In this day and age if you have ever presented any material in front of a large group of people, whether it be a school project or an important meeting, odds are you have dabbled in PowerPoint. Although there are several programs that can be used to put a presentation together, PowerPoint remains the most common. In any corporate event or meeting, the presentation is always a key part of the event and a large focal point for all of your guests.
With so much attention being centered around this one component, it can really make or break an event. When working with an Audio/Visual rental company for any event, it is always important to communicate several key details with your sales contact to ensure that your event is a success. Technology can be unpredictable (no matter who you are!), but there are several ways to stay on top of it and be as prepared as possible.
Details to communicate to your A/V provider
When building your presentation, you have different options for the display ratio… you can either have it in standard 4:3 or in 16:9 (HD). It is important to let your sales contact know which ratio you have built your presentation in, since this can determine the screen size being used as well as the projection settings. This small piece of information will help in getting you the best picture-to-screen ratio and overall image as possible.
Another factor to keep in mind while planning a presentation is whether or not you will have multiple sources used to show your content. It’s very common for meetings to have several presenters using their own laptops for their portion of the program. When a meeting has several different sources for the presentations, switchers are an amazing way to seamlessly switch from one source of content to the next without showing your guests a moving mouse icon or blue screen while attempting to plug in the next laptop. Any A/V company you are working with should be inclined to offer this to your rental if they know that there are multiple sources involved. It helps your presentation look well put together and professional.
Videos and audio in PowerPoint are wonderful ways to “amp up” your presentation and make it engaging for all of your guests. From your A/V providers perspective, this may effect the equipment needed to give you the best results. No amount of information is too much information when it comes to planning an event, so please feel free to share these different aspects with your A/V provider so that they can take care of you to the best of their ability (and do everything on their end to ensure that you have a successful presentation).
