Mokah Simon has a talent for shaping a client’s message, blending the best of current technology with the traditions of storytelling.

Through her company, One Cup Productions, Simon is building a reputation for creating PowerPoint presentations that elegantly showcase a client’s skills, products, fundraising efforts or marketing campaigns.

“I do presentations for people who don’t have the time to do it for themselves,” she says.

Mokah Simon and One Cup Productions provide creativity and production expertise.

A recent client, for example, was Angela Rea of the Investors Group. Rea and 11 of her colleagues climbed to the summit of Tanzania’s Mount Kilimanjaro in the cause of research for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Two months before Rea left, One Cup Productions crafted a press kit that included printed and photographic material and a multi-media presentation on CD, explaining the Kilimanjaro project to supporters and potential donors.

“Now that she’s back,” says Simon, “we’re going to put together a presentation that she can take with her to elementary schools, high schools and other client meetings to explain what she did and why she did it and how much money she raised for the cause.”

Simon also created a successful package for a businessman who gives talks to Canadians planning to retire in Mexico, complete with investment facts, information about Mexican regulations and other legal details, and real estate strategies.

She has also done presentations in the oilpatch for executives to take to investors. Such variety in her work makes every day special for Mokah Simon.

“I really like talking to people about what they do, especially the ones who are passionate about their projects and careers. Then it really comes across in the presentation I create for them. The audience will get caught up in the client’s passion.”

Her most eager clients are highly motivated professionals who know from experience it’s best to turn to other professionals for specialized tasks.

“Most people just don’t have the time or the energy to commit to making a first-class presentation. If they try, they’ll get a few slides and throw them together, and that’s the worst thing you can do.

“To promote yourself or your company, you want to make yourself look high-quality.”

Simon finds PowerPoint to be the best media choice in many of those presentations “because it’s an easy user interface for the clients.”

And in the right hands, such as Simon’s, PowerPoint can augment the client’s message through the use of creative sound, graphics or digital video.

Creativity seemed to be her destiny from birth, when her parents chose an unusual name for her – Mocha, spelled just like the coffee flavour.

“They both liked it after meeting a little girl who was named Mocha. I’ve heard it’s a Hungarian name – the girl was from Hungary – but I’m not sure.”

Some years later, the coffee-shop craze hit all across North America.

“When I was 14,” she recalls with a smile, “I got tired of being associated with the coffee by people reading the name, so I changed the spelling to Mokah.”

After that early experience with branding, Mokah Simon went on to film school to learn about movie-making and the art of storytelling. Besides acquiring a great deal of film knowledge, and meeting important people in the media, she quickly grasped how new technologies are being used to give entrepreneurs and corporations an edge in the marketplace.

Upon graduation she set up her own company and named it One Cup Productions – proving she has no problem with that coffee association when it can form an indelible image with clients.

And when she meets a client, the creativity starts immediately. Simon asks them about their key messages and learns what slides or video are available.

If photography or footage needs to be shot, her many contacts in the film, radio and TV industries can do the job.

“I can add music, and I can add commercial audio. I have some people who work in the radio industry who supply professional voiceovers.

“They let me know how they want it to flow, how many slides they want to have, what pictures and sound they have in mind.

“If the client has really creative ideas, I’ll use them and think of ways I can enhance them or add to them. But there are also people who just say: ‘I don’t have a creative bone in my body. Here’s what I want to do. Make it look great.’ ”

Once the project is completed and delivered, Mokah likes to stand at the back of the room when the client delivers the presentation – and watch when he or she gets the audience’s rapt attention, followed by applause.

“It feels great,” she says. “They get the credit, and that’s the way it should be.”

To have Mokah Simon start on your presentation, phone 403.282.2800; fax 403.282.2809; or e-mail mokahs@onecup.ca.