Some useful tips here from Stephen Hannon as he picks on the topic of death by PowerPoint! We’ve all been there. An important customer meeting has finally been scheduled, and a presentation is needed. As usual, you feel there’s a lot of information to be communicated. The outline is rote. You have files upon files of other similar presentations. Simply pick a few charts from here, and a few more from there. Pretty soon, a deck of more than 30 slides is in place. The title chart just needs to be updated, and a bit of shuffling is required. The deck is dense with some graphics, an awful lot of words, and too-small font size. There’s not a prayer of fitting into the 60 minute slot. But, you’ve briefed the material umpteen times before, so you somehow convince yourself you can shave the metric to 45 seconds per chart, leaving plenty of time for discussion. Save, copy it to the memory stick, and off you go. It’s called “Death by PowerPoint” and we’ve all been guilty of it.
Given the choice, your audience will read and not listen
Fewer Charts Mean More Time for Discussion… Pare down the number of charts. Please. Think back on the past three years and the various presentations you have either given or been in the audience for. How many times would you say to yourself, “Boy, I wish there were more charts in that presentation.”? I dare say zero.
For more tips read more – Make Time for Stickier Presentations