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Down with death-by-powerpoint!

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For many good reasons slide presentations have gotten a bad wrap. You've likely suffered through a presenter reading text-heavy slides or glazed over when a presentation is filled with technical terms that you aren't familiar with. Now I know that YOU would never do either of these things, but you might like to ramp-up the impact of the presentations you make. We know that the more senses you engage, the more information your audience members will remember. Here are a few tips to help you do just that. Use lots of relevant visuals. Visuals have more of an emotional impact than words so take advantage of this. You don't have to have words on every page. Sometimes an image is all you need to make your point. Remember that your slide isn't a stand-alone product. You are going to be there to speak to the information. With this in mind, use as few words as possible to make each of your points. If one word will do as a cue, that's all you need. Use more...
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Engage. Empower. Energize.

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When I worked at the Province of Nova Scotia, I was part of a team that launched the first survey to measure how engaged provincial employees were. The survey measured staff opinions and perceptions in 10 areas: teamwork, communication, employee involvement, quality of work life, leadership, compensation and recognition, personal growth, diversity, safety and security, and recruitment and retention. (You can find out more about this and subsequent surveys here .) Prior to and during my time at the province, I had often been the go-to person for employee communication programs and had  been an advocate of good employee communication practices. This was because none of my PR colleagues thought employee communication was exciting enough. I didn't agree. I thought if organizations were going to say that employees are their most valuable resource, they should show it and I was excited about the possibilities of this work. The experience with the employee surveys, however, gave m...
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Public engagement and senior-level support: Why do you need it & how do you get it?

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According to studies from various countries, senior-level support of public participation activities is critical to having the results of that engagement have any impact on final decision-making. Here's a white paper we wrote for the International Association of Public Participation Canada - better known as IAP2 - outlining these findings as well as a case study of one municipality that is successfully engaging both elected and administrative decision-makers in taking public feedback into account. Tell us your experiences with public engagement. Colleen
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