How can an entrepreneur walk into a meeting and make an instant impression that not only is visually exciting but also emphasizes the company's capabilities?

That was the predicament faced by Herman Colbert, general manager of Western Pacific operations for Graphco Technologies Inc. in West Trenton, N.J., as he and his colleagues prepared to visit potential clients earlier this year. The meetings were crucial for building the customer base of the two-year-old firm, which makes software that enhances semiconductor production.

Colbert felt that if he could show off his company's technological prowess, he would make some sales. So he decided against a standard slide presentation on a notebook computer. Instead, he and his Graphco colleagues purchased a portable LCD (liquid crystal display) projector--a LitePro 220 from In Focus Systems Inc. They took it to their customer meetings, plugged two laptops into it, and jumped right into their presentation.

Colbert says the projector and the attached laptops enabled the firm to display large, colorful graphics and complex technical diagrams that got clients' attention. The machine "lets us give a clear overview of what we're doing," he says. "It's a heck of a lot better than using an overhead projector and foils [transparencies]. Everything in our presentation works seamlessly."

Getting Visual

These days, it's not just what small-business people say that counts, it's the style with which they say it. Slides and transparencies don't hold viewers' attention anymore--not in an era of fast-paced video clips and personal computers.

"People are just used to visual, very high-tech things now," says Rowena Crosbie, president of Tero International Inc. in West Des Moines, Iowa, which teaches presentation skills to business people. "A lot of the technology that's out really enhances a presenter's ability to give a more visual presentation People who are going into presentations with overheads are giving themselves an image that's not quite up-to-date."

By now, many business people have discovered how they can create colorful, attention-grabbing business presentations using computer-graphics software such as Adobe Persuasion, Lotus Freelance Graphics, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Lately, the bar has been raised even higher by these programs and by more-specialized multimedia software such as Astound Inc.'s Astound and the Micrografx Graphics Suite, which permit the incorporation of live elements such as animation, sound, and video in presentations.

Rapid advances in hardware technologies such as LCD projectors, large-screen computer displays, high-speed CD-ROM recorders and players, color laser printers, and electronic white boards (large screens for sketching notes and diagrams electronically) are enabling those who make presentations to take full advantage of some or all of these multimedia features. A recent customer survey conducted by Microsoft found that 42 percent of PowerPoint users give presentations electronically.

Brighter, Crisper Images

LCD projectors, especially, have come into their own in the past two years, with sales expected to top $1 billion in 1997, according to Pacific Media Associates, a Mountain View, Calif., firm that does presentation-technology research. The devices allow the user to project images from PCs, video cameras and recorders, and television broadcasts onto screens or walls.

According to Art Feierman, a partner in Presenting Solutions!, a San Clemente, Calif., presentation-equipment reseller, the latest LCD projectors, such as the LitePro 220, the Epson ELP-3500, the Proxima Lightbook, and the Sharp XG-NV1U NoteVision, now cast significantly brighter images with more and crisper colors, last longer, and are more compatible with PCs and other video sources.

"Projectors are a high-performance playback tool" and can be effective in making sales, says Feierman. "You walk in with a projector and you look a lot better. You've got to be a professional when you're out there selling, and this will let you do that."

That visual edge was important for Colbert and Graphco. During the recent West Coast road trip, Colbert had to give both a sales presentation about Graphco and a technical briefing on its technology--a briefing that included elaborate diagrams on how the technology works and a demonstration.

The sales presentation was easy to prepare using PowerPoint, and it ran smoothly off the Windows-based notebook computer that Colbert connected to the projector. When it was time for the technical briefing, Colbert fired up the second notebook, which ran under a different operating system, UNIX.

In the past, he would have had to depend on overheads and handouts for the presentation, or his clients would have had to crowd around the notebook to view the demonstration on its small screen. With the LitePro projector, the content appeared clearer and more colorful, and it had more of a live feel, says Colbert. "It's more captivating. Our customers love it."

Colbert says the projector also gives him greater control over the media that he and his colleagues use during a presentation, so there's less that can go wrong. That in turn makes Graphco appear more organized and professional.

Equipment reseller Feierman says a small company can buy a good portable projector for less than $8,000 or lease one for around $300 a month.

Moreover, Feierman notes that because LCD projectors now weigh as little as 10 pounds, they can be taken to meetings and trade shows as easily as notebook computers. Colbert says he takes his projector aboard planes like a carry-on bag.

Electronic White Boards

Among other presentation devices that are becoming popular, says Feierman, are large-screen monitors, used by many companies that do numerous presentations on their premises.

Presentation monitors such as the AR3.1AV from Princeton Graphics Systems look a lot like big-screen televisions, with sizes up to 40 inches. They can display content from PCs or videocassette recorders, and they can broadcast standard TV programs. A variation on this theme is the Destination PC from Gateway 2000 Inc., which combines a multimedia PC with a 31-inch display and broadcast-TV compatibility.

Electronic white boards such as Softboard Inc.'s Softboard 203 are becoming a useful part of business meetings that involve collaboration among participants. Information written or sketched with electronic markers onto these high-tech versions of the traditional pen-and-ink white boards can be downloaded to a PC.

Creating impressive presentations is getting easier, too. Presentation software often features templates and automated how-to procedures to help novice users put together professional qualitY presentations quickly.

The more graphically inclined may prefer to use desktop publishing and specialized graphics programs, which can incorporate more sophisticated features such as sound and video. Such easy-to-use software can bring out a small firm's creative side.

Julia Jones, who creates and gives presentations for a living, knows this firsthand. As customer service manager for Executive Development Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn., she instructs corporate training specialists on how to teach executives and managers business skills and techniques. Effective use of media plays a key role, and Jones leads by example. She uses PowerPoint on her PC and Adobe Pagemaker and Persuasion on her Apple Macintosh to create presentation materials such as slides, transparencies, and handouts. She prints them on a Phaser 340 color laser printer from Tektronix Inc.

The combination of technologies gives her greater control over how her materials turn out and allows her to brighten her presentations with high-quality color.

"The emphasis in our presentations is not only consistency but on having fun," says Jones. "Having that vibrant color just ties that right in. It's important for all the materials to match and be consistent. That's what we teach people."

Jones says the presentation technologies she employs let her show her clients what an effective presentation looks like and how they can use similar hardware and software to convey their message Even better.

Using Resources At Hand

Presentation technologies enable the user not only to create visual presentations but also to make them interactive. Links can be embedded in most multimedia and presentation software so the presenters can jump between slides as needed to make a point or respond to a question. Presentations can be less formal yet still convey important information.

"That's a real strength because the software puts all the resources immediately at hand in your presentation," says Feierman of Presenting Solutions! The faster processing speeds, larger hard drives, and increased memory capacity of PCs equipped with CD-ROM players have made them more useful for creating and playing back interactive and multimedia presentations. CD-ROM recorders allow small companies to put full multimedia presentations on CD-ROMs, which can be played back before an audience and even duplicated and given to meeting participants.

The new digital video disc (DVD) format may take that further by allowing the user to put in more video and audio content--potentially the entire presentation itself could be on a disc.

Presentation technologies can provide a lot of help to small-business people, but they can go only so far. Even the best visuals and technology tools won't save someone who lacks presentation skills, says presentation trainer Crosbie, and a poorly conceived presentation will make things worse.

"Technology can be very overwhelming to presenters who don't know how to use it properly," she says. "They begin to use the visuals as a crutch for their presentation. You have to use them to enhance your message."