Anyone who has had a booth at a trade show wants an alternative to the boring old PowerPoint slideshow that you see on the tabletops. Lets face it, PowerPoint has gotten old. It just looks like presentations from the 20th Century. And when you use yesterday’s presentation tool to promote yourself, what does that say about your brand?
The deck is dead
It’s not just the PowerPoint software that we hate. Even if you forgive the clunky user interface, lack of templates and horrible designs, the whole concept is outdated. The main reason why we call for a PowerPoint alternative is because Microsoft PowerPoint is based on bullet points, which are just not effective in trade shows. No one will stand there reading your bullet points…it looks just ridiculous. The deck as we know it, is dead. What works well at trade shows is highly engaging visual presentations.
Enter the visual presentation
At a trade show, you have very little time to spend with each visitor to your booth, so your presentations are all about first impressions. Your presentation needs to be short, highly visual and contain minimal text.
The problem is, PowerPoint was designed to be text-centric. It’s best fit for slides that contain lots of text and little design. Luckily there is an alternative to PowerPoint. emaze was designed from the start to look great – no matter what.
Think outside the text box
A presentation at a trade show will usually gather attention for several seconds, and if you got their interest they will come closer to see what’s at the booth. Follow these principles to get the maximum benefit from your trade show booth presentation:
- Include no more than a few words on each slide
- Choose a template that has a lot of motion (3D templates work best)
- Rotate slides on auto-play every 4 seconds
- Use stunning images that represent concepts, not details
- Assume that the viewer has no idea what your presentation is about
A presentation is always part of a funnel
Your booth is always a sales funnel. The presentation is usually a way to attract attention to get them to the booth, nothing more. You may need a second presentation, once they are at the booth for those who want to get more details. An interactive self service presentation would do well for this type of slideshow.
Remember what the purpose of your presentation was to begin with and make sure to include a loud call to action in it:
[image of slide with the text: Live demo right here]
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