Using a computer-generated presentation displayed with a multimedia projector can increase the retention rate of your audience. Research done by Carnegie Mellon University shows that the amount of information retained by an audience grows from 25% to 50% when the information is presented in full color and escalates to 85% when the information is presented interactively.¹

Many people are intimidated by the price of multimedia projectors, which typically range from $3,000 to $10,000. However, in the long run, investing in a multimedia projector is actually cheaper than producing overhead slides for each and every presentation. It typically costs $1.60 to produce a single color transparency. At that rate, creating one presentation per week, with 40 visuals, ends up costing $3,200 a year, not including the price of the color printer.² This also doesn't include the costs of mistakes and last minute changes that are an inevitable fact of every presentation.

Plus, time is money! When you use a color printer to make overheads, setup time each day takes about 10 minutes (this accounts for adding supplies, fixing paper jams, etc.). And each color transparency takes a minimum of one minute to print. Setup, changes, mistakes and other interruptions mean that roughly two hours each week are wasted on printing a single presentation. For an average administrative employee, that equates to about $1,000 per year.³

Electronic presentations that are created on your computer and projected using an LCD projection system limit your investment in supplies to a re-usable diskette that can store up to 50 images for as little as $1.00.⁴ And in the time it takes to print a single overhead, 10 electronic images can be copied onto a diskette.

So, it can be said that multimedia projectors not only help you make an impression during your presentation, but they make "cents" too!

1. In Focus Systems White Paper. Make Meetings More Productive with LCD Projection Panels, Wilsonville, OR.
2. Ibid
3. Ibid
4. Ibid