Litigation Support

Mediation Presentation - From Outline to PowerPoint

By Blake Boyd

Here’s an example of how to take an outline and turn it into a PowerPoint presentation. The top 3 points I would like to point out while you watch the presentation are:

1. Outlines are just that an outline. Your presentation should follow an outline, and not tell the story. Be sure to only include bullet points and evidence. No paragraphs, not long convoluted sentences. Just your point.

2. Colors. Watch the demo presentation carefully. This is a plaintiff oriented presentation so notice how the background changes from blue (plaintiff’s points/experts), green (money/nuteral experts), red (defense’s “wrongs”/hostile experts). While this might not make as big of difference with the attendee’s of a mediation, color has a major unconscious effect, especially in front of juries. Be sure not to be overly dramatic with colors, this should be a subtle change.

3. Evidence. We always try to include as much evidence as possible (within reason, I’m not of the belief you should put all cards on the table at the time of mediation). If you have points that you want to make about a certain piece of evidence, include the first page. It gives the audience something to look at and associate with. Pictures are always a good form of evidence to grab the attention of your audience.

Click here to view the presentation
Click here to see the original outline (pdf)

Full post as published by The Trial Technologist's View on December 14, 2007 (boomark / email).