Tips & Tricks

Here are some tips and tricks we have compiled that can help you to ensure that your meeting is a success. Feel free to bookmark this page and revisit it, as we will be adding to it regularly.

Hardware

According to Microsoft, the recommended configuration for a Windows Vista system (all versions above Home Basic) is:

1GHz 32-bit (x86) processor or 1GHz 64-bit (x64) processor
1GB RAM
128MB of memory on the video card

The complete specification can be found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919183. However, these are MINIMUM requirements for the operating system, so to run Get Feedback successfully in your meetings, we RECOMMEND the following:

Windows XP:
Dual-core processor, 2GB RAM, all current Service Packs & updates, PowerPoint 2003, 2007 or 2010 with all current Service Packs

Windows Vista or Windows 7:
Core 2 Duo processor, 3GB RAM, all current Service Packs & updates, PowerPoint 2003, 2007 or 2010 with all current Service Packs

Do's & Don'ts

General Audience Response & PowerPoint use

Practice.
Take some extra time to run through the presentation, test it and make sure you’re comfortable with the timing operating the software.
Be consistent.
Use the same computer for presenting that you used to create the slideshow. At a minimum, verify that the computer you’re using is running the same version of the software, or that your presentation has been properly converted to work with the version on the presentation computer. Test it all again.
Clear-up the system.
Shut down any unnecessary applications. This might also include those residing in the notification area, which might consume memory and processor power or generate pop up messages in the middle of the presentation.
Deliver professionally.
Don’t forget to turn off your screensaver prior to beginning the presentation.

Slide formatting.
Use the fonts consistently: two font families, one graphic image or chart per slide and apply the “666 Rule:” 6 words per bullet, 6 bullets per image, and 6 word slides in a row.
If you can read the slide from an ‘arm-length’ distance, it will be visible on the big screen, too.
Use same colors throughout the deck and for uniformity, use of templates is recommended.
Use Guy Kawasaki’s “10/20/30 Rule” (video | separate window | 1:52) if you can: no more than 10 slides, last no more than 20 minutes and no font smaller than 30 points.

Get Feedback

Don’t use a USB stick.
USB drives are great for moving a presentation from machine to machine, but a presentation should always be run from a copy residing on the hard drive of your computer.
Don’t panic.
Expect AutoRecovery to kick in during the slideshow and audience polling. This may create a short lag, which is normal. When the AutoRecovery is complete, move forward in your presentation as usual.
In many cases, less is more.
Keeping the wording and other elements of an interactive polling slide to a minimum will keep your audience focused on your question and your presentation running smoothly.
Plug in early. Test connection.
Plug your Meridia receiver into your computer prior to launching PowerPoint. After launching PowerPoint, verify that the base is being recognized by looking under the “Base Settings” menu.
Save Early, Save Often!
This should go without saying and it applies to any work on a computer. Save between presentations, breaks and other interruptions, but definitely right after the presentation is over. Remember, GetFeedback stores the date inside the PPT (or PPTx) file, so Save it as a new file.
Maintain single Slide Master.
Avoid PowerPoint presentations that have more than one Slide Master layout. Get Feedback uses a particular slide layout from the Master ‘deck’ for its ARS slides and multiple Slide Masters cause it to pick the wrong one.
Wireless “clickers.”
“Targus AMP16US Wireless Presenter with Laser Pointer (2.4G)” may be the only wireless remote that we know causes a COM port interference with our receiver. Please avoid using it.
Don’t use hyperlinks on ARS slides.
Using hyperlinks in your presentation is OK, but remember that mouse clicks and keyboard commands are translated by Get Feedback (on ARS slides) as polling-related commands. For example, mouse click either closes polling, or starts a countdown. Another mouse click moves the slideshow forward. On these slides, hyperlinks will not work as expected.

Hardware Setup

Turn off any wireless networks (Wi-Fi and Bluetooth).
Meridia receiver is able to ‘jump around’ any other 2.4GHz frequency and deliver the votes accurately and in a timely manner, but...
The less interference there is to work around, the better and faster the results will be.
Elevate your receiver.
Walls, shelves, human bodies all act as a sponge. They ‘consume’ some of the wireless signal, so...
The straighter the line of sight from the keypads to the receiver, the better the results.
Distance your receiver away from other electronics.

Each piece of A/V or computer equipment emits ‘electronic noise’. That’s why they tell you not to sleep in the room with a computer, or with a phone by your bedside. We avoid this noise with the FHSS technology, but everything can be improved, right?
The less electronic equipment there is close to your ARS computer, the faster polling results will be.

Tips from other experts

We have done many thousands of meetings and improved on the use of audience response technology, as well as PowerPoint®, but there are other experts out there, who have shared their useful tips on how to present and not to fail while doing it. Please feel free to take their words for it.

		Presenting with PowerPoint - (web page) by Cherie Kerr, Founder and President of Presentation & Communication Skills Training

		10-20-30 Rule - (video \| 1:52) by Guy Kawasaki. Great way to structure and format your presentation for maximum clarity and effectiveness.

		Life After Death by PowerPoint - (video \| 9:29) by Don McMillan. A fun way to look at "Death by PowerPoint" - a symptom of a boring, unstructured, and completely ineffective presentation.

		Vinod Khosla's 5-second rule - (LinkedIn article) Learn how to capture the audiences in just five short seconds...and be the best presenter you can be!