PowerPoint @ 25

? What’s the point of PowerPoint What’s the point of PowerPoint ?

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Happy birthday PowerPoint Happy birthday PowerPoint So, PowerPoint has turned 25.

And most people think it sucks

Because most presentations suck

THE SHORT VERSION Why do most presentations suck?

Because people are lazy …

… selfish …

… imitative …

… and heedless.

Why are so many PowerPoint presentations so BAAAAAAAD? (The real problem?)

FAR TOO MANY Because we deliver of the wretched things

We use PowerPoint as an AutoCue

We use PowerPoint as a brain dump

We use PowerPoint when we should be using email

And we use it to (badly) summarise hefty reports

Most PowerPoint presentations should come with a warning label …

It’s difficult to know which slice of the pie your presentation is in

You can ask her, but your mother is just not a valid test audience …

That’s lovely dear. Very nice!

Most audiences aren’t quite this overt in their feedback

And your friends and colleagues usually aren’t sufficiently clear with their feedback either …

You totally suuuuuuck! Although sometimes they can be quite direct

A handful of ideas

When is PowerPoint not the tool of choice?

IDEAS Presentations are about

WORDS And you speak lots of to convey those ideas

So this becomes a very important concept … wpm

150 wpm Most people speak at

Which means that for a 10 minute talk, you will speak …

1,500 words

How many words are in your PowerPoint file? (check its ‘Properties’)

50% If the wordcount in your file is about of the words you are going to say

Because if you just read to them, your audience will shut down … No matter how fast you speak, your audience can read a lot faster

And if you use PowerPoint as an AutoCue for your benefit …

… rather than as a visual aid for their benefit … (Pavement chalk art by Kurt Wenner)

… they will switch off

PowerPoint has to pass the 60mph challenge

If your slides are cluttered and complex, if they don’t get the essence of what you are saying at a glance …

… you will lose your audience

The 60mph Challenge Look at the following slide for 3 just seconds

Any doubts about what they’re selling and what the benefits of the product are? Now, click on to the next slide for 3 just seconds

No wonder PowerPoint makes so many people so unhappy

Lousy PowerPoint is costing you money!

Bullet Points are the biz!
This is the first point
And here’s another
Then, in case the first two (2) bullet points get lonely, I thought I’d include a third one and I’m too lazy to condense my thoughts, so here’s every word I am going to say …
With a sub-bullet, just to mix things up a bit
And a second one, so the first sub-bullet doesn’t get lonely
And let’s round things off with another fine outstanding example of bullet-pointage
Just 73 more slides to go …
We’ve all heard of “Death by bullet point”

Death by incomprehensible flowchart

Death by data dump

Death by hideous templates

Death by lazy-ass, cluttered, crud

You need safety equipment to sit through this kind of material!

Lazy
Selfish
Imitative
Heedless
This isn’t PowerPoint’s fault. This is the presenter’s fault.

Rushed / Hassled / 1,000 emails in inbox / Ridiculous deadlines / Pressure for results.
Therefore, no time to:
Think / Prepare / Rehearse
The slightly longer version of why this happens so much …

Imagine if actors behaved that way …

Or stand-ups …

And you’d be right to get upset; tickets to shows cost a lot of money these days

Well guess what? Every lousy presentation you sit through costs you money too …

You’re either paying the bozo who is presenting to you

Or losing out on an opportunity cost basis

“ Up with this I will not put!”

Stay the hell away from PowerPoint for as long as you can

If you’re starting to put a presentation together …

Click to insert Headline
Click to add text
Click to add text
Click to add subtext
Click to add sub-subtext
Title Area for AutoLayouts Object Area for AutoLayouts Don’t start here

Start here

Jot down a few key thoughts

Then build your structure

Write up your words (1,500 per 10 minutes)

Then you can think about how PowerPoint might help you get those ideas across

The top 3 differences between the good and the great

REHEARSAL

“ All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed”

Common Objection #1

But we never have time to rehearse around here!

(translation)

I couldn’t give a damn about (a) my audience or (b) the outcome of this presentation

Common Objection #2

Yeah … rehearsal is great, but I don’t want to end up sounding stale

Try telling that to Meryl …

… or Dylan …

or Leonard …

All these professionals do you the courtesy of rehearsing and honing their performances until they are jaw-droppingly good. Operative word: Professional

John Lennon’s advice to bands starting out …

“ You need to spend 100 hours practising in the garage for every hour you will be playing on stage”

Imagine the difference even a tenth of that effort would make to your next presentation (Besides which, you can’t argue with John – he was The Walrus)

So, happy birthday PowerPoint So, happy birthday PowerPoint But never lose sight of this …

PowerPoint is not the presentation. You are.

It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech

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PowerPoint @ 25

by Fortify Services on Oct 09, 2009

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