One of the chief gripes about PowerPoint presentations is "too much text on a slide." Great presenters use PowerPoint slides as a backdrop to their presentations, not the entire script. So they often include photos in their decks to illustrate major points. It's easy to see why. Here's a slide from … [Read more...] about A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words
Are you presenting for yourself or your audience?
Mary Nell McCorquodale is a management consultant with decades of experience presenting to savvy audiences, from C-level professionals to top brass in the US Military. As a young presenter, she learned very quickly that if you stick to your own agenda without finding out what your audience wants … [Read more...] about Are you presenting for yourself or your audience?
You Can’t Taste PowerPoint
Some people are so hung up on PowerPoint for giving presentations that they forget that in the olden days before thumb drives, projectors, and laptops there was such a thing as an engaging public speaker. I often reference the PowerPoint Gettysburg Address as a shining example of how PowerPoint can … [Read more...] about You Can’t Taste PowerPoint
Great PowerPoint presentations start with the words
I recently got a call from a woman—let's call her Sally—who sought my help to create a PowerPoint presentation as part of her senior thesis. Sally's biggest stumbling block was finding images to represent the topic of her presentation, the challenges of teaching English to non-native speakers … [Read more...] about Great PowerPoint presentations start with the words
Cheating Death by PowerPoint: Graphs as Infographics
Cute Kids Not So Cute During a Presentation
#LFMF I recently spoke about Cheating Death by PowerPoint to a group of businesspeople. I came in early, connected my laptop to the projector, opened up the title slide to my presentation, then proceeded to work the room. After chatting with folks for about twenty minutes, I glanced at the … [Read more...] about Cute Kids Not So Cute During a Presentation
PowerPoint Design Gets Set Back 20 Years
Last week, the New York Times published an article about creating and editing PowerPoint presentations on mobile devices (such as iPhone, Blackberry, and Android smart phones, and iPads) using an app called Documents to Go. Reading it sent shivers down my spine — not the good kind — because this … [Read more...] about PowerPoint Design Gets Set Back 20 Years
Ugly Templates Make Ugly Presentations
A colleague of my husband's recently forwarded me a PowerPoint template that he was required to use for a presentation he was giving at a particular event (let's call it XYZFest). He was lamenting its many flaws and wondering how he would be able to make a decent presentation from such a lousy … [Read more...] about Ugly Templates Make Ugly Presentations