what's a good rule for # slides per minute for a presentation?

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Guest

I have to give a 12-13 minute presentation on my research project, and I'd
hate to be taking slides out and adding them back in trying to get the timing
right when I could approximate it and shorten that process. Thanks
 
There is not hard rule on this; it depends on what is needed to enhance what
you are talking about.

For instance, if your talk is on the "Faces of Hunger", you might use 300
images in a 12 minute talk. In this subject a new face every 2-3 seconds
might be used and would be very powerful. The next presentation might be on
the "Analyzing the Federal Report on Hunger". In that presentation 3 or 4
images may be all that is needed in a 12 minute talk.

The bottom line is the content dictates the number of visual images. The
images should be used to enhance the points you are making, so your talk
will determine how many points there are and if images will enhance them.

Keep in mind also that the number of images does not depend on the number of
slides. A single slide may include hundreds of images, of a series of 6
slides may be used to create a single visual effect. Do not get trapped
into the "SlideShow" mentality so common in PowerPoint presentations.
Instead, think in terms of flow and stick. The presentation should flow
between thoughts and stick the thoughts into peoples memories.

I know this doesn't answer the question you asked, but I hope it gives you
the answer to the question you meant.


--
Bill Dilworth
A proud member of the Microsoft PPT MVP Team
Users helping fellow users.
http://billdilworth.mvps.org
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_
vestprog2@ Please read the PowerPoint FAQ pages.
yahoo. They answer most of our questions.
com www.pptfaq.com
..
 
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I have to give a 12-13 minute presentation on my research project, and
I'd hate to be taking slides out and adding them back in trying to get
the timing right when I could approximate it and shorten that process.
Thanks
Click to expand...

In addition to what Bill said, try to keep the scope of what you have to
say limited. I have given and been to a lot of (both good and bad)
research presentations. It is rare that anyone can explain all the
details of a research project in 20 minutes, much less 12-13 minutes. The
worst presentations are the ones where someone is rushing through slides
just to get through content. Instead of trying to cover everything, think
of the one or two most important things you want your audience to come
away with and focus on those. In a research project, you usually want to
say something about the literature, the research question, the research
methods, and the results. However, good research usually tells a good
story, so really what you want is to tell the story. What that story is
depends on the research and the audience. For example, in a group of
statisticians, the most fascinating story might be about the statistical
analysis (while that story would put the rest of us to sleep). Perhaps,
you discovered something that is counterintuitive based on the
literature; in that case, the story is really in the literature review
and how your findings clash with that (while in most research
presentations the literature review is less interesting). Bottom line is
that you only have a short time so you need to start with what is most
important and let all the slides support that.
--David

--
David M. Marcovitz
Microsoft PowerPoint MVP
Director of Graduate Programs in Educational Technology
Loyola College in Maryland
Author of _Powerful PowerPoint for Educators_
http://www.PowerfulPowerPoint.com/
 
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