionally-designed templates to your needs. You can change graphics, colors and styles in a few mouse clicks, use the special toolbar to create content fields and choose your settings, quickly and easily. Save your slide, move on to the next one and repeat as needed. Load your finished presentation onto a laptop or desktop computer, then plug into a projector rental, set up your screen and start getting that audience feedback you need.

How does interactive polling work?

Audience Response Systems offer small response card keypads that are wireless and use both IR (InfraRed) and RF (Radio Frequency) technology depending on the model. With the keypads, the audience can answer multiple choice, multiple response, short answer, essay and alphanumeric questions throughout the presentation.

Need to poll the audience from different (even distant) locations in real-time? Now there is remote polling technology that allows a presenter to address and question audiences, either using a web-based polling application (through their iPhone or Blackberry smartphone) or a hand-held keypad. This gives the presenter the capability of combining the remote results with those of the local group. Real-time feedback allows the presenter to keep remote participants attentive and focused by displaying results of their ongoing input.

Expanded uses, expanded capabilities

Audience Response Systems have proven their tremendous value in a wide variety of settings. No longer do seminars, product demos, breakout session presentations or other corporate meetings have to be one-way streets – someone talks, you take notes – now that true real-time connectivity is easily achieved. The old salesman’s saying, that the best salesmen listen more than they talk, is a powerful insight, and an ARS gives you the ability to listen to hundreds of people at the same time, responding with information that your organization really needs to know. An Audience Response System, being fully plugged into the MS Office applications, makes it easy to tally, analyze and display the gathered information.

Ready to interact with your audience at your next meeting? Simply fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, give us a call or  send an e-mail and we will take care of you right away. Whether you need audience response, kiosks (another great interactive tool!) or plasma rentals, our objective is to equip you with the best tools available so you can finish on time with excellent results, whatever the task.

From the start, the educational potential of the Internet was a source of tremendous excitement. There is a wealth of online training available today, in every imaginable subject, with many top universities and even elite Ivy League institutions delivering courses, counseling, certificates and degrees on the Web. It’s even better for ongoing education and professional certification, as well as for people who want to learn specific skills or knowledge without a degree program.

At CRE, we support all kinds of businesses in every industry, but have a particular expertise outfitting creative people – designers, audio engineers, video pros, marketing mavens – with powerful media manipulators like our Mac Pro rentals. We know how much effort it takes staying updated on all manner of different software and hardware, with the ability to jump into one of our G5 with Kona card rentals and do your thing. Should you decide to take some online training to maintain and/or improve your professional standing and specialized skills, we would commend you for your work ethic – then share a few tips.

Always check training sources

You must always consider the source of online training because not all teachers and schools are created equal. Use your Web search skills, make some calls, ask questions, get references – anything to get some third-party insight. As you search for a source for training, you should consider the type of training that would work best in your specific situation. You can watch live online classes, or buy books and read online class notes, or use webcams to interact with others, and you can study on your own or in a group.

Rentals for in-house training

If you are looking for training for a group of people, perhaps for professional certification of some kind, you can buy the instructional materials on DVD. CRE has the projector rentals, as well as the audience response system rentals, that can make group training simple and effective. Especially in the IT and technical fields, where widely-regarded certifications are essential for a tech firm’s employees to have, using CRE laptop rentals rounds out a cost-effective training regimen. The more people you can get trained together, of course, the lower the unit cost for the preparation. Win-win.

With large enough hardware or software purchases, vendors can also customize a total solution for your firm and easily integrate online or offline training into the plan. You don’t need to tie up your workstations (which are making your company money) or budget a large hardware purchase when you use computer rentals for training. A room of iMac rentals and/or PCs, the right software, the right learning materials and the right amount of time, and you’ve got another group of experts in Excel, Exchange. Photoshop or InDesign – or Maya, C+, Logic, Pro Tools, Avid, Javascript, Ajax, Cisco, Microsoft, Novell or whatever else you can think of.

CRE has its share of experts, too. Our Account Executives know exactly what solutions will fit your particular challenge, whether it’s a post-production bottleneck, convention, presentation or training session. Call or send an e-mail, or fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, and we’ll get you that personalized training solution you need.

Mini Projector for iPhone/iPod

Miniaturized projectors are getting popular and  better all the time. Business professionals who don’t want to lug around big, expensive projectors now have another choice. They won’t usurp the projector rentals available from CRE Rentals for conferences and top corporate events, but mini projectors certainly have their place.

The MiLi Pro connects to an iPhone or iPod Touch and projects a 640×480 resolution image as far as 30 inches away. Much farther, and the lumens just dissolve. It won’t work well in a large room, but is fine for small groups where presentations are projected just a few feet away on up to 40 (diagonal) inches of screen area.

In addition to a dock for the iPod Touch and iPhone, the MiLi Pro has VGA and RCA connectors that allow it to work directly with LCD monitor rentals. Its built-in, adjustable stand is easily adjusted to get the image just right, but remember it is only about VHS quality. The device charges in roughly three hours and includes integrated speakers.

Walkie-talkie watches for conventions

Holy chitchat, Batman! The Royal walkie-talkie watches are not much bigger than the first “data bank” watches of the 1980s, with collapsible antennas and permanent rechargeable batteries (AC adapter included). They have 22 channels, each with sub-channels, and once the aerial is flipped out the built-in channel scan will find its counterpart so you can start talking.

There are no buttons to push as the devices are voice activated and an incoming call alert lets you know someone wants to chat. With an impressive range of nearly three miles, these “walkie talkies”  keep you in touch with colleagues at a conference or convention.

A simpler “pad” computer device

It will never be mistaken for the new Apple iPad, as the Adesso CyberPad A4 is an entirely different creature – it is made for taking notes, which it saves to its 32MB of internal memory or SecureDigital (SD) cards in an integrated slot. Connect the included USB cable to your computer and download your doodlings – rather, your mission-critical meeting notes – with the included software.

The utility software is also capable of converting your handwritten notes into text, but like many OCR (Optical Character Recognition) programs it is somewhat of a “lite” version and will need some “on the job training” to work right. Digital recorder rentals from CRE are another way of capturing notes on the fly, but together they could make one complete, seemingly foolproof solution.

“Gadget” technology rentals

At CRE, we stay abreast of all modern “gadget” technologies, particularly those that help busy creative and administrative professionals get their work done more efficiently. From tablet PC rentals to convention rentals, our Account Executives can help you push through any obstacles that are delaying your projects– whatever you need, we’re here to help!

Fill out our online Quick Rental Quote form, and get a swift reply and a thorough solution using the newest gadgets.

Do you want your company to stay ahead in today’s high-tech business environment? Then, you need computer- and Internet-savvy people—and you need to make sure they stay up-to-date. How? By offering in-house training that teaches employees new business applications or software programs.

Allocating your company resources is tricky when new, special, short-term projects start stacking up. If just a few employees need training, why not rent  desktop computers from CRE? It’s more cost-effective than buying a new PC. Then, the question is whether to offer online or offline training.

Logistics of Online Training

Today’s office applications, including the reigning champ Microsoft Office, usually have built-in tutorials, some of which are animated and include graded testing. There are also free online training packages, ranging from computer applications to marketing.

Naturally, you must evaluate the source of online training since not all programs are created equal. If a company employee has sufficient technical expertise, it may be a good idea to combine that expertise with some additional low- or no-cost online materials. If the presentation is to a group, you can easily connect a PC or laptop to a CRE projector rental and test their knowledge during the training with an audience response system rental. A few high-tech gadgets will help you train a room full of employees.

Low Cost Training Alternatives

If you don’t have a qualified employee up to the task of training, consider talking to your high-tech vendors in IT services or telecommunications. You may find a software geek or an IT service tech that can come in to train your people at a great rate. You might also benefit with the recent news about Utah’s abandonment of its OpenCourseWare Project, which folded because of the economy. Download what you need before it goes to cyberheaven for good.

Consider finding a training course on DVD in the bargain bin at the electronics store (or online). You can create an in-house, cost-effective course by hooking up a DVD player to a projector and projecting onto a screen rental that will handle any size audience.

If you don’t ask around and do some online digging, you will never find these inexpensive training opportunities. You really do have lots of options.

Whatever you need, CRE’s Account Executives are ready with expert guidance, so give us a call, send an e-mail or get a Quick Rental Quote in a snap. As always, we’re here to help.

HD Expo 2009

The Hospitality Design Exposition for this year is right around the corner. HD Expo 2009 will run November 4th and 5th at the Burbank (California) Marriott, providing a matchless annual resource for the newest products and services. Most important for attendees, it puts them in touch with the global hospitality design community. HD Expo 2009 will feature over 1,200 exhibitors, the manufacturers and artisans behind the hottest hospitality products and services. Informative and innovative sessions on hospitality design will cover the latest and most important issues facing the industry.

With some 11,000 attendees, 2009 HD Expo is the best way to establish your firm and reach the design professionals that dominate the industry. You will also connect with established buyers and sellers in the industry, so making your booth stand out with a special convention rentals package from CRE is a smart move. Raise awareness, expand your marketing reach and promote your product—with CRE’s help.

SEMA Show 2009

SEMA (Specialty Equipment Market Association) will take over the Las Vegas Convention Center November 3rd to November 6th. The SEMA 2009 Show is the premier automotive specialty products trade event in the world, drawing an international attendance that needs to stay abreast of the ever changing opportunities in the automotive, truck, RV and SUV markets and aftermarkets. The show offers attendees product demonstrations, educational seminars, special events and important networking opportunities.

Staying in touch with your marketing team at the SEMA Show has never been easier, thanks to tablet PC rentals from CRE.  With a pen-driven, touch-screen interface, WiFi and a full complement of efficient software, you can manage staff and notes at the same time. If you want to show booth visitors sell-sheets, animated logos or new TV commercial, an interactive kiosk or SEMA plasma rental (including the magnificent 61″ NEC) provides an excellent way to do so. We’ve created a lot of great, custom rental packages for SEMA conferences, and can take care of you, too.

Global Gaming Expo (G2E)

The Global Gaming Expo 2009 (G2E) is set for a four-day run, also at the Las Vegas Convention Center, from November 16th to the 19th. G2E is the world’s largest, most comprehensive exhibit and conference for the gaming industry. The 100+ presentations and educational seminars are developed by leaders in the industry to educate attendees in the latest technologies, emergent management practices, amenities and marketing. G2E helps gaming professionals succeed in today’s volatile marketplace.

The exhibitor list is a long one, and many of them will be ready with kiosk rentals,  monitors and other helpful technology. If you deal in products and services that serve any of the many aspects of the gaming, hospitality and entertainment industries—such as video gaming, cashless systems, game design, customized and electronic games, furniture, etc.—then you know you’re going to be there. You should also know that when you need a LCD monitor rental, CRE Rentals is ready to help.

In fact, we are ready to help you at a conference or a trade show—or help you put on your own—with powerful projectors and portable screens plus everything else you could possibly need. CRE is also your source for special processing tools, like the new Mac Pro rental powerhouse, powerful PC desktops and a full range of special video editing workstations. Whatever you need, our expert and efficient Account Executives can get you set up quickly and cost-effectively. Fill out the online Quick Rental Quote form, give us a call or send an e-mail, and you’re one huge step closer to having everything 100% covered.

There is a good economic case to be made for renting computers and other office equipment. However, there are other good reasons to opt for a rental instead of a purchase. We will look at the environmental, practical and logistical considerations that might also affect your decision.

The economics of renting

The first obvious advantage of getting, say, a high-powered desktop rental is reduced upfront expense. This is especially compelling if your needs for the equipment are intermittent. If your marketing department only puts together one or two “viral video ads” each month, for YouTube and other PR purposes, then it makes sense to get that Mac Pro rental from CRE. This kind of planning maintains financial flexibility, and the same reasoning applies to other equipment needs.

It is also easier to get a fully outfitted computer, with the hardware specifications and software programs you need, when you rent computers from CRE. No shopping around, no loading applications—just get what you need and get to work. You save time, money and aggravation at the same time.

Practical benefits

CRE’s long track record speaks to the fact that we really deal in solutions, not equipment. With a proactive customer service philosophy, we solve your problems—we don’t just rent you a piece of equipment. If you are working on an important print project that requires precise color matching, we know that you will need a properly calibrated LCD monitor rental to do it right. CRE is a one-stop shop, for expertise as well as high-tech tools.

When it comes to parts, service and maintenance, the practical benefit is easy to see—they’re free. You don’t have to worry about faulty equipment with our expert technicians, or spend money keeping things running right. For CRE, it is also easy to accommodate your growing needs. If your job turns out to be bigger than you thought, one phone call to CRE gets you the X Serve RAID rental that can hold an astounding 10.5TB of your data (terabytes, as in “trillions” of bytes).

Logistics: A rationale for rentals

For companies planning trade show appearances, the rationale for rentals is clear. Even if you have all the computers and displays you need for your booth, packing them up, moving them, and getting them ready to run videos or take customer input is a daunting task.

CRE has the additional expertise gained from years as an expert convention and event production firm. Not only can we arrange the projector rental that you need—in a wide range of makes and sizes—we can provide you the screen, deliver and set everything up, do a test run and (most important) put your mind at ease.

Sharing and caring for the environment

Quietly and gradually, CRE has been helping to reduce “carbon footprint” for all kinds of companies. Fewer computers, monitors and projectors are shared among more companies, creating efficiencies of use that reduce the proliferation of electronic waste.

Think, for example, of four companies that each need a half dozen tablet PC rentals for a week each month. Instead of 24 tablet PCs being purchased, used inefficiently and then added to the landfill at some point, the same six units can service two dozen users and four different firms. Add it all up, nationwide, and you can see the tremendous environmental benefit that high-tech rentals offer.

Whatever you need to get the job done, CRE is here to help you do it effectively, efficiently and sensibly as well. Our experienced Account Executives can help you ask and answer all the practical, financial, environmental and logistical questions you may have. Fill out a Quick Rental Quote web form, pick up the phone or send an e-mail. We’re ready to help right now.

Researchers question the effectiveness of a ‘lecture-style’ business presentation. In fact, some have demonstrated that audiences in a “passive” role acquire and retain less. Other findings indicate that an audience member’s attention falls precipitously after 20-30 minutes, and the average participant’s knowledge retention is quite low.

Interactivity is the key to better knowledge retention. In fact, effective “active learning” encompasses multimedia components, discussion groups and teaching activities, all of which result from the use of a very powerful tool, an Audience Response System (ARS) from CRE.

Whether you are training company employees, making a conference presentation or testing product ideas with a focus group, an ARS will create an interactive, collaborative environment in which the “teacher” arguably learns as much as the “students”—and learns even more when all the responses are later tallied and analyzed. In fact, the “teacher role” is merged into each participant, which maximizes audience input and feedback. If you are going to be using an Audience Response System (ARS), these tips will help you make the most of it.

#1: Check the session location at least a day before the event. Not only do you need to get “the lay of the land,” you need to investigate possible logistical problems.  Is the room the right size? Will you need  extension cords for the base station power, your projection rental equipment, laptop, etc.

#2: Set up your ARS equipment at least an hour before start time (even the day before, if you have access to the location). Make sure everything is working right, and well before your audience begins arriving. Have our phone number handy in case you need more keypads or have a last-minute question or concern. It may make sense to get a laptop rental from CRE to have a backup of your presentation files.

#3: An ARS is fairly simple to operate but you may need some practice to familiarize yourself with how it works. You will also need to coordinate your timing for a glitch-free presentation, so practice your presentation beforehand, as many times as you can. A MicroTrack digital recorder rental is a great way to practice speeches and presentations. Hearing yourself speak is a powerful aid in refining your delivery.

#4: Give the audience members clear, concise directions. Tell them what is expected, and advise them that registering their response at the right time will ensure that it is properly recorded. Concise directions, both spoken and printed, should be given before the session to maximize the number of registered responses.

#5: Keep your questions short and sweet. This is important for several reasons, the first of which is screen legibility—the questions need to be read quickly and easily, even when you are also reading them aloud. If you make the questions too long or unnecessarily complex, your response rate will suffer and the pace of the presentation will be out of your control.

#6: Limit your answer options to four, if possible. When five or more options are displayed and/or read aloud, they can be difficult to read or remember, respectively. Be succinct. This is particularly important if you are making a small-group presentation on a table-mounted LCD or plasma screen rental.

#7: Don’t present your audience with too many questions, or too many in a row. Build some “relief” (comic or otherwise) into your presentation with non-text screen images, occasional pauses and discussion time (see #8, below). If the session becomes tedious you can expect your audience’s interest to wane.

#8: Among the biggest benefits of ARS sessions is the frank discussion that results from them. As the presentation proceeds, audience members get progressively more involved (that’s your goal, at any rate) and the discussion that ensues from the questions and answers gets progressively evolved. Always factor discussion time into your presentation plan.

Following this simple advice, as well as learning as much as you can about ARS technology in advance, will help you achieve the best results from your interactive presentation. There is no reason that large group polling sessions have to be dull, dry, lecture-hall experiences. Fill out a Quick Rental Quote form if you know what you need, or use our Contact Page to ask us whatever you need to know. Our friendly, expert Account Executives will gladly help you turn your next marketing test, training class or presentation into a truly interactive (even fun) experience for you and your audience.

Windows 7 is looking good, folks, and the public beta will bring Microsoft a boatload of helpful bug reports, suggestions and (as always) some wish lists that will have to wait. Still, it’s an enormous advance already, and many of the new and refined features will directly aid conference planners and presenters.

There are lots of new things, so we will take a look at the Top 10 Display and Presentation Features—and they are all so cool we’ll need two blogs to do it. We will hit five in this one, five in the next, starting with features expressly developed for presentations as well as ones that are particularly supportive of them.

(1) Display projection

Those of you who give lots of presentations will like the new Windows 7 method for displaying your computer’s desktop via a projector such as CRE rents. By pressing the Windows logo key and “P” you will be presented with a pop-up window called the “Display Switch settings box,” which lets you change with one click the way your desktop looks.

The number one option is a default setting that displays on your computer screen only, whether it’s your own desktop or a specially configured “presentation laptop” from CRE. The second choice clones your computer screen display to the projector. A third option will “extend” your desktop across your computer screen and the projector, and the fourth turns off your screen and displays via the projector only.

(2) Windows Mobility Center

Whether you’re making a small office presentation or addressing a general session, you don’t need any embarrassing interruptions. Just set your computer to Presentation Mode by pressing the Windows logo key and “X,” which opens Windows Mobility Center. Through this uncluttered interface you can set display brightness, adjust volume settings, disables screensavers, set wallpaper to neutral tones and hang a virtual “Do Not Disturb” sign on your Instant Messaging (IM) client.

(3) Text tuning, color calibration

If you are displaying your presentation on a plasma screen or an LCD monitor, you have two devices that can affect color and readability. After setting the defaults on the external display, you can use two Windows 7 tools to adjust it to your preferences.

You’ll find the ClearType Text Tuner in the Control Panel or by entering “cttune.exe” as a command line entry. Simply pick the text that looks best from the displayed options. Windows 7 also provides a Color Calibration tool in the Control Panel (or command line entry “dccw.exe”) that leads you through simple adjustments to the gamma, contrast, brightness and color rendition for optimizing the display.

(4) PowerShell v2

More advanced presenters with an extra dose of computer smarts will like the Windows PowerShell. This is a command-line interface and scripting tool for automating tasks with “cmdlets” that perform single tasks, as well as scripts that comprise multiple cmdlets to run multi-step tasks.

In combination with a cordless presenter, automated tasks can simplify functions that used to take multiple actions, saving time and keeping your audience’s attention.

(5) Action Center

Windows 7 has a new, one-stop shop metaphor for centralizing device management, dealing with security issues, troubleshooting and maintenance. It’s all part of a single Control Panel applet, Action Center, which allows you greater flexibility in dealing with not only settings, but the various alert messages that notify you of problems. Windows 7 now gives you the option of turning various notifications on or off, so that you are not constantly closing message boxes urging you to install or update your virus protection. Now you can simply turn virus protection messages, and all other notifications, on or off as you please, and not worry about them being projected on screen in the middle of your presentation.

Next time around it’s Windows 7 Top 10 Display and Presentation Features (Part 2 of 2) with numbers 6 through 10.

As a two-part article recently explained, there are still some important differences between “business” projectors and those intended for “home theater” use. However, some manufacturers are experimenting with product designs that join the best features of each type into a single device. Perhaps one of the last areas of divergence is the native (or “physical”) pixel count, which affects two very important specifications: (1) the resolution and (2) the aspect ratio.

Simply put, “resolution” is the number of pixels that are packed into the physical dimensions of a projected image or monitor, and “aspect ratio” is the relationship between width and height. A four-foot by three-foot image has an aspect ratio of 4:3, standard for TVs from their introduction until just a short time ago. Now, a projection screen at that ratio could display an image of 800 x 600 resolution, or there could be more pixels packed in for a higher resolution and sharper image in the same dimensions, like a pixel count of 1200 x 900. Both have the same 4:3 aspect ratio, both fit on the 48-inch by 36-inch screen, but the latter has the higher resolution. Of course, CRE rents various sizes of Fast Fold Da-Lite screens to fit all situations.

Wide, wide world

The standard SVGA (800 x 600) and XGA (1024 x 768) business projectors have a native, or built-in, aspect ratio of 4:3, as well, so the image corresponds to a standard computer screen or “regular” television. Widescreen content, such as DVDs and HDTV programming, has an aspect ratio of 16:9. The best way to handle the widescreen format is to use a projector with a native widescreen resolution, which today is more likely to be a home theater projector (although not for long). This is the only way you can avoid the image stretching, letterboxing, image cropping, or other aspect ratio adjustment techniques that make 16:9 content fit on a 4:3 screen.

Most of the basic business projectors are SVGA and are not up to the task of displaying HD images from your satellite, computer, cable tuner or other HD input. They simply do not have sufficient resolution to do the job right. The two primary HD resolution formats today are 720p and 1080i (1280 x 720 pixels and 1920 x 1080, respectively). An SVGA projector with its resolution of 800 x 600 pixels cannot display either of these formats without downscaling.

Working it out

Even DVD content, which at 852 x 480 has a lower resolution than HDTV, is a bit much for the entry-level SVGA projectors to do a good job. XGA, as its numbers indicate, has sufficient resolution to handle DVDs and can get quite close, needing only narrow top and bottom letterbox bands, to displaying 720p, as well. With just an XGA projector, screen and a laptop rental from CRE, you have a mobile presentation system that can handle a meeting or conference then head home for a DVD movie night with the family.

Widescreen projectors for home and business come in both WVGA and WXGA. Choosing a lower-cost WVGA (854 x 480) projector will save you some money and cover all the bases if you will be watching only DVD movies. For displaying HDTV content, a WXGA (1280 x 800) projector is required. This pixel array will enable you to display any and all HDTV content up to 720p with no rescaling. You will even be able to view 1080i or 1080p material on the more-capable WXGA projectors, but the projected image will need compression so that the 1920 x 1080 pixels in a 1080i or 1080p HDTV image can be scaled into the native pixel array of the WXGA projector.

Ask the experts

Remember, image resolution is only one of many important factors in assessing your projector. Color balance, brightness (lumens), edge-to-edge clarity and other specifications may be even more important at times. Business projectors are becoming more media-savvy all the time, just as business people are becoming as sophisticated as the audiophile and videophile consumers that have driven the advancements in home theater technology.

New business projectors will be debuting in the coming year from leading manufacturers, models that promise to bedazzle and amaze an audience of engineers or CEOs the way that home theater projectors wow the family with Harry Potter movies. Whether you contact one of our expert Account Executives now or later—by e-mail, phone or rental quote request—you will get state-of-the-art advice and equipment for your meeting, conference or presentation needs.

For many professionals, making an effective presentation is a real challenge, and the many tools that have been developed to make presentations easier—particularly PowerPoint and its Mac counterpart, Keynote—haven’t solved the underlying problems. “Desktop publishing” programs didn’t create great newsletter designers in the 1980s, FrontPage didn’t birth great web developers in the 1990s and no razzmatazz software will make you a slick presenter now.

Still, you don’t have to burden your audiences with 94 slides filled with bullets, sub-bullets and big chunks of illegible text. Just learn some important basics about presentations in general and PowerPoint/Keynote in particular. You will soon stand out from the innumerable “presentation pros” who don’t give the slightest nod to basic layout, typography, color schemes or design fundamentals.

The presentation tips, tricks, techniques and tools are divided into three sections: (1) Planning & Preparation, (2) Layout & Copy and (3) In the Spotlight.

(1) Planning & Preparation

• Get the right hardware for showing off your software. For a department meeting you may decide to rent a LCD monitor, giving you 40 inches of crisp, clear imagery that everyone in your office can see.
• For a larger meeting or small conference session, CRE recommends a  projector rental to clearly convey your message. You will need to consider lighting, line of sight and a few other aesthetic factors for maximum effectiveness.
• For a large event you may need CRE’s comprehensive general session rentals package. Besides a projector and screen, you may need a sound system, cordless pointer and other technology (like the audience response system rentals for polling your audience) to ensure success. CRE’s experts can help you with equipment placement, lighting, seating arrangements and so forth.

(2) Layout & Copy

• Your slides should all be based on a single “template.” You can find these online for free, design one yourself or modify one of the templates that came with your software.
• Don’t overdo your slide template with unnecessary visual “bling.” Your template’s job is to frame your content, not distract from it. A solid, unobtrusive background with contrasting text and your company logo in the corner will probably do it. Use your template consistently, in this presentation and in the future.
• Remember this math: 1 slide = 1 point. If you are making two key points at a certain point, then you need two slides. This may be a big change for you, but it is very important.
• The title should be 36 points and on one line. Use 24 to 32 points for bullet lines. Keep it simple, too—don’t mix typefaces, colors, point sizes or bullet types.
• Limit each slide to a maximum of six bullets, preferably fewer, and use a single line of copy per bullet. Eschew sub-bullets entirely, if possible.
• Animation, whether Flash or something else, can be a nice touch, but “less is more” applies here in spades. Animation is cool, but often distracting, even irritating.
• Mix up the graphics. Use a chart, then for the next graphic use an illustration, then a photo and so on. The audience needs a break from repetitive slides of bulleted text.
• Keep your copywriting short, informative and free of “presentation clichés”. Avoid being verbose or repetitive. You want to seem knowledgeable and focused, not longwinded and vague.
• Bullets are better as phrases than complete sentences (no matter what’s underlined in green by MS-Word’s grammar checker). Omit final periods and unnecessary words. Example: “We need to forecast the most likely wholesale and retail prices in the future” becomes “Forecast likely wholesale/retail prices.”

(3) In the Spotlight

• You will do better if you know your audience. If you don’t, then you need to know something about them. The amount of technical detail you’d give to engineers would certainly exceed what you would share with marketing managers.
• A first-rate cordless presenter, like the Logitech model that CRE rents, does triple duty as a cordless optical mouse, a laser pointer for accentuating key points and an LCD timer that vibrates at five and two minutes remaining.
• Do not read the slide copy to the audience. This point cannot be stressed enough. Include the key word(s) of the topic as you speak to the slide’s point. Reading the slides shows that you are unprepared, lacking in confidence or not the expert the audience expected.
• Finally, be natural, upbeat and even a bit quirky—in a nice way, of course. Be the presenter that people thank afterward and want to see again.

Presentations can be stressful, awkward and scary—and that’s just for the audience! Seriously, presenters face myriad challenges. CRE’s Account Executives have the expertise to navigate these choppy waters so you can make all the right moves. Fill out the CRE web form for a one-click quote, call us toll-free at (877) 266-7725 or send an e-mail for a response within 4 hours.