Planning a Presentation

The essential process

The key to making a successful Conveyor presentation is planning and organisation; much the same as for making a physical exhibition. There are three stages:

1. Plan the presentation and identify the assets to be used
2. Gather and make the required assets
3. Assemble the assets into a presentation using the Conveyor system

It is essential to address steps 1 and 2 before starting to make a presentation, otherwise you will have to evolve assets as you actually develop your project and most people find this greatly complicates their work flow. By assets, we mean any item of content, whether text, images, sound or video files.

Planning - Storyboard and Asset List production

We suggest making a storyboard of your presentation. A storyboard is a simple diagram showing what is on each of the screens and how the screens link together - a part of such a diagram is shown below. You can do this on paper, on a white board, or by sticking lots of Post-it notes to the wall. How it is done is not as important as the doing of it.

Once the storyboard is complete you should have a good idea of what work is required for each screen. Use this knowledge to produce a list of the assets required for the whole presentation. Against your asset list should record the details of each file in your presentation, include information such as the image source, the image size required (in pixels), sound and video durations, software processing requirements (if any), copyright clearance details, etc. As the project progresses, the storyboard is also useful reminder of how all the pieces are intended to fit together.

Gathering and making the required assets

We do not offer advice on the process of making graphical files or sound recording and editing, etc., but these are required skills, if you or your colleagues do not possess them, all is not lost. We know of many Conveyor users, particularly in the not-for-profit sector, who have planned their presentations and gathered the physical assets, and who have then sought the support of local schools, colleges or volunteers from the private or commercial sectors to complete work.

Authoring

We offer extensive information about the authoring process on the main page of the 'Using Conveyor Version 2' section. You are advised to read the User Guide supplied there, before starting a project.

The basic process you will go through to author a title is simple and is explained below:

1) Sign up for a user account

2) Thereafter, create a project by specifying a project name and selecting a main image

3) Build your project by selecting additional files from your computer and adding the required interactivity, using the Conveyor system. Note, this process involves the files you select being transmitted from your local drive to the Conveyor server on the internet.

4) Once you have completed the title to your satisfaction, downloading the project from the Conveyor server back to your computer

5) Once a title has been made and downloaded to the creator’s desktop, it can be purposed as required, e.g., played on a touch screen kiosk, cut to DVD for distribution, etc.