Most business people face the inevitability of having to deliver a presentation at some point. Of course, there are several ways in which you can accomplish that; however, at some point, you will probably use PowerPoint, which can be a really good thing. You need to find a way to really engage your audience and to keep them in the palm of your hand.

The most effective tools to use in your presentation–leveraging PowerPoint

When it comes to delivering a presentation, your goal is to engage your audience members and to get them to participate in a discussion with you and with other audience members. Your presentation is only the launching-off point. After that, your hope is that the people with whom you interacted at your presentation will want to continue to interact with you in some form indefinitely after that.

If the people who originally attended your presentation want to continue interacting with all of you (or just you), that will give you your opportunity to work on relationship with the other people and your ultimate goal, once you relationship has developed and become very solid (after building trust, credibility, positioning yourself as a subject matter expert, and building trustworthiness) is to be in a position of selling your offerings.

When it comes to your relying on PowerPoint to help you deliver your presentation effectively, there are ways to use it that will yield very positive results.

• Get your audience members to engage with each other and with you: As you are presenting your material, it is very important for you to encourage the members of your audience to interact. If you manage to make that happen, using PowerPoint becomes much less of a crutch. Instead, it becomes a nice tool to help you along. However, the real catalyst in that situation is the actual discussion itself. You should use your slides as discussion points. They will help you to keep your thoughts organized and it will drive your discussion in an organized fashion.
• Asking thought-provoking questions is an effective approach: Your questions (as long as they are interesting) will be a starter for your discussion. Everyone likes to feel as though their opinion matters to other people and that is exactly how you make them feel if you ask a question and make it clear that you value whatever they share with you in response. In fact, on the opposite side of the coin, there is nothing worse than asking a question, hoping to engage people and get them to respond to what you are saying, and they say nothing at all. It makes you feel as though they have absolutely no interest in what you are doing and in what you are sharing with them. It makes you feel as though they don’t value you and your business.
• Use PowerPoint in your Web-based presentation: It is certainly not uncommon for you to give a presentation in a WebEx or some other Web-based meeting. In that case, you can make your meeting interactive, just like you would have an interactive meeting if you were in the same room (physically) with your audience. However, the one limitation that you will have in that particular environment is that because you can’t see your audience in person, it may be more difficult to figure out how they are feeling (and thus, reacting) to whatever you are saying. That is about the body language. It is totally acceptable in that situation to recognize and work around the limitation of your audience not actually being in front of you in person. It is probably best not to wait until the end of your presentation to ask your audience if they have any questions or comments.
• Make use of PowerPoint’s interactive capabilities: Just because when you use PowerPoint, you present slides to your audience does not mean that it has absolutely no interactive capabilities. In fact, what you can do is embed links that lead to other information from your LinkedIn presentation. That is extremely easy to do and you can get a great deal of mileage from using back links to other valuable content. If you can manage to establish an interactive relationship and build that aspect into your presentations, you will be able to solidify your relationships and you will see positive results before too long.

Conclusion

Delivering presentations is an important and necessary part of your business (at least, in most cases). It is important that you recognize the significance of your presentations being compelling and engaging. Your short-term goal is to engage people. Make sure that your sincerity and your genuineness comes through every time and that you give your audience a clear idea of what they will gain by attending your presentation. It is a wonderful incentive for them. Your long-term goal is to eventually sell your offerings to those people with whom you have been able to establish a connection.

Birthdays are always a special occasion, and provides one with the perfect opportunity to express one’s feelings. The day seems to be incomplete without gifting the only one and making him or her feel exactly how special they are for one. The special one need not be always one’s beloved or spouse. There are other people too who can be the successor to that exclusive seat in one’s heart and life. Some people exist in one’s world whose love is so much taken for granted that the worth of it is seldom appreciated. It is only acknowledged once that person is lost forever. One such person is one’s grandfather or grandmother. The love that they bear for one is absolutely unconditional. So do not seek occasions, create them. Surprise the aged sweet heart with a wonderful birthday present. Suggestions related to the 70th birthday presents follow later. The 1st birthday photo frames also form a lovely gift for the little one.

The babies are little bundles of joy for the family they step into. They have the magical ability of wiping away all the sorrows and pains inflicted by the harsh realities of life. Their innocent smiles and incoherent sounds seem to add a new meaning to the otherwise mundane life. Therefore the 1st birthday of this little angel needs the most special attention from the family in concern. The 1st birthday photo frames form the ideal gift. It helps to capture the precious moments of the little, cuddly toddler. This will help to create a memory that will always leave a smile on the face, every time it is viewed. The 1st birthday photo frames will prove to be the most apt document of the golden days of one’s life: childhood.

These 1st birthday photo frames can be made even more special with a personal touch. One can ornament these frames with variant sparkles, posits, colors and many more creative ideas. Photo frames form the rare group of gifts that bear no restrictions on the ground of age. That is to say that this can be presented to people belonging from any age group, without any shadow of doubt about its aptness. Therefore the 70th birthday presents for one’s granny or granddad can easily consist of the option of photo frames.

One must always keep in mind that the old sweeties of one’s life ask for nothing but love and attention. If one can assure them that they form an integral and indispensable part of one’s life, it would undoubtedly prove to be the best gift of the options available in the 70th birthday presents archive. Assuring them or anyone for that matter is easier said than done. However, the good news is that though it is difficult, it is not impossible. Remember they know one better than oneself so any pretension will get caught, but since they simply adore one therefore any gift with genuine feelings will be sufficient to assure them of one’s love. Therefore the difficulty with 70th birthday presents can be sorted with sensibility and genuine feelings.

The 1st birthday photo frames can therefore be a lovely gesture on the part of the parents, to capture and safeguard the precious childhood for the kid, once he or she grows up. The 70th birthday presents also serve the same purpose of conveying one’s heartfelt feelings to the most precious gifts of almighty.

When someone new moves into the area, it is traditional to buy them house warming presents. It is a sign of friendship, and reaching out. But, you might want to stand out, and be a little more thoughtful than what your typical house warming present will say.

First off, lets identify what a typical house warming present is:

- wine
- fruit basket
- plants/flowers
- cookware
- wine glasses
- symbolic gifts
- food

Imagine being the new people on the block, with a crowd of people coming to your door with these gifts. The first thing I think when I see a plant or flower is:

“Great, more work I have to do around here. Thanks.”

And food? Really? Do they like the same kinds of foods you do? How do you know? They just moved in. Most likely, it is just going to go to waste, plus, its best to give a gift that will be kept, so it will remind them of you, in a good way.

We all want to be remembered in a good way, right? Yes, I thought as much.

You should think outside the the box just a little bit. Maybe go a little fancy, every one loves fancy, as long as it’s tasteful, right?

So there you have it, a list of things NOT to buy for house warming presents. Sure, people say that it is the thought that counts, but really, you do need to actually put more thought into it than that.

The original gifts are going to be remembered, the unique one of a kind gifts are going to be treasured. If they treasure, and remember your gift, they may just do the same thing with you. And in the end you will walk away with a new found friend. That is why you were giving them the house warming presents in the first place is it not?