What’s in a Handout?


If you decide to give handouts, the content becomes an important issue. The handouts should always be “different” from the presentation.

Don’t fall into the trap of printing out a hard copy of your visuals for the audience to take away with them. This presents a problem, especially when the presentation is designed conceptually.

A conceptual presentation offers visuals that are clear, readable, easy to understand, and very supportive of the stories and analogies used by the presenter. A “copy” of these visuals will be a useless handout because after the event because the presenter is not there to explain the concepts.

Handouts must be different from the presentation in the same way a book is different from the movie; or, in the same way a newspaper is different from the TV news.  “Print” is different from “visual display”.

Design your handout materials for a “reader” and your presentation visuals for a “viewer”.

Copyright © 1994-2009 MediaNet, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of MediaNet, Inc. is prohibited.

For tips you may have missed visit MediaNet’s TIPS MISSED page!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Please VERIFY your comment *