Innovative Presentations For Dummies
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When you present to one person, you have the opportunity to be conversational and dedicate your innovative presentation to the specific needs and requests of your one-person audience. Nonetheless, your visuals should be easy to see. When presenting in your office, project your visuals on a large monitor in a small meeting room if possible.

If your meeting is in a café or another office, you can display the visuals on a tablet or laptop.

You may like Apple’s iPad Air with Retina display, which offers crisp, clear colors and images. If your budget permits, a pico (sometimes called micro or pocket) projector connected to your laptop or tablet or smartphone projects the image on a screen; a smooth, blank wall; or even the surface of a closed airplane tray table.

Many variables come into play when choosing a projector. You want to consider the number of lumens, which impact the brightness of your images. For a basic slide presentation, 50 lumens is the absolute minimum but if you have video, you want at least 200.

A pico projector is smaller and lighter than a pocket projector and uses LED (light-emitting diode) or laser light, which means you don’t have to replace the lamp, however, it has fewer lumens — anywhere from 15 to 85 lumens in a pico projector and from 100 to 500 for a pocket projector.

Keep in mind that the farther you project an image from these tiny projectors, the more washed out and dim the image appears. These projectors have very limited use for up-close viewing only.

Many pico projectors, in addition to connecting to tablets and smartphones, have built-in memory or capability to read USB flash drives so you don’t have to bring a laptop with you.

Because of the higher lumens, pocket projectors have lamps that must be replaced and fans to keep the projector cool, so you want to consider the noise level of the fan as well. You should also consider the resolution and aspect and contrast ratios when making your choice.

You can use Projector Central to compare projectors. In addition to product reviews, you can find used projectors from third-party sellers on this site.

When choosing a portable projector to use in a medium-size room that accommodates 20 to 50 people, look for much higher lumens, at least 2,000, if not more. For larger venues with 100 to 300 people, a projector with at least 4,500 lumens is recommended.

Screen size determines the number of lumens needed to create a good image: The larger the screen the higher the lumens number should be. In addition, buy or rent a projector with a resolution that matches the resolution of the image you’re projecting. The higher the resolution, the crisper and sharper your text and images. The typical projector resolutions in pixels — with their designations:

  • XGA: 1024x768

  • SXGA: 1280x1024

  • WXGA: 1280x768

  • UXGA: 1600x1200

  • 2K (HD): 2048x1080

  • 4K (Ultra HD): 4096x3072

Consider using a projector with a zoom lens to help create the right size image at various distances, and look at projectors with ultra short throw lenses that enable you to project large images even in a small room.

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Ray Anthony has helped Fortune 500 clients close multi-million dollar deals by designing and developing extraordinarily innovative, solution-selling presentations with superior value propositions for his clients. Barbara Boyd has worked as a marketing and technology consultant for more than 10 years and is the author of several books.

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