Paramedic, EMS educator, graphic designer, photographer, and my good friend Kyle Bates shares some tips for new EMS instructors about making presentations and keeping PowerPoint slides simple and useful to the audience.

In a much older video I share 5 essential PowerPoint skills for EMS educators

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I am convinced that in the workplace any incident of wrong doing – cheating, stealing, etc. – is always witnessed or realized by a co-worker. The part I have never understood is the lengths individuals will go to either pretend what they know is happening is not happening or protect someone that is clearly violating rules, ethics, or individuals. I just don’t get it.

Paramedic Bob Sullivan, at the EMS Patient Perspective, reminded us early in the month about how important it is to Do the Right Thing.

Brandon Otto shared a great set of notes and observations from the Western Massachusetts EMS Conference. As a speaker I would be thrilled to see if an attendees notes matched the key points I was trying to make.

The Rogue Medic uses his impressive skills in medical illustration to explain Why CPR Doesn’t Work for Trauma.

Jamie Davis, the Podmedic, interviews author Sandra Crowe about her book, Since Strangling is Not an Option. Oddly the holidays often remind us and lead to encounters with the most difficult people in our life. Get some tips from Jamie and Sandra.

David Konig, the Social Medic, shares 6 tips for EMS coverage at special events. I want to know if the wrestlers are really hurt of if that is part of the act. Do you know?

BetsyDuck at the Rescue Digest Blog explains how Keynote presentations at EMS conferences helps us know who we are and know about the group we belong to.

Do you know what you want to do after being a paramedic? This EMS1.com article shares 9 Reasons Why Nursing Should be Your Next Career Move.

Remember one of the best places to find blogs by paramedics is Paramedic.Alltop.com.

What were your favorite blog posts from November? What would you like to read more about? 

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Today I depart for Reno, Nevada for the 2011 National Association of EMS Educators Symposium. The annual event brings together paramedic and EMT educators from around the world for training, product evaluation, and networking. At NAEMSE I am looking forward to:

1. Co-Presenting Effective Visual Presentations with Kyle David Bates. We have previously presented this workshop at NAEMSE and other EMS educator conferences in Florida, Illinois, New York, and Alaska. Learn more.

2. Talking about online education with other EMS educators that are using web-based tools for initial and refresher training.

3. Exploring Reno by foot. I have a 20 mile training run planned for Saturday morning. @UnwiredMedic is helping me plan a scenic, challenging, and safe running route. Care to join me for all or a portion of the run?

4. Seeing presentations from the best of the best in EMS education.

5. Re-uniting with EMS education colleagues. Some I just saw two weeks at EMS World Expo. Some I have not seen since EMS World Expo 2011.

6. Gathering topic and guest ideas for future episodes of the EMSEduCast – the podcast by and for EMS educators.

7. Sharing lots of EMS education success stories and resources on Twitter using the hashtag #NAEMSE.

Are you attending NAEMSE? What are you looking forward to?

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Before EMS World Expo I shared a bunch of presentation and PowerPoint tips. After presenting Online Education Trends for Emergency Responders and Using Social Media to Market Your EMS Agency last Thursday I have a few more to add to the list.

1. Arrive early. I heard that the Wednesday morning presenters arrived in their rooms to discover the digital projectors had not yet been delivered.

2. Delete slides during your final preparation. In the final 24 hours before my presentations I removed 6 to 10 slides from each presentation. This tightened the message and ensured I was within the time available (1 hour, 15 minutes).

3. Roll with the tech made available. It has been several years since I have presented without a wireless lavlier microphone so I was pretty surprised to see the lavlier microphone was a wired microphone. The cord was plenty long enough, but it took a bit to figure out how to manage the cord. I looped the cord over my pinky finger in the hand I was using to hold my presentation remote.

4. Connect with audience personally before the presentation. I like to quickly set-up and then wander around getting to know attendees. Some things I learned – it is possible to buy Siberian Huskies while living in Saudi Arabi and Notre Dame football is turning around (this was before their weekend loss).

5. Share some of your passions and interests with the audience during your introduction. I presented on the day the Wisconsin Badgers started their football season and one week before the Packers kick-off the NFL season. Because the Badger game began as my second presentation began I asked the audience to indicate Wisconsin Touchdown by raising their arms in the touchdown signal and then to make a W by putting their arms out at a 45 degree angle. I was tickled to receive three touchdown notifications during the presentation.

6. Upload your slides to Slideshare.com before your presentation. Even though the audience is likely to photograph your slides (see example from the Social Medic) it is reassuring to many in the audience they can view your slides later. I also embedded the slides into blog posts to publish just as my presentation began.

7. Always end on time.

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I was asked by a first-time EMS World Expo presenter for presentation tips.

At EMS World I invariably have found myself in a massive room with 400 seats which dwarfs the size of the audience for my niche topic presentations. Usually my room is bordered by Steve Berry and Ken Bouvier and their audience is lined up in the hall trying to find the seats. Instead of worrying about how many people are in my room I reassure myself with these thoughts: 1) EMS World wanted me to present because they believed my topics would be of interest to some attendees. 2) The people in the room are interested and I have a chance to give them ideas, resources, and inspiration to help them as an EMS professional.

Presentation Tips

1. Arrive early so you can set-up your computer, connect to the projector, and put on your lavalier microphone

2. Use the microphone. Even if the size of the audience is small the room is large.

3. Before you start work the room to find out why people chose the session, what they are hoping to learn, and what questions they hope to get answered. Ask their name and organization and if you can work that into the presentation.

4. Move around the room as you present. The podium is usually very far from the audience. Get closer to the audience by moving around the room as you present.

5. Ask “What questions do you have?” and count silently in your head as attendees compose the question they want to ask.

6. When someone leaves the room re-focus on delivering outstanding content to the people in the room. There are lots of reasons people leave a session. I would rather be focused on the people in the room instead of being distracted and worried about the people that leave.

7. Bring your own Wireless Presentation Remote (Amazon affiliate link) for advancing slides.

PowerPoint Slides

1. Use slides to support your presentation with keywords, images, or animations that help reinforce your important points.

2. The number of slides isn’t important. The quality of the information on the slides is important.

3. Increasingly attendees are photographing slides instead of asking for a copy of your slide deck. Use a large font, a text color that contrasts with the background, and move to the side to allow a decent photograph.

4. Invite attendees to connect with you after the session while still at the conference and after on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+.

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Steve Berry, paramedic and acclaimed EMS advocate, speaker, author, and cartoonist, is presenting this morning at 1015 central time from the Integrated Training Summit. Watch the live streamed broadcast from his presentation by the ProMed Network.

Streaming live video by Ustream

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The two top components of any conference are the exhibit hall and the education presentations. At EMS Expo the presentations were divided into multiple tracks including ALS, BLS, education, administration/management, and a general audience track. A lot of the big names in EMS – Steve Berry, Ken Bouvier, Heather Davis, Ray Fowler, Baxter Larmon, David Page, Mike Smith, Mike Touchstone, and Paul Pepe – presented sessions to packed rooms. This year’s EMS Expo also featured some emerging EMS presenters that are sure to become fixtures on the EMS conference circuit for years to come.

Emerging EMS Stars

Kyle Bates delivered two presentations on Friday in the education track. Kyle and I have presented together many times on topics related to teaching with technology and effective use of instructional media. While I was unable to attend Kyle’s session I am sure participants were given useful information and actionable ideas for improving their use of visual case studies. I am also confident they probably saw the best PowerPoint presentations of the show. Kyle has a great eye for design and a clear understanding of how to select the best visual elements for the points he is teaching. Were you at Kyle’s presentations? Share your impressions in the comments.

I was fortunate to attend Steve Whitehead’s presentation, the Art of Building Patient Rapport. Within minutes Steve had captured the attention of the audience with outstanding storytelling that appealed to both the emotional and technical aspects of providing patient care. Steve is a talented speaker and had the audience engaged in the topic. Steve’s presentation reminded me that so often my highest highs and lowest lows with patients were dependent on how well I was able to connect with the patient in a meaningful way that went beyond simple assessment and treatment.

Presentations in the Exhibit Hall

The presentation of education topics continues to increase in the exhibit hall. Physio-Control, Zoll, BoundTree, and HSI all offered formal education opportunities in the exhibit hall. Their booths were configured with classroom style seating and video displays for presenter slides. Topics ranged from patient assessment and care techniques to 12 lead interpretations to EMS applications for sonography to social media monitoring.

Informal education is an obvious component in many vendor booths. Knowing what a product is for and how best to use the product helps EMS professionals make purchasing decisions with limited resources. I am hopeful that with the increasing attention being paid to the safety and wellness of EMS professionals that vendor related education might expand to not just how to use a product, but how to use it safely. For example, a patient cot education could also highlight important safe lifting techniques. I also think topics on physical fitness, eating well, stress management, and life-work balance could make a lasting impact in short sessions.

Your Impressions

Please share your top presentation picks from EMS Expo? Which presenters nailed it and should be on everyone’s must see list?

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In episode 3 of EMS Office Hours I talk about the ins and outs of becoming a conference speaker. Jim was not able to join in this week but I was grateful for the questions and comments from the chat room. Educator, paramedic, and blogger Steve Whitehead called in with three great questions.

EMS Office Hours is a regular podcast from Jim Hoffman, the EMS Professional, and myself. Call-in or join us is the chat room with your questions. We welcome any questions from EMS students, as well as practicing EMS professionals and educators.

Show links:
http://theemtspot.com – blog by Steve Whitehead
http://ems-safety.com – blog by Jim Hoffman
http://arrowheadems.com – conference in Duluth, Minnesota each January

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