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Cheat Death by PowerPoint!

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This month’s slide comes from a real presentation that a colleague of mine sat through. The image and text have been changed to protect the identity of the presenter, but it’s essentially the same slide from the deck.

Before

Before slide

Wow.

This slide has it all: a tiny title, densely packed text, misaligned bullet points, and an eensy-weensy little footer with today’s date and slide number. And the first line of text contains the same information as the title.

Mr. Smith has given us what amounts to an on-screen résumé that details his history and credentials. Does he expect the audience to read the slide from top to bottom while he silently stands by? No, because there is a script in the Speaker Notes. So when will the audience read this, if ever?Mr. Smith doesn’t need his own headshot on-screen because he’s standing right there in front of his audience!This makes him look like Citizen Kane, lecturing in front of his own super-enlarged image.There is entirely too much information on this slide, and I have the perfect solution.

After

blank

blank

That’s right; I’ve eliminated this slide completely.

This presentation was given to a group of his peers, live, at their place of business. Mr. Smith has already been vetted by the people who invited him to speak, so there’s no need to display his credentials in such minute detail. Of course, Mr. Smith could touch on his career highlights when he introduces himself at the beginning of his presentation, but there is no need to go into this level of detail.

On the other hand, if this had been presented as a Webinar, showing a photo of the presenter could build rapport. Here’s a redesigned slide for that purpose:

After slide

While this slide is on screen, Mr. Smith could talk a little bit about his credentials. He could also include a link to the more detailed résumé at the end of the presentation.