07.07.08
Other peoples presentations - PPT and the death of the speaker.
I’m putting together a reasonably significant presentation for an organisation at the moment and have been provided with some reference material to get a ‘feel’ of their phrasing and terminology. I have a lot of fun looking at other peoples presentations as they usually say a lot about the person or organisation which created them.
I have always been of the opinion that a ‘presentation’ is given by a person and that tools such as PowerPoint or Keynote should be used to deliver punch, highlights and provide a flow to the message. The details of the message can be included in speaker notes for sure, but the actual delivery comes from the person.
I’ve sat through more than a few (too many if I’m honest) presentations where the ’speaker’ simply reads through the information presented on the screen in fabulous verbosity! not fun and certainly not a valuable use of either of our time! So here’s my new presentation paradigm, put highlights on the screen to get attention, use graphics and animation where appropriate and timely to do so - a picture can say a thousand words, but sitting through pretty builds can just get boring. Make sure the notes supplied contain all of the information you are going to use - that’s what note are for, the slides should be clean and crisp.
And finally if your presenting, present, don’t simply read from the deck. Anyone can read, you have to engage.
- J.
