Lap Land

Laptop technology has revolutionised business presentations, but without co-ordination and planning you can come unstuck, says Jane Dudman

It is probably an abiding faith in things shiny and new that has prompted so many in the marketing world to pick up on the idea of the laptop as an indispensably cool tool for business presentations.

While it is true that it looks good to swan into a major client meeting with nothing but a portable computer and a couple of disks, the bad news is that despite the wonders of new software, nothing has actually changed.

Preparing a good presentation still requires considerable attention to all details. In fact, making the best use of what are undoubtedly very powerful computer-based presentation tools requires more, not less, planning and co-ordination.

Otherwise, you could end up with the kind of presentation disaster we’ve all seen. The speaker has put the main points up on a screen and started to recite them, but hasn’t bothered to proof-read them properly, and has not quite mastered the art of co-ordination. The result is a boring speech, in which the speaker wrestles with a laptop and pays no attention to the audience – which is left plenty of time to stare at a load of spelling mistakes and wonder how long it will be until they can get to a decent cup of coffee.

It doesn’t have to be like this, and it is firmly down to the buyers of business presentation software to make sure it isn’t. The vendors certainly aren’t going to do it, even though they are all aware of the risks their customers are running. It is a bit like a car salesman selling a fast sports car to a customer more used to a sedate family saloon. He is obliged to point out that the handling is a bit different, but he isn’t going to emphasise it to the extent that he risks losing the sale.

There are two key aspects to ensuring computer-based technology is used to produce a bad presentation.

The first is to pick the appropriate technology from the huge selection of software available. The second, and possibly more important, is to know one’s own limitations and call in professional help when appropriate.

The software now available to run business presentations covers a wide range of possibilities and a matching range of costs. Microsoft has established its presence in the market with its Powerpoint software, part of the Microsoft Office package. Other packages, and professional services, are also on sale to computerise everything from bullet points to moving pictures and audio, as well as interactive presentations. All run from a PC or laptop.

Some of the possibilities are intriguing. IML, for instance, has developed interactive versions of software, including Powerpoint. Audiences are given IML’s keypad handsets, which enable them to key in responses to questions from the speaker.

According to Peter Knowles, IML’s sales and marketing director, this approach encourages better presentations. “A presentation is always more effective if it can involve the audience,” he claims. “Using our technology, a speaker can put up Powerpoint slides, show pie charts and bar charts, and can also ask the audience if they agree with a particular comment or opinion.”

Knowles’ assertion that this approach will make for better presentations, rests largely on the premise that a speaker will be able, for instance, to switch topics if it transpires that 60 per cent of the audience is more interested in one particular aspect. However, an inflexible speaker, unable to make such a switch, isn’t going to find this particular aspect of presentation technology such a boon.

In fact, as Knowles makes clear, the presentation itself is just one part of what the IML technology provides. Giving an audience handsets, means all their responses are recorded individually, and can be analysed and used by the company afterwards. “You can go through the individual’s opinions and use the information,” Knowles explains. “For instance, you could run out a letter to someone who has attended a presentation, thank them for coming, and say you noticed they were interested in these particular areas. Product brochures relevant to these areas could then be enclosed.”

So, there is more to a computer-based business presentation than meets the eye. Once you get beyond a fairly straightforward presentation, the costs can stretch well beyond simply buying a bit of software. IML’s facilities cost 750 a day to hire, but there are companies selling products and services aimed at a corporate approach to presentations. Prices go up to 50,000.

Crown Business Communications, for instance, will digitise an entire corporate library. The digitised material – including data, text, slides, video and interviews – are stored centrally, but can be presented using laptops with built-in CD-Rom drives.

According to Nicky Havelaar, company director at Crown, this enables corporate presentations to be given a uniform style, while leaving individual presenters considerable flexibility to use a whole range of corporate material.

She concedes, however, that this approach requires forethought. “The presenter has to do some homework, and have some idea of the overall pattern of the presentation. But there can also be some tailoring of the material, for instance to greet a particular audience.”

Some vendors, while in no doubt of the potential benefits of using the latest technology to support business presentations, also express caution. David Aldridge, European vice president of software company Gold Disk, which sells the Astound range of presentation software, comments: “Using this technology properly is a bit like driving a tank when you’re used to riding a bike. Managing video, sound, animation and so on takes a bit more time to make a presentation look professional.”

The main danger, says Aldridge, is mismatching colours when © bringing different media together. “I’ve seen some colossal mess-ups – presentations that look like a very bad movie,” he says. Despite these reservations, Aldridge believes there is a big market for presentation software. Gold Disk’s Astound for Windows software costs 189, and is being bought, says Aldridge, by enterprising individuals in marketing departments with a bit of flair, who want to get “one step away from using bullet points and charts in Powerpoint”.

The development of computer-based visual presentation aids is treated with further caution by specialist SpeakEasy, which runs training courses for would-be business presenters. According to the company’s managing director, Cristina Stuart, many presentations would be a lot better if people put away their computers and got out a much older set of tools. “In lots of situations, computer-based presentations can help. They give visual information that would be hard to describe, comparative sales figures or a new kind of packaging for example, or a management view of who relates to whom within an organisation,” she says. “But we always warn against using too many words, presenters shouldn’t automatically go into Powerpoint or some other package. They should sit down with a pencil and a piece of paper and think about what it is they want to communicate.”

SpeakEasy also advises many speakers to throw away, or at least cut down on, the number of visuals they use during a presentation.

However, Stuart acknowledges this is a very difficult point to get over. “Because the culture is changing, many people believe that if they go into a presentation without a stack of visuals, their audience will think they haven’t prepared. My answer is always to cut down on the visuals, and ensure at least some time is spent talking directly to the audience. After all, presentations are about creating a rapport. It’s you, as a person, who must come over – you’re not going to convince anyone with your PC.”

There are some instances where computer-created graphics can be a great bonus, however. The press conference to launch the Virgin Global Challenger took place in July 1995, six months before the scheduled start of the hot-air balloon’s round-the-world trip. Virgin was keen to provide an indication of what the balloon would look like, even though it had not yet been built.

It turned to The Presentation Company to create visuals to bring the venture to life. A laptop presentation formed part of the launch, using images and text created in Photoshop and Painter, and the full presentation included a 3D animated video of the balloon, jet stream and capsule. It was of good enough quality to be broadcast by the various TV companies at the press conference. The creation of such a lifelike presentation in the absence of the balloon itself helped Virgin Global Challenger to gather far more visual press coverage that it might otherwise have done, and without even leaving the ground.

At advertising agency Abbott Mead Vickers.BBDO, IT director Bob Green is convinced of the benefits of using computer-based technology for presentations. Green says that before AMV installed its Apple-based systems in its boardrooms, presenters had to juggle between different systems to present slides, video clips and audio tapes.

“We’ve now done away with slides and the goal is to have all the material we need on the computer, from slides to radio commercials to video clips,” he explains.

Since AMV is Apple’s ad agency, opting for Apple equipment may seem inevitable, although the choice of a PowerBook 8100 was firmly technical, says Green. “The Apple system is the best for live video or TV clips. Full screen, full motion clips were a must – we didn’t want jerky, jagged pictures,” he says.

The software used to run the system, Adobe Persuasion, has been installed across the agency, enabling everyone, “from secretaries to account managers” to prepare their own, individual presentations, says Green. However, this is aided by a corporate approach. Templates dictate the AMV house-style, including typefaces and styles, and all presentations have the AMV branding. There is also a full-time presentations manager, who checks every presentation before it goes out, and who can give additional technical assistance where needed.

The benefits are considerable. “Our costs are far lower, now that we don’t have to send out to get slides prepared, and we no longer have to worry about the delay in getting slides back in,” comments Green. “We can be tweaking a presentation while the client is waiting in reception. Giving presentations is very easy – people use a simple handset and don’t need to know anything about Mac operation. Above all, clients have commented that they are very impressed.”