Know what gets me fired up? When people blame tools for shoddy work when the blame should be pointed directly at the user. Case in point: PowerPoint.
Yes, we’ve all sat through some mind-numbingly dull PP presentations. And I guarantee we’ve all had similar experiences with presentations that didn’t use PP at all. The common denominator here is the presenter and their inability to use their presentation tools.
Paul Sloane at Lifehack wrote today about Six Ways to Transform your Presentation. Not surprisingly, step number one was Throw Away PowerPoint. This advice is almost cliché. PowerPoint is a tool just like a chainsaw. Give the tool to someone inexperienced, and yes, they might just destroy something.
Folks, the problem here isn’t PowerPoint…it’s the presenter.
I’m also going to argue that just getting up in front of a crowd and delivering a presentation without strong visual elements to augment your speaking is missing the potential of multimedia. Think which visual images would make what you’re saying stronger? Some folks learn more from what they see than what they hear.
The bottom line is: Don’t be afraid to engage all the senses in your presentation.
Thanks for adding to the dialogue, Michael. Folks want to learn and be entertained. While this doesn't always have to be multimedia, it does help.
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