Microsoft PowerPoint: Effective Visual Communication
Darwin 2034 Winter Olympics: Inspection Delegation Pitch Deck
A scenario-based group activity. Take Janelle's chaotic Sunday draft and rebuild it into an IOC-grade pitch deck for the Inspection Delegation arriving next Monday. Use the slide master, layouts, theme colours, alignment, tasteful animations and transitions, the Accessibility Checker, and Copilot Chat.
DURATION · ~2 hrsLEVEL · Beginner to intermediateFORMAT · Scenario-based group activityTOOLS · Microsoft PowerPoint + Copilot Chat
Department of the Chief Minister · Northern Territory Government · Olympic Communications Working Group
// orientation
Welcome aboard
You've just walked into the Department of the Chief Minister's Olympic Communications Working Group.
Congratulations. The International Olympic Committee has awarded the 2034 Winter Olympics to Darwin.
For the next two hours, you are part of a team taking a rough Chief Minister's Brief and turning it into a formal announcement, one that showcases to the IOC exactly what the Territory has planned.
How this mix-up happened
The Federal Government promised the NT around $2 billion in funding if they could win an Olympic Games bid. A Summer Olympics bid.
The submission put together by NT Staff last week was an impressively polished document. Everyone who worked on it had clearly done a Microsoft Word course; the formatting was flawless. It made a compelling case that the Territory had unmatched air conditioning and temperature-control expertise; precisely the kind of infrastructure excellence the IOC looks for when assessing athlete welfare and world-class event delivery.
The problem arose at the final step. A junior officer had two browser tabs open on the IOC City Bid Portal. When they went to submit, they clicked the wrong tab: "Submit your bid here, Winter Olympics." By the time anyone noticed, the IOC had formally awarded Darwin the 2034 Winter Games.
But that's fine. Everything is fine.
Rather than withdraw and admit the error, a decision was made to proceed; as though this had been the plan all along. After all, the Federal Government is finally paying attention, money and resources are flowing in, and all eyes are on Darwin. A mascot has even been chosen: Plover Pete. The IOC inspection committee arrives soon.
In the words of the Chief Minister: "This is nothing a compelling media release and a brilliant PowerPoint presentation can't fix."
That's where you come in
Because you've attended this training, you are considered among the most elite PowerPoint power users the NTG has to offer.
The deck needs to cover:
A plan for ice and snow sports
Sliding sports (bobsled, luge, skeleton)
Logistics (venues, transport, accommodation)
Budget
And remember to lean into that "Northern Territory air conditioning know-how."
Janelle had a go at a draft over the weekend and left it in the shared folder, but it needs work. The Working Group has the morning. Deck back to Damo by midday.
Remember: this is a fictional scenario. The bureaucratic setting is the vehicle for the actual training goal, getting genuinely fluent with PowerPoint's design discipline: slide masters, layouts, theme colours, alignment, animations, transitions, accessibility and Copilot Chat.
// activity resources
Working files
Download these into a single working folder before you start. The activity briefing, Janelle's draft deck, the NTG branded template, the companion guide, and the approved Plux mascot image pack.
Sunday evening, after the draft went into SharePoint. Forwarded to all Working Group members for situational awareness.
Mascot?!
Hey Damo, the slide deck is in SharePoint.
I know we said no mascot in the inspection deck without Cabinet sign-off, but I was working Sunday and Copilot kept suggesting I add one, and your earlier email said the panel responds well to mascots, so I put one on every slide.
I couldn't find the Plux files (the Plover), so I picked the closest thing in the stock image library: a cute shrimp wearing sunglasses. If you have the Plux mascot images, we should swap them in.
JP
// context document 02
Damo's email to Janelle
Sent Monday morning after the CM saw the brief. Forwarded to all Working Group members for situational awareness.
FROM
Damien Routledge <damien.routledge@nt.gov.au>
TO
Janelle Pemberton <janelle.pemberton@nt.gov.au>
CC
Sally Office <sally.office@nt.gov.au>
SENT
Monday, 9 March 2026 7:14 AM ACST
SUBJECT
Inspection Delegation deck, we cannot send this to the IOC
Janelle,
The CM saw the brief Friday afternoon. Spent Saturday with it. Sent me an SMS at 06:42 this morning. Direct quote: "We cannot show this to the IOC inspection panel." The Inspection Delegation arrives Monday next week.
I appreciate the weekend work, but the fonts are everywhere. The animations are everywhere. To clarify, is there a Peppa Pig on every slide, or is that the shrimp? There are twelve slides; we agreed on ten. The Risks slide is a single line attributed to me from the all-staff meeting, which I never authorised as content.
We are bringing in the Communications Working Group this morning to take your Sunday draft and rebuild it as a proper IOC-grade pitch deck to the IOC Style Guide specification. They will:
Get the deck back to ten slides
Fix the fonts
Replace the stock photos
Populate the empty registers
Write proper speaker notes
Apply tasteful transitions and animations
Run accessibility checks before submission
On animations, I want this point made clearly to the Working Group. Tasteful means a single transition style (Fade is fine). Tasteful means at most one entrance animation per slide.
On the mascot, Plux is the official appointed mascot (gallery attached). Peppa Pig and the spinning crocodile are not to appear in the final deck.
Working Group has the morning. Deck back to me by midday.
We have one shot at this. Make it count.
Damo
Damien Routledge
Deputy Chief Executive
Department of the Chief Minister
Attachments: [Plux mascot gallery]
By Monday morning Janelle's draft was up on SharePoint, the Inspection Delegation was a week away, and the Working Group had been called in. That's where you come in.
// the work
Your mission
Two phases. Seven deliverables. One deck back to Damo by midday.
The Working Group has the morning to take Janelle's Sunday draft and rebuild it as a proper IOC-grade pitch deck to the IOC Style Guide specification. The work breaks into two phases.
Phase 1
Fix the foundation
Open the NTG branded template. Apply the slide master, the layouts, and the theme colour palette. Fix Janelle's font soup. Move every floating text box onto a layout placeholder. Replace the stock photos that don't belong.
Trim the deck back to ten slides. Anything beyond that needs to merge or go. The IOC Style Guide is prescriptive on slide count and the inspection panel reads it as a discipline indicator.
Phase 2
Rebuild the content using Copilot Chat
Each slide needs proper content. Use Copilot Chat as your drafting partner: trim, expand, rewrite for tone, generate tables, draft speaker notes. Cover the four content areas Damo flagged: ice and snow sports plan; sliding sports; logistics (venues, transport, accommodation); budget. Lean into the Northern Territory air conditioning know-how angle without overplaying it.
Populate the empty registers (risks, budget figures, venue list). Don't leave placeholder text. Fact-check anything Janelle wrote at speed; some of her numbers will be suspect. Apply tasteful transitions (Fade, single style) and at most one entrance animation per slide. Swap any shrimp mascots for the approved Plux images. Run the Accessibility Checker before submission.
Damo's seven deliverables, in his words
Get the deck back to ten slides
Fix the fonts
Replace the stock photos
Populate the empty registers
Write proper speaker notes
Apply tasteful transitions and animations
Run accessibility checks before submission
// ground rules
A few ground rules
Use the slide master and layouts. Never restyle a slide manually and call it a layout. The IOC inspection panel notices the difference and reads it as discipline.
Tasteful means Fade only, and at most one entrance animation per slide. Damo was specific.
Swap every shrimp for an approved Plux image from the gallery. Peppa Pig and the spinning crocodile are not to appear in the final deck.
Fact-check Janelle's claims. She wrote the draft on a Sunday with Copilot suggesting things at her. Some of the numbers are suspect. Verify before you build on them.
Have a go. If you don't know what a button does, click it. You can't break PowerPoint from inside this activity.
Don't trust Copilot's output uncritically. When you ask Copilot to draft, fact-check, or rewrite, read its answer carefully and verify against an authoritative source if it matters.
It's allowed to be funny. Lean into the absurdity of being asked to rebuild a Winter Olympics inspection deck in two hours. That's the point.
// approved gallery
The Plux mascot pack
Plux is the official appointed mascot. The gallery is attached for swapping into Janelle's deck wherever the shrimp currently appears.
A gallery of approved Plux images for the deck, plus one short video. Open the folder, save the images you want into your working folder, then drag them onto slides as needed. Use Picture Format to crop, recolour, or resize so each Plux fits the slide it's on.