manager meeting presentation

Data & Finance for Work & Life

Management Presentation: 8 Tips, Examples & a Template

In a corporate context, presenting works wonders for a career. Most professionals get exposure to presenting to informed colleagues and department managers. It’s an ideal way to get visibility and show value. But a management presentation to senior executives who aren’t familiar department nuances is a different ballgame.

A management presentation is a high-level summary to senior executive that optimizes reports to include only the details relevant to directorial decisions . They are notoriously difficult to navigate for two reasons: 1. most executives do not have working knowledge of the nuances in each department , 2. presenters rarely have time to understand executives’ preferences .

More than anything else, good management presenters learn how to strike a balance in the degree of detail: they provide enough detail so executives make informed decisions, but not so much detail that they cause confusion.

This article explores how to make a good management presentations in PowerPoint using 4 management presenting best practices , 4 management presenting techniques , providing examples for each, and finishing with a management presentation template you can apply in real life. You can use it as a jumping off point for deeper communication curriculum .

5 management presenting best practices are:

• Ask what managers prefer ahead of time.
• Have 1 message, and 1 message Only.
• The only words should be “Thought Starters.”
• Keep it short.
• Practice 7 times in advance.

4 management presenting techniques are:

• Use a CSP model – Challenge, Solution, Progress.
• Begin with a summary of exactly 3 points.
• Use only these 3 chart types: bar, line, scatter.
• Design slides with the company logo.

I will use a financial analyst perspective in this article, but everything here applies to data and business analysts as well.

Ask Executives Their Preference Ahead of Time

If you’ve ever taken a class on presentation techniques, you’ve heard the old adage “know your audience.” It’s true, the best way to deliver a great presentation is to align your message with what your audience already understands. The same applies to a management presentation.

The challenge is that, more often than not, executives are too busy for you to get to know them well. This means you hardly get the chance to understand how they like presentations. So what can you do? Well, ask them! There’s no harm in sending an email to understand better. And what’s more, once you know, you can always defer to their preferences in the future.

For a financial management presentation, common questions to ask include the following:

• Do you prefer to see raw data, or only visualizations?
• Do you prefer charts or table summaries?
• Would you like a written explanation on paper for each slide?
• Do you like averages alone, or do you prefer means, or standard deviation?
• What interests you most in a presentation?

If you gather some helpful insights, then your presentation will be that much better. That said, you may not get a response, or it may be quick and not insightful. But most senior executives will appreciate you asking .

The best part is you will be able to surprise them. Using the best practices and techniques below, in additional to any insights gathered form your email, will work wonders for you.

Have 1 Message, and 1 Message Only

The easiest mistake to make on a management presentation is trying to deliver multiple messages. Senior executives go through loads of meetings every day, and each meeting they have includes a wave of information. Your mission should be to deliver 1 essential message so they can easily understand and compartmentalize it.

This is no easy task. When I try to narrow down the focus of my management presentation message, it seems like I leave out critical information along the way. The key is to tell a story to incorporate critical information as part of a story towards the essential message.

For example, imagine you work for a wholesale watch company called Batch Watch . You want to explain a financing operation in which the company has the option of two loans to fund the initial costs of 10,000 watches. These loans have different interest rates and maturity dates. Loan A is better if the company expects to sell the watches within 3 months, while Loan B is better if the company expects to sell over more than 3 months. Each has cancellation fees and cash flow impacts.

Instead of showing the cancellation fees and cash flow impact of the each loan, all you need to say is “ we expect the company to sell them within 3 months, and we recommend loan A for that reason.” If the executives disagree on the sale timeline, they will ask for more information.

This is how you keep senior executives engaged, by integrating them in the story you tell. Ultimately, the essential message of your presentation should be how much profit the company will make from the watch funding operation. Senior executives should leave feeling like the project is in good hands with you, and they only feel that way when you tell a story around the essential message .

Whatever the Message, Use Data

Whatever message you want to send, it needs to be backed up by data. In the example above the data was financial, but it’s not always that simple. Context may require you to provide KPIs and perform extensive data analysis that culminates in a small output that your viewers can easily digest.

You need to be strong with data to deliver a good management presentation. To get started or refresh your memory, you can read AnalystAnswers’ free Intro to Data Analysis eBook .

The Only Words Should be “Thought Starters”

As a general presentation principle, you should not write many thoughts down on presentation slides. Words have two negative impacts on the audience: they demand energy from the reader, and they make the reader feel compelled to read, lest they misunderstand.

If you can avoid putting text blocks altogether, do. If you don’t need any writing at all, don’t. However, if you need guidance as you speak or want to provide reminders for a later data, use “Thought Starters.”

Thought starters are phrases of 3 words maximum that contain ideas leading to the essential message. People often call them “bullet points,” which is common for list-style thought starters. Personally, I prefer to place thought starters at different places on a slide. When I use a chart, for example, I put thought starters at relevant places on the slide.

Keep it Short

Your presentation should never consume more than 80% of the allotted timeframe. This means that if you plan a 5 minutes meeting, deliver the presentation in 4 minutes. If you’re given 30 minutes, do it in 25 minutes. If you have 1 hour, do it in 45 minutes.

By keeping the presentation short, you relieve the audience and you allow for some question buffer. Have you ever sat in a meeting planned for 1 hour, and at 45m it ends early? It’s a pleasure for everyone. Most of us feel like we’re running behind — when you put us ahead of schedule, we love you!

At the same time, senior executives may bombard you with questions throughout the presentation. If you planned to fill the whole timeframe, you won’t finish. But if you planned to finish early, you still have a chance.

And if you use the rest of these best practices and techniques, those senior executives shouldn’t need to ask too many questions!

Practice 7 Times in Advance

There’s a mix of opinions on the number of times you should rehearse a presentation before doing it live, but most people agree that it’s somewhere between 5 and 10 times. If you take nothing else from this article, take this. To deliver a good presentation, prepare excellent slides; to deliver a great presentation, practice presenting them 7 times.

To deliver a good presentation, prepare excellent slides; to deliver a great presentation, practice presenting them 7 times. AnalystAnswers.com

But just practicing isn’t enough, there are a few criteria you must meet:

• Practice in the room you will present in. There’s something about envisioning yourself live that really makes a difference. When you practice in a space other that where you’ll present, it’s good. But when you practice in the “live” room, you’re able to sensitize yourself to the environment, which calms nerves so you can focus on the message.
• Have an audience. We all behave differently when there’s stimulus of other people around. Whenever possible, get one or two people to whom you can present. In addition to getting used to having an audience, you’ll also get some feedback.
• Use the same volume of voice. When we’re not “live,” we have a tendency to hold back on our voice. This is detrimental to the presentation because you feel taken off guard by your own voice. Make sure to envision yourself in front of the senior execs when you practice.

Best Practices Recap

We’ve addressed 5 best practices — now let’s turn our attention to 4 specific techniques you can easily implement. And when you do, that work wonders for management presenting.

Use a CSP Model (Challenge, Solution, Progress)

Every presentation needs structure, but it’s easy to forget that we need to guide our audience. A great way to structure management reports is using the CSP model. CSP stands for Challenge, Solution, Progress, and it’s exactly what it sounds like.

You need to explain the challenge or goal, explain what the solution to the challenge is (or how to achieve the goal), and show where you are in the steps to completing that goal.

For example, let’s look at our Batch Watch case. Imagine you need to find funding for a new product launch — $100,000 to be exact. A sample CSP model for this would be a slide that shows:

By using the CSP model, you guide the audience. However, it’s important to note that the CSP model is not a summary . It’s an overview of the process, but a summary should always come before. Let’s talk about it now.

Begin with a Summary of Exactly 3 Points

Any good presentation begins with a summary. And a good summary communicates the essential message simply in 3 points. However, the summary is not the same thing as the CSP model. Instead, it provides an alternative view on the challenge and and solution.

For example, using our Batch Watch case of funding a new product, you could address a summary in the following way:

• Challenge, Solution, Progress
• Funding acquisition
• Project Timeline

This provides additional details that are most relevant to the project and carry added value to the CSP model.

Use only Bar Charts (aka Column Charts), Line Graphs, and Scatter Plots

Whether it’s for data, financial, and business analyst topics , management presentations should only ever have bar charts, line graphs, and scatter plots. They are common, rich in information, and well understood. Any other kind of graph is distracting more than anything else.

A bar graph is useful when you want to compare like variables. For example, if you want to show the average size of Canadian trout versus American trout. A common mistake, though, is to use bar graphs to show change over time. While it’s not incorrect to do so, line graphs are better for this purpose.

A line graph is useful when you want to show change in one variable over time (we call this time series data). For example, if you want to show the progression of revenues over time, line graphs are the perfect way to do so.

A scatter plot is best when you want to compare a set of observations of one variable to a set of observations of another. It’s the ideal way to quickly visualize the relationship between two variables. For example, if you want to see how company revenues compare to GDP, you could use a scatter plot like this:

For example, let’s look at our Batch Watch case. If we want to see how our company is performing compared to the economy as a whole, we could use this scatter plot. As you can see, we have a positive (bottom left to top right) relationship, but a weak one (points not clustered closely).

Design Slides Using the Company Logo

When you’re presenting to senior executives, you want your slides to look professional. The best way to do that is by putting your company logo on them, including any corporate design standards (colors, fonts, etc). Show through your presentation that you belong to the same company, and that you’re in it in spirit. For example, let’s add the AnalystAnswers.com logo to our CSP slide:

Techniques Recap

Here’s a sample management presentation template below. I hope you understand after reading this article that management presentation is more about your delivery than it is about the slides you prepare.

Download Management Presentation Template for Free

While the techniques we’ve discussed will help you build a good presentation, your success really depends on how well you deliver the ideas needed to help senior executives make decisions. At the end of the day, it’s all about balance.

If you only remember two things from this article, remember that great management presenters give enough detail to inform senior executive but not too much that they cause confusion, and great management presenters make sure they do so by practicing 7 times in advance. You’ll have to practice, practice, practice.

About the Author

Noah is the founder & Editor-in-Chief at AnalystAnswers. He is a transatlantic professional and entrepreneur with 5+ years of corporate finance and data analytics experience, as well as 3+ years in consumer financial products and business software. He started AnalystAnswers to provide aspiring professionals with accessible explanations of otherwise dense finance and data concepts. Noah believes everyone can benefit from an analytical mindset in growing digital world. When he's not busy at work, Noah likes to explore new European cities, exercise, and spend time with friends and family.

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The Management Meeting Playbook: 9 Essential Dos and Don'ts

One thing that successful companies realize- the alignment of your management team will make or break your company. And where does most of this alignment happen? A big chunk of this takes place in manager meetings. So, if you care about the success of your organization or product, you should probably ask yourself "Are our management meetings a good use of time?" Or an even better question would be "Are our manager meetings a status report? Or do our manager meetings actually move our work forward?"

If you aren't sure which type your manager meeting is, this article breaks down the DO's and DON'Ts of management meetings. Along with tips to help you transform these important opportunties into a catalyst that drives work forward. Mastering the art of management meetings is crucial—and it's all about how you schedule, what's on the agenda, how you facilitate, and how to drive accountability and alignment between meetings.

What is a manager meeting?

Before we get into how to have an exceptional leadership meeting, we need to cover the basics. In a nutshell, a manager meeting is a strategic gathering of an organization's leadership team to ensure everyone is on track. It's where leaders discuss high-level topics, make decisions, and align goals and strategies. 🚀

In these sessions, the management team will ensure their direct reports are on task, but they also will collaborate with other leaders to get management tips, offer constructive feedback, and provide status updates .

Why are management meetings necessary?

Management meetings are more than just routine catch-ups. Here are some of the reasons that your company needs these meetings. 

Strategic alignment

If all your managers lead their teams in different directions, you’ll end up with numerous unfinished projects and missed milestones. 🎯These meetings ensure that all departments and teams march to the beat of the same drum, aligned with the organization's overall strategy and objectives .

Problem-solving and support

These meetings provide a platform for discussing challenges, brainstorming solutions, and offering support across departments, fostering a unified approach to problem-solving.

High-level decision-making

Management meetings are crucial for facilitating critical decision-making processes that have wide-reaching effects across team members and the entire organization.

Coordination and information sharing

Effective coordination and sharing of vital information across different areas of the business are central to these meetings, ensuring a cohesive operational approach.

Leadership development

These meetings play a significant role in building trust among managers and developing leadership skills, such as strategic thinking, communication, and decision-making. 💪

What to expect in a manager meeting

Manager meetings often focus on broader organizational challenges and long-term strategies rather than daily operational issues. 

They offer cross-departmental insights and involve agenda items that are confidential and sensitive in nature. These meetings also frequently delve into resource allocation, budgeting, and strategic investments. Let’s discuss these factors a little bit more.

A focus on bigger-picture problems

Manager meetings are not your typical operational check-ins. They're strategic forums where the broader organizational challenges and long-term strategies take center stage on the agenda template. 

In these meeting times, leaders look beyond the day-to-day tasks to address the bigger picture. It's about understanding and shaping the future trajectory of the company. 🌟

These discussions might revolve around market expansion, long-term financial planning, employee career development, or setting company-wide goals. The focus is always on driving the organization forward, ensuring that every department aligns with these overarching objectives.

Cross-departmental insights

One of the key strengths of manager meetings is the amalgamation of diverse perspectives from different departments. This cross-pollination of ideas fosters a more holistic understanding of the organization . 

For instance, when a marketing manager shares marketing insights with the product development team manager or customer service feedback is discussed with the sales team manager, it leads to a richer, more nuanced understanding of the business challenges and opportunities. 🎯

These insights are invaluable in creating strategies that are not only innovative but also grounded in the reality of different functional areas.

Confidentiality and sensitivity

Discussions in management meetings often delve into areas that are not common knowledge among all employees. This could range from discussing personnel changes and strategic pivots to financial health and legal matters. 

The sensitive nature of these topics requires a high level of discretion and trust among participants. It's crucial that managers understand the confidential nature of these discussions and uphold the integrity of the meeting space, ensuring that sensitive information is protected and shared responsibly through working relationships.

Resource allocation discussions

A significant portion of productive meetings is often dedicated to discussions around resource allocation, budgeting, and strategic investments. These are critical conversations as they determine how to distribute resources across various departments and projects. 🤝

Decisions made in these meetings can have far-reaching implications for the company's ability to innovate, grow, and compete. Discussions might involve:

• Allocating budgets to new initiatives
• Deciding on capital investments
• Reallocating resources to address changing market dynamics

The goal is always to optimize resource use to achieve the best possible outcomes for the organization.

9 do’s and don’ts to create your own effective meetings for management

To construct effective managers' meetings, it's crucial to understand the dos and don'ts. Whether you’re meeting in person or on Zoom, you have to avoid potential roadblocks and focus on the overarching goal of the management team meeting. 

Here are some tips to consider: 

1. Focus on purpose and objectives

Do: Clearly define your purpose and objectives at the outset. Use Spinach's agenda-setting features to outline these goals, ensuring every discussion is purpose-driven and aligns with the meeting's objectives.

Don’t: Neglect the importance of preparation. A lack of preparation can lead to aimless discussions and missed opportunities. Ensure that every meeting has a clear purpose and set objectives to maintain focus and direction.

2. Prepare a meeting agenda

Do: Craft a detailed management meeting agenda and share it in advance. This allows participants to prepare, contributing to more meaningful and focused discussions. 📌Spinach's agenda-creation tools can assist in designing a comprehensive and structured agenda that covers all critical topics so you don’t have to seek out your own meeting template.

Don’t: Cram too many topics into one meeting. This can overwhelm participants and lead to superficial discussions. Use Spinach's time allocation features to ensure each topic receives the attention it deserves without overloading the agenda.

3. Build the right invite list

Do: Curate your attendee list carefully, focusing on key stakeholders and decision-makers. This ensures that discussions are relevant and decisions can be made efficiently. Spinach's integration with organizational tools like Slack can aid in identifying and inviting the right people.

Don’t: Invite too many participants. Overcrowding can dilute the meeting's focus and hinder effective decision-making. Keep the group size manageable to maintain a productive environment. 📋

4. Facilitate open communication

Do: Create an environment where everyone feels comfortable sharing their ideas and opinions. Encourage active participation and open dialogue. Spinach's interactive features can help facilitate this, ensuring a diverse range of perspectives are considered.

Don’t: Allow a few individuals to dominate the conversation . This can lead to a narrow view and stifle innovation. Ensure that all voices are heard and valued to foster a more inclusive and productive discussion.

5. Focus on strategic topics

Do: Concentrate on high-level strategic issues that align with the organization's broader goals. This ensures that discussions are relevant and impactful. Spinach can help keep the meeting focused on these strategic objectives.

Don’t: Get sidetracked by operational details or reporting out on status. While important, these can be easily addressed outside of the meeting. 

6. Encourage collaboration

Do: Foster a collaborative atmosphere for problem-solving and decision-making. This approach can lead to more innovative solutions and stronger team cohesion. Spinach's collaborative tools can facilitate brainstorming and collective decision-making, enhancing the meeting's collaborative spirit. 🔍

Don’t: Dismiss ideas without proper consideration. Quick dismissal can discourage participation and limit creative problem-solving. Encourage an open-minded approach to all suggestions.

7. Discuss any pressing issues at the end

Do: Set aside time at the end of the meeting for urgent or unplanned topics. This ensures that the main agenda remains the focus while still addressing important issues. Spinach's time management features can help allocate specific time slots for these discussions with accurate, clear meeting notes . 🌱

Don’t: Let ad-hoc topics take over the meeting. This can lead to a loss of focus on the planned agenda. 

8. Assign action items to participants

Do: Conclude meetings with clear action steps and designated responsibilities. This ensures accountability and follow-through. Spinach's task assignment and tracking features can be used to assign and monitor these action items, ensuring progress and accountability.

Don’t: End meetings without a clear follow-up plan. This can lead to inaction and a lack of progress. Ensure that every meeting results in actionable steps and a plan for follow-up.

9. Solicit suggestions for improving future meetings

Do: Actively seek and incorporate feedback to continuously improve the effectiveness of meetings . 💬Use Spinach's feedback tools to gather and analyze participant feedback, helping to refine and enhance the next meeting.

Don’t: Overlook participant feedback. This can lead to stagnant meeting formats and disengaged attendees. Utilize Spinach's meeting summaries to understand employee engagement and satisfaction, ensuring that feedback is not only collected but also acted upon.

Construct a more effective leadership team with Spinach

By following these guidelines, you can lead more successful and productive managers' meetings. Spinach is your ally in this journey, offering tools and features that align perfectly with these dos and don'ts. 

Ready to elevate your management meetings? Visit Spinach and start transforming your leadership sessions today ! 🌟

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7 Useful PowerPoint Templates for More Efficient Meetings

Spending too much time in meetings? Use these handy PowerPoint templates to prepare and make your meetings more efficient.

Statistics indicate people spend up to 35-50 percent of their work time in meetings. It's no wonder many individuals grumble at the mere idea of meeting with colleagues during the workday.

Fortunately, tools like Microsoft PowerPoint make meetings less miserable. They can serve as aids and keep the pace of meetings flowing.

Even better, PowerPoint templates can shorten the time you have to spend putting your slides together. Below, you can explore several business, staff, and team meeting PowerPoint templates. Each template can be customized to suit the unique needs of your next presentation.

1. General Business Meeting Template

A company meeting is an excellent way to bring all your employees together. It helps to get them on the same page about new procedures, plans for the future, and future milestones. This Company Meeting PowerPoint template is a fine choice for any employee meeting on your agenda.

Made with a gray background, the template includes a crisp, easy-to-read font in black and dark blue. The good visibility of the lettering, combined with the contrasting color scheme, makes it simple for people to read the slides, even from the back of a large room. That reduces the likelihood of having to go over points repeatedly.

Also, you can customize the slides with other colors. This could help if you want to reflect your company's branding or if your meeting is about the changing look of your business.

A design tab within the template allows you to change things such as the font styles. That feature could be extremely useful when you want to give your audience visual cues that you are transitioning into a new segment of the meeting.

You can also use the customizable slides that come with themed titles. There is one for Revenue and Profit, another for Critical Success Factors, and a custom slide for an Organizational Overview.

You'll find 12 of these slides. Use them to give your presentation a polished and cohesive look.

2. New Hire Onboarding Template

The corporate onboarding process is essential for helping newly hired team members feel well equipped and at ease in their new workplace. However, it can also be very time-consuming when not done properly.

This Hello 2 PowerPoint template is great to use for employee orientations. It is so diverse that you can easily depend on it for other types of meetings too.

Choose from over 500 unique slides and build a presentation that skillfully gives new hires the need-to-know information about your company's history.

Slides include graphic-rich title slides, slides featuring smartphones --- great for explaining how to use an app you've made to acquaint employees with how things work --- and a title slide.

The latter features a mountaintop design that may work well if you are discussing things like advancement opportunities and continuing education for workers.

Behance's New Hire Onboarding Template is the only paid template on our list. It's just $15 and available directly from their website.

3. Company Meeting Template

This Company Meeting Template has everything you need for your next meeting slideshow. You have slides for a table of contents, objectives, and upcoming events. If your meeting is related to a project, you'll like the slides for the project schedule, timeline, and status report .

You can easily swap out the graphs and charts for your own. Plus, all other elements in the presentation are editable and ready for your company data.

The slideshow theme is for a company meeting but offers an attractive and airy nature background. There's also a slide formatted for an inspiring quote to get everyone in the room motivated.

The Company Meeting Template gives you 15 slides for the presentation and another 15 that include icons and graphics to spruce up your slideshow.

4. Timeline Meeting Template

When discussing things about your company's upcoming anniversary, a planned open house event for customers, or guidelines about how employees should ask for time off, a calendar-themed PowerPoint template is a smart option.

Consider this simple and straight-to-the-point template from Slide Hunter. It includes a red- or blue-themed calendar slide, which helps you get right to the point. Encourage continual focus on a chosen date by customizing the numerical text in each image so your team members know exactly what deadline you're talking about.

You can write subtitles made from white text inside a blue or red box, depending on the initial color scheme used. The high level of contrast between the text and background promotes quick and effective information retention.

Be sure to check out our PowerPoint tips for creating professional presentations .

5. New Property Meeting Template

In many cases, a company-wide meeting is the easiest way to inform employees about new building acquisitions or office space. That's when this business meeting PowerPoint template comes in.

The City Skyline Template from Presentation Load is a flexible template that makes it simple to get people excited about and in full support of an upcoming move to a new office building or news about an additional location opening soon.

Begin customizing the template by picking a 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio for ideal, properly scaled visual results.

Then, select from three appealing color schemes that are easy on the eyes and maintain a theme by showing various buildings set against a straightforward backdrop of the sky. Arrange content into bulleted lists and move it into one or two columns to showcase necessary information strategically.

6. Weekly Meeting Template

For companies with weekly meetings, this Weekly Meeting Template is the perfect tool. It has a nice, clean appearance with simple colors and well-structured elements.

You can use all of the slides or just those that pertain to your company or specific recurring meeting, such as a project update. Edit the slide elements quickly for your own table of contents, meeting objectives, and project status.

Slidesgo provides this template like the Company Meeting template, so you'll receive the slides for the presentation along with those extra images.

7. Monthly Meeting Template

If your business meetings take place monthly instead of weekly, check out this Monthly Meeting Template, also from Slidesgo. The slides offer a blue and white color scheme with a casual appearance using text bubbles and callouts, staggered lines, and hand-drawn graphics.

Slides include a table of contents, meeting objectives, a checklist, and project-related options. Like the other templates, it's super easy to switch the charts, graphs, and other elements for your own or simply edit them.

And you'll also receive that set of alternative resources like icons and graphics to match your type of business.

Try Out These Business Meeting PowerPoint Templates

Getting meetings to run smoothly and efficiently is a skill that even a seasoned professional can struggle with. Using these business, staff, and team meeting PowerPoint templates, you'll be able to create streamlined presentations that keep you and your talking points on track, without distracting your listeners.

If your business is in the education field, take a look at these PowerPoint templates specifically for education .

Image Credits: Rawpixel.com/Shutterstock

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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What is an effective meeting?

“This meeting should have been an email.” Emblazoned on coffee mugs, endless memes, and your colleagues’ faces on their ninth video call of the day, this sentence may end up being a catchphrase of the modern era.

As the pandemic rewrote the rule book for coworking and office culture, new processes and untested systems allowed inefficiencies to creep in —inefficiencies that included meetings scheduled for the sake of unstructured discussion or even basic human interaction rather than for productivity. While interacting might be easier than ever, value-creating collaboration isn’t—and its quality seems to be deteriorating .

Effective meetings aren’t just about keeping ourselves from going around the bend. When meetings aren’t run well—or when there are too many of them— decision  making becomes slower and the quality of decisions suffers. According to one McKinsey survey , 61 percent of executives said that at least half the time they spent making decisions—much of it surely spent in meetings—was ineffective. Just 37 percent of respondents said their organizations’ decisions were both timely and high quality. And, in a different survey , 80 percent of executives were considering or already implementing changes in meeting structure and cadence in response to the evolution of how people worked during the pandemic.

What’s more, when leaders try to solve for inefficient decision making, they too often look to organizational charts and vertical-command relationships. Rarely, in McKinsey’s experience, do they see the real issue at hand: poor design and execution of collaborative interactions. In other words, you guessed it, ineffective meetings.

It doesn’t have to be this way. When meetings are run well, they not only foster better decisions but also leave attendees feeling energized and motivated to carry the momentum forward independently. For tips on how to put a stop to video call fatigue and restart your team’s productivity, read on.

Learn more about McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice .

What does time management have to do with effective meetings?

“The only thing on Earth that never lies to you is your calendar ,” says renowned business author and McKinsey alum Tom Peters. “That’s why I’m a fanatic on the topic of time management. But when you use that term, people think, ‘Here’s an adult with a brain. And he’s teaching time management. Find something more important, please.’ But something more important doesn’t exist.”

Endless, diffuse meetings, according to Peters, take up far too much of executives’ precious working time. Half of leaders’ time, he says, citing an idea from the Israeli executive Dov Frohman, should be unscheduled. What should they do with all that unstructured time? One typically cheeky suggestion from Peters is to read more.

The reality is that effective meetings and good time management exist in a virtuous circle. Good time management means you feel empowered to turn down unnecessary meetings—and better meetings mean you spend the rest of your time feeling more purposeful in carrying out your work.

How can leaders address the problem of time scarcity?

McKinsey’s experience shows that leaders may want to stop thinking about time management as primarily an individual problem and start addressing it institutionally. Increasingly, time management is an organizational issue with roots deeply embedded in corporate cultures.

Unsurprisingly, the solution seems to be balance. Executives in one McKinsey survey  who reported being satisfied with the way their time is allocated spent 34 percent of their working time interacting with external stakeholders (including boards, customers, and investors), 39 percent in internal meetings (including one-on-ones with direct reports, leadership team meetings, and other employee gatherings), and 24 percent working alone.

Here are five ways to achieve optimal balance in allocating time :

• Have a ‘time leadership’ budget—and a process for allocating it. When adding a project or initiative, companies should analyze how much leadership attention, guidance, and intervention each will need. In our experience, this is the best way to move toward the goal of treating leaders’ time as a finite resource—one that is as precious as a company’s financial capital.
• Consider time when you introduce organizational change. Understanding the time required to achieve goals is critical to the long-term success of any organizational change. The hours needed to manage, lead, or supervise an employee can leave managers with little time left over. Getting this balance right can be tough—having too few managers could lead them to feel overwhelmed, with more direct reports than they can manage. But having too many managers can cause redundancies and unnecessary complexity.
• Ensure that individuals routinely measure and manage their time. Time analysis exercises can yield surprising results—and can inspire time management that more closely aligns with organizational priorities. Including time-related metrics in performance reviews is another driver of behavioral change.
• Refine the principal calendar. Revisit all standing meetings and make an honest assessment of which ones are being held out of habit and which ones are genuinely useful.
• Provide high-quality administrative support. In a survey of executives on how they allocate their time , 85 percent of those who considered themselves effective time managers reported that they received strong support in scheduling and allocating time. Only 7 percent of ineffective time allocators said the same. In the case of one global chemical company, the administrative assistant of the CEO considers it her responsibility to ensure that the organization’s strategic objectives are reflected in the way she allocates the CEO’s time.

Learn more about McKinsey’s  People & Organizational Performance Practice .

What are three questions you should ask yourself before scheduling a meeting?

Good meetings nurture better decision making . On the flip side, inefficient meetings not only waste time but also create distraction and confusion even when people are working independently. Here are three questions you can ask when scheduling a meeting  that can help create the clarity needed for efficient decision making.

Should this even be a meeting at all? Recurring meetings are particularly susceptible to migration from the original purpose toward something more diffuse. Check in with stakeholders to ensure that the frequency is right (weekly meetings could be changed to monthly, perhaps), or think about whether decisions could be best made by an individual—with, of course, guidance from others.

Then go deeper. Examine whether your company’s culture is to encourage meetings rather than individual decision making. To remedy this, if you’re a leader, think twice before reflexively accepting any meeting invitation as it appears in your inbox. The goal should be to treat leadership capacity as a finite resource— just like your company’s financial capital .

What is this meeting for? A meeting’s title and its purpose are not the same. When the latter isn’t clear, meetings can seem frustrating at best and futile at worst. To help avoid this, companies can appoint a “chief of staff” for certain efforts or products. This person collates materials before meetings, ensures that they are distributed ahead of time, and verifies that the due diligence has been done to necessitate a meeting in the first place. This can lead to better-informed participants, which in turn can lead to more effective time spent in meetings—and, ultimately, better decisions.

What is everyone’s role? Even if a meeting has a clear purpose, it’s of little use if there is no one present deputized to make a decision . Equally, even if it’s clear who the decider is, it’s a mistake to hold a meeting when people are unsure of participants’ roles. McKinsey analysts have seen poor role clarity stymie productivity and cause frustration, especially when decisions involve complicated business activities that cut across organizational boundaries. Blurry accountability is especially costly in an era where speed and agility confer a competitive advantage .

Meeting participants can be divided into four roles:

• Decision makers should be the only participants with a vote, and the ones with the responsibility to decide as they see fit. Sometimes decision makers will need to “disagree and commit,” to use a phrase coined by Jeff Bezos in a 2017 letter to Amazon shareholders.
• Advisers give input and shape the decision. They typically have a big stake in the decision’s outcome.
• Recommenders conduct analyses, explore alternatives, illuminate pros and cons, and ultimately recommend a course of action to the advisers and decision makers. The more recommenders the better—for the process, not the decision meeting itself.
• Execution partners don’t give input in making the decision but are deeply involved in implementation. For optimal speed and clarity, execution partners should be in the room when the decision is made so that they can envision how the implementation will evolve from the decision.

OK, I’ve eliminated all unnecessary meetings and assigned specific purposes to each one. Now what?

Great work. Now you can assign each meeting to one of the following three categories , and make specific shifts to improve the outcomes.

• Decision-making meetings. This category includes routine decisions, like quarterly business reviews, as well as complex or uncertain decisions, like decisions about investments. In order to make high-quality decisions quickly, it’s critical to clarify exactly who is going to make them. Some of these meetings can be held virtually, but complex decision-making meetings are better in person. These meetings should result in a final decision (even if not everyone agrees).
• Creative solutions and coordination meetings. These include innovation sessions—for instance, in support of a new product—as well as routine working sessions, like daily check-ins. Rather than telling people what to do, leaders should work to empower employees to make their own (supported) decisions and to spend more time on high-quality coaching sessions. As with decision-making meetings, creative solutions and coordinating meetings can be virtual—but most innovation sessions should be in person. Innovation sessions should result in potential solutions and prepare for a decision meeting, whereas routine working meetings can result in next steps.
• Information-sharing meetings. Live interaction can be useful for information sharing, especially when an interpretive lens is required or if the information is sensitive. But information-sharing meetings are often regarded as having limited value. Many organizations have recently moved to drastically improve meeting efficiency. Netflix, for example, has limited the duration of meetings to a maximum of 30 minutes  and requires that meetings involving one-way information sharing be canceled in favor of other mechanisms like a memo, podcast, or vlog. Early data from Netflix shows that the company has reduced meetings by more than 65 percent and that more than 85 percent of employees favor the approach. The goal of these meetings should be to increase awareness of the new information shared in the meeting.

What are some best practices for video meetings?

Establishing best practices for meetings might seem like common sense—but they are not commonly practiced. Here are some helpful tips from Karin M. Reed , author of the 2021 book Suddenly Virtual: Making Remote Meetings Work :

• Time: The most effective meetings are short meetings. Rather than scheduling a two-hour call with ten agenda items, cut it down to a 20-minute meeting with two agenda items. There are limits to people’s endurance and attention spans in the virtual environment.
• Participants: When determining the number of attendees for decision-making meetings, the sweet spot is five to seven. More than seven attendees in any meeting can result in an unwieldy discussion.
• Appearance: Pay attention to your appearance when hosting a videoconference. It’s not a matter of vanity—it shows respect for your conversation partner and can help you get your message across. Light your face properly: facial expressions are critical to conveying a message. And anything that takes attention away from you, whether it’s a crackly audio connection or a silly picture of Uncle Rupert in the background, will distract from your message.
• Eye contact: Look at your camera lens when you’re talking, not at your screen. This goes against our natural impulses, but eye contact is critical when you’re having a conversation. And to maintain eye contact on a video call, you need to look at your camera.
• Inclusion: Leaders should engage in proactive facilitation to ensure that everyone has the chance to say their piece. Cold calling on people—gently, and with good intention—lets people know that it’s their time to speak. Even if someone doesn’t have anything to add, they will have felt included.

For more in-depth exploration of these topics, see McKinsey’s People & Organizational Performance Practice . Also check out organizational structure–related job opportunities if you’re interested in working at McKinsey.

Articles referenced:

• “ If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done? ,” January 10, 2022, Aaron De Smet , Caitlin Hewes, Mengwei Luo, J. R. Maxwell , and Patrick Simon  
• “ Author Talks: Karin M. Reed on virtual meetings ,” April 20, 2021
• “ To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings ,” November 9, 2020, Aaron De Smet  and Leigh Weiss
• “ Want a better decision? Plan a better meeting ,” McKinsey Quarterly , May 8, 2019, Aaron De Smet , Gregor Jost , and Leigh Weiss  
• “ Tom Peters on leading the 21st-century organization ,” McKinsey Quarterly , September 1, 2014, Aaron De Smet  and Suzanne Heywood
• “ Making time management the organization’s priority ,” McKinsey Quarterly , January 1, 2013, Frankki Bevins  and Aaron De Smet

Want to know more about effective meetings?

Related articles.

If we’re all so busy, why isn’t anything getting done?

To unlock better decision making, plan better meetings

Author Talks: Karin M. Reed on virtual meetings

How to Give a Presentation During a Meeting (Without Screwing Up)

Tips and tricks for being persuasive and keeping your audience engaged.

A methodology for amazing meetings. Say goodbye to boring, long, and unproductive meetings.

Giving a presentation during a meeting may seem easy on the surface, but many factors can get in the way of being effective.

You may be shy and stumble over your words. You may get nervous and rush through things too quickly in hopes of “getting it over with.”

You may even confuse your audience by sharing information in a scattered or illogical way.

It happens to the best of us.

The good news is, with thoughtful preparation, even the shiest among us can give killer presentations that captivate our coworkers.

Here’s how:

• How to start a presentation
• Effective presentation skills ‍
• When to use PowerPoint ‍
• Presentation tips and tricks

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1. How to start a presentation

The best presenters capture audience attention from the beginning. They know that a lackluster start to anything will immediately sow seeds of disengagement.

Whether or not you believe human attention spans are like goldfish , the fact is, a strong start to your presentation will fill the room with energy that perks people up, while a weak start paves the way for staring off into space and discretely checking email.

Here are a few tips to start your next meeting presentation right:

Ask a question

Everyone likes feeling heard. One of the easiest ways to hook an audience from the start is by inviting them to respond to a relevant prompt. If a VP of marketing were giving a presentation about the company’s upcoming brand refresh, they might start by asking something like “How many people here feel like they have a good sense of how we’re perceived as a company?”

Share a story

As humans, we’re wired to pay attention to stories. They’re especially useful when the subject matter at hand isn’t particularly interesting on its own. If a CEO were giving a presentation aimed at motivating the entire company, they might share a story about how many people it once took to operate a battleship.

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2. Effective presentation skills/techniques

Effective presentations are usually the result of careful preparation. Here are a few skills to refine during the preparation phase:

Knowing your audience

Giving an effective presentation means knowing your audience. To earn and sustain their attention, you need to assess what they already know about the subject and how much they care about it.

Use this information to calibrate your approach. You don’t want to assume they’re enthusiastic experts if they’re not, but you also want to respect their intelligence by meeting them where they are without lecturing them.

It’s a delicate balancing act, but when you get it right, you’ll leave them enough room to figure some things out on their own.

WHAT Ask questions that anyone in the audience could answer. ‍ WHY This allows you to engage the room and keep the audience energy level high.

Framing your story

If you’ve ever watched TEDTalks, you know firsthand that many of the best presentations unfold like a detective story. The speaker presents a problem, describes the quest for a solution, and leads the audience to a collective “aha” moment where their perspective shifts and they become even more engaged. 

Take the time to plot your points in a meaningful way so that your message is not only easy to follow, but also easy to remember. That means eliminating any diversions that don’t serve the story. 

When framed correctly, even the most serious and complex subjects can be riveting.

<div id="3"></div>

3. When to use a PowerPoint and when not to

PowerPoints have become the de facto tool of choice for meeting presentations. You can share visuals, advance slides with the click of a mouse, and they don’t take a ton of technical or design chops to look pretty.

The problem is, people tend to hide behind them. While it’s undeniably handy, PowerPoint isn’t the best vehicle for every presentation.

You should use a PowerPoint when:

• You want to review team progress against metrics
• You need to share a revenue report
• You have a lot of technical and/or data-rich information to convey

You shouldn’t use a PowerPoint when:  

• You need to create a strong connection with your audience
• You have an important story to tell (e.g. why the company is pivoting)
• You want to motivate and inspire people

If you’re still on the fence about whether you should use a PowerPoint for your next presentation, consider the goal of the meeting.

When your meeting goal is something straightforward, like assigning action items or reviewing team performance, go for the PowerPoint. 

If you’re aiming to convey something less cerebral—and potentially more emotional—don’t distance yourself from the message. Leave PowerPoint (and all technology) out of the equation.

<div id="4"></div>

4. Presentation tips and tricks

There are a few universal tips that will make your next presentation more effective no matter what it’s about:

Follow a logical structure ‍ Even if you can’t think of a relevant story, the information you present have a clear structure to keep people on track.

Slow down ‍ Speaking too fast breeds boredom and confusion. Even if you think you talk slow, talk slower.

Use questions as segues ‍ In addition to being great presentation starters, asking questions enables the presenter to shift from one topic to another without losing momentum.

Build your confidence ‍ Letting your personality shine through is a surefire way to convince people they should listen. Practice your presentation until it feels like you’re talking to a friend.

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Write a Winning M&A Management Presentation

February 13, 2023

Are you looking for a new owner, scale-up funding or new financing for your business? If so, you need to invest in creating the best M&A management presentation your prospective investor has seen.

Really effective management presentations are like great cvs. they won’t get you the job, but they make the right impression to get you through the door, into the board room and onto the agenda . great management presentations do this by making your audience want to find out more., every management team and business is different. that means there’s no simple template or formula that you can copy for your management presentation.   don’t believe people who tell you there is.

We’ve pulled these seven tips from the 15+ years’ experience of the team at Benjamin Ball Associates . Our management presentation coaching specialists have reviewed thousands of management presentations, and we know that small changes make a big difference . Incorporating these tips can make the difference between getting relegated to the ‘no’ pile, or having an investor take the next step to investing with you.

How to write a winning management presentation Your management presentation should sell the investment, not your product Keep your M&A management presentation simple Be clear what makes you special in your presentation Don’t let your management presentation be boring Appeal to the heart AND the head in your management presentation Be honest in your management presentation Show, don’t tell

Best management presentation tip #1: Sell the investment, not the product

Investors are selfish. Your product may well change the world, but the investor is primarily thinking about their own risk and reward. This means that when they listen to you, they are subconsciously asking the question: ‘what does this mean for me’?

The best management presentations present everything in an investor-first context.

• So instead of slides that talk about your plans and ambitions, frame the information in terms of how those plans and ambitions will impact your investor’s returns.
• Instead of listing your team’s background, demonstrate how that background makes you a safe pair of hands for a new owner.
• Got great sales forecasts? Show how those forecasts will translate into rewards for investors.

Grab and hold their attention by using the language of M&A and investment and focusing on the things that matter most to potential buyers.  Read how to create a great pitch document.

Contact us for a free consultation on your coaching needs

Best management presentations tip #2: Keep it simple

Investors don’t put their cash into opportunities they don’t understand. If you present a concept in a difficult or complicated way , the mental exertion feels painful or makes them uneasy. Investors associate this with a negative gut instinct about you or your opportunity. That road leads to a ‘no’.

Instead, make the investment proposition easy to grasp . Clarity and ease of mental digestion feels good – That means investors will associate positive feelings with you and your opportunity .

So how do you transform a complex business into a simple management presentation?

When Steve Jobs was trying in 1990 to explain the impact that computers would have on the world, he spoke about bicycles. He described how humans are inefficient movers compared to many other animals on the planet. A human on a bicycle, though, can move even more efficiently than a condor. And a computer is like a bicycle for the human mind.

This analogy used a familiar concept (bicycles) to make an unfamiliar concept (computers in 1990) relatable. Analogies are one of several tools that help communicate complex ideas more effectively. Others are metaphors, similes and stories. No matter how complicated or abstract your product is, there is a way of presenting it in a simple, visual and engaging way. Use these ideas in your management presentations.

Best M&A management presentations tip #3: Be clear what makes you special

We find senior executives are frequently too close to their business to uncover the red thread that needs to run through their management presentation to make it exciting for investors. This is especially true for people wanting to sell their business . That’s where we help them discover their red thread and turn in into a seam of gold. What is the secret sauce that drives your success? Perhaps it’s your team, your IP, your connections or your track record?  

The best M&A management presentations focus relentlessly on their unique advantage. They demonstrate why it will contribute to the business’s success and how the team will leverage it.

One of our clients, a London-based block chain developer, used this idea to their advantage. Their original pitch had confused what they had done, the market, their technology, their products and the potential of the business. In all, it was unclear what the business did and why investors should be excited. For their management presentation, we helped them identify the red thread and then turn it into a few clear messages that ran through the presentation. The result was a compelling investment story that has taken them to the next level.  

Learn how to create a powerful equity story.

How to create a killer pitch deck

Best management presentation tip #4: don’t be boring.

• Crowded slides?
• Long blocks of text?
• Lists of bullet points?
• Bland headings?
• Weak design?

If your management presentation pitch deck looks as boring as everyone else’s, then investors will not get excited about meeting you. The best management presentation pitch decks are easy to read . They grab interest from the start, avoid jargon and use engaging language. They arouse interest through compelling headlines .

Investors should be able to flick through your management presentation pitch deck and understand your key points just from reading your slide headings. But those headings should also be different and intriguing enough that investors want to find out more. For example, instead of naming one of your slides ‘ About Us’ or ‘Our Team’ , choose a headline that reinforces your key message.

If your business is about running rock festivals, your headline for the team section of your deck could be ‘Ten Years’ Combined Experience of Running Profitable Events’. If you manufacture widgets that draw on your experience working with the inventor of the leading vacuum cleaner, your headline could be ‘James Dyson’s Protégé’. Finally, the best management presentations are often professionally designed with plenty of white space and relevant visuals. Don’t let amateur design let you down.

Best management presentation tip #5: Appeal to the heart as well as the head

Stories are an incredibly effective way to bypass investors’ heads and reach straight for their hearts. Instead of delivering plain facts in your management presentation (which are quickly forgotten), provide them within the context of a story.

• Identify the problem (the ‘villain’ of your story) and then
• Introduce your solution (the ‘hero’ of your story).
• Show what happens after the hero takes action, and
• Lay out the consequences of that action (or the consequences if that action doesn’t happen).

Perhaps your product is a small security device that alerts friends and family when you need help. Your presentation could focus on the software behind the invention. You could talk about how easy it is to set up. You can list the features and benefits. Or you could share what it’s like to feel safe and connected. You could show a video of someone whose life was saved, and how he or she felt when help came running – thanks to your device. That’s what great management presentations feel like.

When you trigger your buyer’s emotions, they become invested in your business and in you. Your management presentation becomes memorable and shareable. Remember: “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Best M&A management presentation tip #6: Be honest

The best management presentations are from senior executives who don’t pretend to be perfect. Teams admit their mistakes, but also what they’ve learnt from them. They don’t hide their strategy changes, but instead share why and how they changed their approach, and the impact this has had. They have the confidence and self-awareness to be honest. As a result, investors see them as being trustworthy and having integrity and credibility.

Investors know there’s no perfect opportunity, there’s no perfect team, there’s no risk-free reward . So they are – rightly – wary of management teams that claim to offer any of these. Equally, if it appears that you’re trying to hide or mislead them, the investor will start to question everything else about you. To avoid this, be explicit about the data backing up your track record and the methodology used for your forecasts. Address doubts in your management presentation instead of creating them.

How to prepare an investor pitch deck

Best management presentation tip #7: show, don’t tell.

In your management presentation, Instead of describing how your product works, embed (or link to) a short film or screen-capture showing how it works. Instead of stating that your product changes people’s lives, include screenshots of customer reviews in which people say they will never be the same again. You could say that your product or service is different, but it’s much more powerful to show it, with mock-ups, testimonials and clippings from your industry’s trade press.  

A few years ago we helped a diamond mining company raise money from investors in London. To back up the powerful pitch deck that we helped them create, for their management presentation we suggested they bring a raw diamond into their meeting. Why? Firstly, few investors will have ever handled a raw diamond. Secondly, it allowed the management team to bring the business to life with stories: How often a diamond of that size was found, How many tons of rock they had to move to find that diamond, At what depth they found it, and What they did about safely and security. This one small prop transformed the quality of their presentation and made it much easier for the team to raise the money they needed to expand the business.

Transform your M&A management presentation

Call us, you’ll get  practical, easy-to-implement advice that will help you to grab investors’ attention , impress them and get you invited in for that vital face-to-face management presentation. you’ll benefit from our 15+ years experience transforming management presentations. then, ahead of   the meeting, we help you rehearse the management meeting so that you come across as just the right team to help the investors achieve their investment objectives., we do this every day for scale-ups, quoted companies and private equity firms.  , call louise today on +44 (0)20 7018 0922 or email [email protected] to discuss how we can best help you., transform your presentation skills with tailored coaching.

We can help you present brilliantly. Thousands of people have benefitted from our tailored in-house coaching and advice – and we can help you too .

“I honestly thought it was the most valuable 3 hours I’ve spent with anyone in a long time.” Mick May, CEO, Blue Sky

For 15+ years we’ve been the trusted choice of leading businesses and executives throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East to improve presentation skills and presentations through coaching, training and expert advice.

Unlock your full potential and take your presentations to the next level with Benjamin Ball Associates.

Speak to Louise on +44 20 7018 0922 or email [email protected] to find out more and discuss transforming your speeches, pitches and presentations.

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Undergraduates present research at Meeting of the Minds 2024

by E. Forney

Engineering undergraduate students had a wonderful showing at Meeting of the Minds, displaying posters, giving presentations, and demonstrating projects they have worked on this past academic year.

• Learn more about Meeting of the Minds

For one day at the end of each spring semester, the Cohon University Center becomes a hub of academic posters, presentations, and demonstrations of projects that undergraduate students have been working on throughout the year. Here are some highlights of what Engineering undergraduates are researching at Carnegie Mellon University.

Gravity-fed hydroponic rainwater management

Kate Hanson is a junior in civil and environmental engineering . Her project was inspired by a sight that Pittsburgh natives may remember from downtown a few years ago—a large green wall on a building owned by PNC Bank, brightening the intersection of Sixth Ave. and Grant St. The green wall has since been taken down due to the cost of upkeep, but this got Hanson wondering: was there a way to create a green wall that wasn't cost prohibitive?

After the upfront cost of installation, green walls require two main resources to maintain themselves: a supply of water to nourish the plant life and energy to work the water pumps. Pittsburgh is a city with heavy rainfall, so water comes from the sky for free. But making sure it is distributed along a wall in times of heavy or sparce rain without using an expensive pump was the calculation that Hanson tackled.

In her project, Hanson envisioned a long pipe system installed on the vertical face of any given wall, feeding the plant life. In times of heavy rain, flooding would be avoided by added a bobber below the rain collection tank. Working like a toilet flushing system, the floating bobber would be chained to a small door at the bottom of the tank. As the water level rises, the bobber rises, bringing the chain and door with it, allowing water to rush through the door until the water level lowers the bobber once more.

In dryer times, there may not be enough water to reach up to the roots of the plants from the bottom of the pipes. To make a small amount of water stretch further, the pipes are fitted with ribbed floors. These floors take up volume that water would otherwise fill, displacing the water level to raise it up to the plant roots. 

Hanson received the Undergraduate Environmental Award for her poster. She is advised by Greg Lowry , professor of civil and environmental engineering, and will continue her research with the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship to hopefully bring green walls to life in Pittsburgh. For a first installation, she has her sights set on Wean Hall, specifically the front face of the cube-like protrusion that houses a classroom above the fifth-floor entrance of the building.

Creating gold nanoparticles to sort chiral medicines

Alexander Henry (Harry) Burton is a sophomore studying chemical engineering and biomedical engineering . He worked on research in the all-undergraduate research lab overseen by Nisha Shukla , a special faculty member within the College. His research occurs at the nanoscale. In the lab, he can manipulate gold nanoparticles to give them a specific chirality, making them adept at sorting through chiral medicines.

Why gold? You may have asked the same question at the dentist's office. And the answer would be the same—gold is a largely non-reactive element, meaning that it does not interact with medicine or the human body in negative ways. Gold also has the added benefit of being easy to manipulate into different shapes at the nanoscale since it easily absorbs chiral amino acids, changing the gold into a desired chiral shape.

Chirality is a characteristic of nanoparticles that describes how they attach to other nanoparticles. You can think of it like the molecules having a clockwise or counterclockwise structure—a clockwise structure can never fit in with another clockwise structure, a counterclockwise structure can never fit in with another counterclockwise structure. Cells in our bodies have chirality. Therefore, to best administer medicine that needs to attach at the cellular level, clockwise medicine should be given to those with counterclockwise cells and vice versa. However, since the nanoparticles of medicine are basically identical, sorting out clockwise from counterclockwise particles is a difficult task.

That's where the gold comes in. By adding small amounts of chiral gold to the medicine, you can sort it into clockwise and counterclockwise parts. The counterclockwise medicine latches on to clockwise gold and vice versa, making it ready for administration into bodies.

When asked if the research was expensive, due to the nature of gold, Burton laughed and said, “It is expensive, but my lab’s principal investigator said it was okay.” The cost of the knowledge gained from the research outweighs the monetary price of gold.

Slug battery: an enzymatic fuel cell

Theophilos (Theo) Cockrell is a junior in electrical and computer engineering . He gave a presentation on a project he completed alongside post-doc Kevin Dai, Ph.D. candidate Michael J. Bennington, and Victoria Webster-Wood , an associate professor in mechanical engineering. They work in the Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Group , which seeks to find ways to bring electronic sensors to marine biomes for environmental sensing purposes. 

Getting an electrical device to survive underwater is no easy task. Typical circuit boards cannot be exposed to water. Solar power is limited the further down you dive. And there is an abundance of marine life that researchers try their best not to disturb while placing sensors. So Cockrell’s group tried a novel approach—put a sensor inside a sea creature and power it off of the creature itself.

Cockrell developed an Enzymatic Fuel Cell (EFC), an implantable battery that charges based on organic input, such as glucose and oxygen in an animal’s circulatory system. For their model animal, they chose Aplysia californica —California sea hare—a kind of sea slug that has a convenient body cavity where a fuel cell can fit without harming the slug. This slug has suitable chemistry in the hemolymph transported by its open circulatory system.

Cockrell worked to test variables that could help perfect the so-called slug battery. Many factors can change the effectiveness of the battery, such as whether the electronics are rolled up or lying flat, the addition of certain chemical compounds on the battery, and the use of synthesized saline or hemolymph from the slug around the battery. The team was able to produce promising findings in vitro (in the lab) and hopes to move their tech in vivo (into a specimen) in the future.

Material characterization of metal additive manufacturing

Lauren Fitzwater is a junior studying materials science and engineering who is also minoring in additive manufacturing . She gave a presentation about the research she did as the only undergraduate student in the Engineering Materials for Transformative Technologies (EMIT) Lab which is overseen by Sneha Prabha Narra , an assistant professor of mechanical engineering. Alongside Ph.D. students Misha Khrenov and Justin Miner, Fitzwater explored the lack of fusion (LOF) boundary in laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of Inconel-718 (IN718).

There are a few acronyms to break down there: IN718 is a strong, non-corrosive nickel chromium alloy that is used in the production of jet engines and turbines. L-PBF is a manufacturing process that uses lasers to selectively melt metal powder to form it into the desired shape. LOF is a type of defect that can result from this form of additive manufacturing where pores form in the hardened metal where the melt pools have failed to overlap.

For typical L-PBF printing, parameters like laser speed and power will be carefully selected to avoid LOF and other defects like keyholing and metal balling up. Fitzwater noticed that the sweet spot was pretty rigid and difficult to achieve, and wondered if she couldn’t find a way to make the target a bit bigger. She noticed that traditional LOF research does not take into account melt pool geometry variability, instead basing calculations on average melt pool widths and depths.

The result for average melt pool geometry ends up being mostly a linear relation—a faster, more powerful laser will produce more defects. But Fitzwater tested a variety of melt pool sizes and found that the sweet spot started to wiggle around a bit more, resulting in a wavy pattern that showed that the laser could go faster and be more powerful at certain sizes. She hopes this research can be used in the future to improve the accuracy of process maps.

Fitzwater said after her presentation that finding this research opportunity with the EMIT lab opened her eyes to the world of additive manufacturing, a career path she had not previously considered. 

FRESH-printing meat from lab-grown cells

Daniel Aluko is a sophomore studying mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering. He works in the lab of Rosalyn Abbott , assistant professor of biomedical engineering, to study effective methods for 3D printing lab-grown meat . The hope is to offer alternatives to traditional meat, which is tasking on the environment and presents ethical issues around the treatment of livestock. 

Most people are familiar with 3D printers that extrude plastic—a rigid material that rapidly dries and takes form, holding itself aloft or supported on thin supports. However, when printing with something organic, the material cannot attach to itself quickly and take form without support since it is often squishy. This is why Aluko uses Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) 3D printing. With the FRESH method, lab-grown fat cells called adipocytes are added to a base of alginate, a neutral polymer formed from seaweed. This creates a viscous liquid referred to as bioink that is somewhere between castor oil and molasses in consistency. This bioink is then extruded into a support bath where it crosslinks or cures into the desired shape. The support bath is basically a clear jelly that melts away at body temperature, so it sloughs away from the final printed meat with ease.

Aluko was advised by biomedical engineering Ph.D. student Lindsey Huff. His role in the project was to test variables to ensure the best quality prints. Adipocytes are somewhat delicate and large, so ensuring that they remain intact throughout the print is crucial for a successful outcome. He studied the speed of extrusion, the gauge of the printing needle, and the viscosity of the bioink. By simulating extrusion in fluid flow software, Aluko was able to test multiple combinations of factors to find a happy medium between them all.

Aluko hopes to see the research also work for myocytes (muscle cells) which are smaller and more likely to hold up to anything that adipocytes can handle. As a sophomore, he hopes to explore other areas of research in his remaining years as an undergraduate at CMU. By getting an early start in research, he has time to compare FRESH 3D printing work to other areas of interest, such as biomechanics or biomedical devices. Exploring multiple areas will allow Aluko to better decide what he might like to study, should he choose to pursue a Ph.D. in the future.

Chapter Meeting

Application of ai in financial analysis and risk management, june 6, 2024.

Advances in technology have increased access and the scalability of AI applications in financial analysis. As firms evaluate the integration of AI into their day-to-day operations, it is increasingly important to proactively assess the potential risks and regulation associated with it.  

Join the GARP Hong Kong Chapter as we discuss how a new pillar of risk has presented itself through the rise of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) and how these risks are best managed within organizations, and what role we, as risk professionals, can play in ensuring the safe and ethical use of AI within the financial services sector.  

Registration is required as seats are limited. Priority will be given to GARP Individual Members.

6:00 – 6:30 pm: Registration

6:30 – 6:35 pm: Welcome remarks

6:35 – 7:25 pm: Presentation/Panel discussion with Audience Q&A

7:25 – 7:30 pm: FRM® and SCR® recognition ceremony

7:30 – 8:30 pm: Networking reception

June 6, 2024 6:00 PM - 8:30 PM

Renaissance Harbour View Hotel, 1 Harbor Rd, Hong Kong, Wan Chai

Daniele Forni, FRM Director, Credit Insights and Intelligence, HSBC

Kevin Kwan, FRM Global Head of Data Science, Enterprise Data - Bloomberg

Chapter Directors

Kent Lai Head of Enterprise Solution Sales for Govt and Local Brokers Bloomberg LP

Hung Wai Wong Managing Director North Point Talent

Committee Members

Ron Chiong Managing Director AvantFaire Investment Management Ltd.

Samuel Lo Managing Director Life Academy Limited

Agnes K Y Tai Senior Partner & RO Yaozhi Asset Management International Co. Ltd.

Daniele Forni, FRM

In his career, Daniele has worked for two financial institutions (Deutsche Bank and HSBC) across four countries (Italy, UK, China and Hong Kong). Currently he is Director, Credit Insights and Intelligence in HSBC, delivering analytical and MI solutions for HSBC front line bankers and portfolio risk managers.  

 He started his career for Deutsche Bank in Credit Risk delivering regulatory projects. He subsequently joined HSBC Group to work on portfolio risk management as a quant and risk manager and later as a program delivery lead focusing on data science and advanced analytics.

Kevin Kwan, FRM

Kevin leads the quant and data science solution developments at Bloomberg Enterprise Data. His team designs and develops proof-of-concept models and visualizations to extract insights from financial data using cutting edge data science, AI and machine learning techniques. Kevin has over 10 years of experience applying quant and data science techniques in investment processes.

Kevin is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Financial Risk Manager (FRM) Charterholder, and holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Aerospace Engineering from Purdue University.

• Financial Risk Manager
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We are a not-for-profit organization and the leading globally recognized membership association for risk managers.

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