One computer can be worth a million words.
It's true if you're in a job where effective information sharing can spell the difference between profit and loss.It's true if you're in a business where customers buy or don't buy depending on their confidence in your sales pitch.
It's probably true in your field if you think about it. If you're like most businesses, you try to do everything else on a computer. You've got impressive spreadsheets, charts, graphs and other data stored there already. Want to wake up your audience? Bring along your computer and use it to display the data you're proud of.
First off, it's economical. Your desktop or portable computer can take the place of chalk talks, printed handouts, film slides, videotapes, overhead projections and cardboard charts.
Second, it's fast and practically cost-free to keep your show-and-tell up-to-date.
Third, it's dramatic. When customers and clients see spreadsheets, tables and charts paint themselves on a computer screen, they believe it! When you change tables into charts, using a program like Excel or SuperCalc5, those charts seem incontestable.
When you plug a customers' numbers into a timetable and it fills in the delivery date, it's completely convincing. That's the psychological truth.
All you need is an ordinary IBM or compatible PC, Macintosh or lowly Apple II and a good color monitor. Then plan your pitch to take advantage of computer power. Show your canned facts and figures as computer files. Utilize text, pictures, charts, even simple animation. When audience attention lags, generate some spontaneous graphs or projections. Plug in customers' figures and watch them come alive.
Once your pitch is prepared, your most important prop is the computer monitor. You can comfortably seat at least 25 people in front of a good color screen. For our show-and-tell jobs, we prefer the following monitors: Thompson, Princeton Graphics, Zenith flat screen models, and NEC MultiSync models.
If you make boardroom presentations, you need either several screens or one big enough to see across a 25-foot room. When you shop, keep in mind that going from 14-inch diameter to 4 feet doesn't improve picture quality. In fact, quality degrades because you still only get something like 800 dots of information horizontally and 600 dots vertically.
If you have the money, a thousand dollars or more buys an add-on circuit board that may sharpen the picture on large monitors. But it's cheaper (and, in our opinion, much more effective) to use several regular monitors. Place them so nobody's more than 10 to 20 feet away - nearer if reading numbers in small type is important.
Respectable vendors are now selling computerized overhead projectors, saying they give you a big, sharp, colorful picture everyone in the room can see. In truth, they're no better than attaching a huge monitor to your computer. In enlarging, they lose the same amount of sharpness and color intensity - sometimes even more.
If your boss bought one of these gizmos and insists that you use it, plan your presentation to use all the colors and contrast available on your computer. The same is true if you must use a large-screen video projector.
As with most presentations, you have to plan and practice your pitch. The computer can't do it for you. You'll look Neanderthal rather than 21st century if your talk is way ahead of or far behind your computerized images.
For a polished looking performance, get help from good presentation software. These programs are available for both IBM and Apple fans. They organize your information into a computerized slide show you can display on your monitor.
We've used sophisticated PC Emcee to turn out dramatic, professional looking presentations. It converts our IBM or compatible PCs into computerized slide projectors. It has flexible software that works with all the most popular graphics and word processing programs. It integrates computer charts, graphs, tables, headlines and other images into a smooth show.
During a pitch, we can use our computer's keyboard to flash each new computer slide onto the screen as we're ready for it. If you're like Frank, and like to wander around during a presentation, PC Emcee's hand-held remote controller lets you stand across the room and still manipulate the computer that's giving the show. It operates just like the remote button on good slide projectors.
PC Emcee can also synchronize its slide show with a tape recorder so you can add a narrated script containing background music, interviews or quotations from delighted customers. You can even trigger automatic slide changes by punching silent electronic signals onto the tape during rehearsal. At a trade show, PC Emcee's tape/computer combo can run your whole pitch unattended.
Prices range from $300 to $1,000, depending on how much sophistication you want to pay for. Before you buy, read our upcoming review of other presentation programs available for Macs, Apple IIs and IBM type computers. If you dealer doesn't stock PC Emcee, call Computer Support Corp. at 214-661-8960.
(C) 1989 P/K Associates Inc., 4343 W Beltline Hwy, Madison WI 53711.