So, what are the two key steps to preparing a brilliant presentation?

1The first one is to prepare your mind properly by using a mind map. This will help you settle the ideas into place, link concepts together and easily remember what goes where.

Make sure your presentation Mind Map is colorful and uses images where appropriate to add extra meaning to the image. If you can add humor through the images and words, even better - it will be even more memorable.

Some of the benefits of using a Mind Map in a presentation are:

• You always have the topic in front of you in the center of your Mind Map, so you are less likely to go off topic
• You have the main points in the first level branches, so when you go down to the detail levels, you are still making the same point
• The whole presentation is there in one place - no more getting lost in your notes
• There is a visual association through the branch lines and colors between related topics, simplifying your presentation
• You can easily pace yourself through the presentation because you can always see how many things you have covered and how many more there are yet to cover
• If you are presenting using a projector and NovaMind, you can hide the details and use progressive revelation to show the information, without your audience getting lost - they always know how the information fits in.
• You are working from properly organized information which gives you clear visual directions as to where you are up to, so you can maintain better eye contact and make your audience feel at home
• You will be much better equipped to handle audience participation and feedback through the course of your presentation because you have the confidence of the visual anchor to the current topic, and a clear picture of what is coming up for the rest of the presentation
• With the information organization of a Mind Map, the information is being presented in the form that fits best with the way your brain operates, so the understanding and retention of the material is much enhanced, and your presentations are smooth, clear and concise

2The second key step is to use NovaMind to prepare and deliver your presentation. You will save time and enjoy creating the presentation much more than writing it out by hand. You can even get high-tech with your handouts: try giving your audience the skeleton of the mind map and make them fill in the information as it unfolds. You''ll be helping them make the information personal (remember the 5 "essentials" in the first section?) and you won't be giving the presentation away before you get started.

If you are giving the presentation using NovaMind and a projector, you can use the full screen mode to get the normal user interface out of the way. You might like to hide children branches until you get to them. This will help your audience understand what you are saying because they will be making notes using their own words.

Your visual mind map will be interesting to look at if you use colors, shapes and images. Images take up a little more space on the screen but are very effective at communicating your ideas. Even someone who barely uses your language will be able to understand what you mean!

Now that's an impressive presentation - being able to communicate across different languages!

If the purpose of your presentation is a lecture or business related, you may want to make the information available on the internet. This is extremely useful because your audience will probably want to follow up at a later time. Using NovaMind means you can easily export your mind map to your website, and link additional information to the branches. This packs extra punch into your presentation - your presentation may refer to other resources or departments, but the web-based version can hyperlink directly to those resources! Your audience is able to follow a simple path to find the information they are interested in.

There's no limit to the files or information you can put into a NovaMind mind map. Text, videos, PDF files, web pages and spreadsheets are just the beginning...

1To start your presentation, state what the topic is (from the Mind Map title), then go around the innermost branches to give an introduction, and tell people what to expect from the presentation.

2Next, go into the details of each of the branches in turn, stating the first level branch (main idea) before going into the detail, and again at the end of that detail section.

3At the end of your presentation, go around the innermost branches again as your summary.