He gets a large stack of paper brochures and flips through them. Suddenly you realize that the presentation is over and you didn’t really pay attention to what the presenter was saying. Is this familiar?
Whether you need to hand out brochures during a presentation or not, this is a very important question.
Yes and no. It depends, of course, on the nature of the presentation. If you are giving a technical, scientific, or factual presentation with lots of detail, the handouts help the reader to absorb the facts. However, if you are delivering a presentation with a lot of emotional appeal, the brochures could backfire, as there is a risk that audience members will become immersed in the brochure and not pay enough attention to the presenter. National and organizational culture plays an important role in the success of the presentation. Brits, Americans, or Italians, for example, appreciate interactive presentations with emotional appeal, but Finns and Japanese are comfortable with moderate, fact-based presentations where they can take notes. There are also great variations between professions. People in the marketers and creative professions might not always like to sit quietly and take notes, but accountants or lawyers might be more inclined to take notes.
You can distribute brochures before, during or after your presentation. All three have advantages and disadvantages, so you should consider what you hope to achieve with the information provided in the brochures.
If there is material in your presentation that cannot be visually displayed on the screen but is important to follow as you speak, distribute the handouts before you start speaking. If possible, have them ready for each person to take when entering the room. This will allow them to read the information before you start speaking. People who read do not listen carefully. There is another advantage to distributing brochures before the presentation. It allows listeners to take notes directly on the handouts. Remember that taking notes is the learning method of choice for many people. Distributing brochures during your presentation is challenging. Skip them quickly and make sure they are relevant to the point you are making. No matter how quickly they are distributed, the audience will be distracted and they may lose some of their attention. This is the least favorable time to distribute materials, but occasionally it is the only appropriate time to do so. Remember that you will have to get your audience’s attention back and get back on track.
If you decide to distribute the printed materials after your presentation, let your audience know during your presentation. Tell them what information is included in the handouts, which will encourage them to listen rather than take unnecessary notes.
Here are some basic guidelines for creating effective brochures that help your audience rather than distract or mislead them.
Pay particular attention to the appearance of the brochures.
- Print them on clean white paper.
- Use a common, legible font such as Times or Courier. Do not vary the fonts, but make the text as uniform as possible.
- Don’t put too much into each page and don’t leave blank spaces.
- Make the brochure clear and easy to navigate.
- The order of the brochures should be the same as that of the presentation. Don’t make audience members jump from page to page.
- Double-sided brochures are recommended (they save paper and there is less to carry).
- Always staple multi-page booklets, preferably only once, in the upper left corner.
- Include page numbers.
Printed brochures are most effective if they contain the following items.
- Title section
At the top of page 1 you should have the following information, presentation title, your name, your contact information, eg email address. You can also include the location and date of the presentation.
- Body
Structure the body using headings or if your presentation is primarily data driven, you can simply allow readers to follow the text using the numbers.
- Tables
Keep your design simple. Simple statistics can best be presented in a table, but often a graph is better for this purpose. All tables should have clear and informative captions.
- Figures
Figures include tables and graphs. If you have graphics, make sure they are clearly visible on the brochure. Like tables, figures should also have informative titles.
- References
List only the references mentioned in the presentation (orally or in the brochure). Usually there are no more than five or ten for a presentation.
Microsoft PowerPoint or similar presentation software, such as Apple Keynote, has built-in options for creating handouts from the slides that you will use during your presentation.
PowerPoint brochures
By default, PowerPoint offers options to include 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9 slide thumbnails per brochure page; some layouts, such as the 3-thumbnail, also provide some space next to the thumbnail for notes to be written / printed. . If you put too many slide thumbnails on one page, some text or figures may be very difficult to read.
Other options besides printed brochures
Printing brochures isn’t always the only solution, especially if you need to email it to someone. In such a case, brochures can be sent to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.
In conclusion, you need to carefully consider what you like to achieve by handing out the brochures. Then follow the guidelines given above to produce and distribute clear brochures that help the audience absorb your message rather than distract them.
Enjoy your presentations!