Everything has changed because of the pandemic, especially how we hang out with our friends and throw parties. One of the ways that people have been having fun together is by holding PowerPoint parties.
I think the first thing that needs to be understood is what a PowerPoint party is. Essentially, it’s when a group of people come together, create presentations about whatever they please, and present them to one another — all in the name of fun. Luckily, there’s not much else to this new quarantine activity!
Now that the basics are down, let’s get into how to plan your own PowerPoint party.
- Gather a group of people
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This one seems easy enough, but these people have to be willing to participate in your PowerPoint party. They can be your friends from home, family, classmates, or even people in one of your clubs! It doesn’t matter who you include, as long as you have people that want to create a presentation and present it.
- Plan
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The next thing that you’re going to need to do is to plan a couple logistical things out, such as when you’re going to hold it (date and time), which platform you’re going to use to host the event (Zoom, Google Meet, Skype, FaceTime, etc.), and anything else that you think is necessary to plan.
I would recommend having one person keep track of all of the presentation topics that people plan to present. This is to make sure there aren’t any repeats and to ensure that things run smoothly. This friend could also be the one that creates the “video room,” and they could decide what order people go in — sort of like the “emcee” for your PowerPoint party.
- Choose your topic
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Now comes the fun part: where you figure out what you want to do! Before you do anything else, you have to choose your topic — when I said it could be about anything, I mean it could be about absolutely anything you want! Maybe you want to convince your friends of something you believe, or you want to rank something, or maybe you want to rate a new topic — this can be anything you could think of.
Moving on, I recommend you create a basic outline of what you want to say in your presentation. This will help you get all of your ideas out to aid in the process of actually creating the physical slides.
- Choose a theme
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When it comes to making the physical presentation, I would choose a theme that’s not preset. You can go to websites like SlidesCarnival, SlidesMania, SlidesGo, or SlidesGala. If you search up “free Google slides or PowerPoint templates/Themes,” you’ll find all of these websites there too. Once you find a theme that you want to use, make sure you import the presentation to whichever platform you are using. Then, you can start filling it out, using your outline as a reference (if you made one).
- Create your presentation
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I suggest you start with a title slide, which would state your topic and what you are trying to prove or disprove to your audience. After this, move onto the presentation’s content, being sure to include points, statistics, facts, and anything else — you have to prove why people should believe your claim. You can go as in-depth or as shallow as you want — remember this is for fun, not for class! Finish off with a strong conclusion to tie everything together and clearly state your point once again. If you want, you can include a “questions” slide. After all of your content is assembled, go back and look through what you’ve created.
Make sure you check for loopholes in your presentation; identify any errors such as grammatical ones and fix them. You don’t want to be called out in the middle of your presentation for something you could have prevented in the first place. Then, go back through the slides and add visuals. You can add GIFs, memes, photos, videos, music, maybe even a game.
- Practice
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If you have the time, check over your presentation one last time. Make sure everything’s good to go for the night of your presentation party. Then, you can practice your slides and get ready for your own pandemic PowerPoint party!
- Have fun!
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When the day of the actual party comes, make sure to have fun! This is simply a way for you and your friends or family to learn more about each other while having a great time together! Expect the typical online annoyances like network connectivity errors, talking over one another, and screens freezing — but also expect to have a fun time with everyone participating!
There’s not a lot you have to do when it comes down to it, but hopefully all of these tips will help you to prepare for an amazing PowerPoint party! Have a fantastic time presenting!