What Can I Say?

It happened again.

You think I'd get off the soap box.

I attended the Toledo Human Resources Association, Diversity Day event on Tuesday morning. I take my hat off to the group that put it together in getting some really good speakers, including Matt Roloff, the man whose
family appears in the TLC reality show Little People, Big World. He happens to be a dwarf, so he talked about his work in helping the world to know the challenges that Little People face in the world.




Only one speaker used PowerPoint. And used it badly.

I don't understand why presenters think they have to read their bullet points to us as they show us their backside. On a scale of 1 - 10, I'd give this presenter a 4. She presented a lot of facts and figures, and a few stories to back up the facts. That is the only reason I marked her so high.

The other two speakers, spoke from the heart. One was just as "learned" as the PowerPoint presenter, but he had two stories for each point he made. It made it easy to understand the abstract principles he was using.

As I have said before, lose the PowerPoint. Make contact with your audience members. Technology can be toxic to the relationship you want to develop with your audience.

P.S. The only person I have seen use PowerPoint well is Scott Ginsberg and that's because he DOESN'T use any bullet points and instead uses the screen as a backdrop for his presentation.

Sorry, It Is PowerPoint Time Again

Sorry, but I just have to get it out of my system.

At the chamber event that I wrote about here, both breakout sessions I went to had the speakers using PowerPoint.

At the first, the speaker SAT in front of his laptop and when it was time for him to speak he would twist his body around to somewhat face the audience. He stayed seated. On a scale of 1 - 10, the presentation material was a 4, and the presentation style was a 4. The only reason I give it such a "high" score is that there was a second presenter who did stand and face the audience for her part.

At the second, two men who are professionals within the community, gave the most boring presentation I have experienced in the last couple years. The slides were all bullet points of text which they read to us as they faced the screen with their backs to us. One a scale of 1 - 10, this presentation didn't even make it to a 1 in either category.

Need I say more?

Yes, I have to.

Lose PowerPoint. Talk with your audience. If you must use PowerPoint to feel like you are giving a REAL presentation, then use the software to show illustrations and images of what you are saying. It should be a backdrop, not a fence.

There got that off my chest.

PowerPoint Pity

Here I go on PowerPoint again.

I attended a presentation recently. The lights were dimmed and the speaker began his presentation -- you guessed it with PowerPoint. This first slide had FIVE bullet points and each one had a paragraph attached to it. To give the speaker credit, he did know his material and could speak eloquently about it. But his slides really didn't always fit, and they were boring graphs and facts. Ugh!

That very same evening I was a guest of Davis College for an annual event called Dining for Success. The business fraternity organizes this event every year for the students. They get the experience of being at a mock business meal. Also, they usually have a speaker talk about manners and business etiquette at these meals. This year the speaker was my friend, Linda Fayerweather of Changing Lanes, LLC. (that's her to the left. She really didn't have her eyes closed during the whole presentation!) She makes manners fun. She also brings a piece of paper that resembles a place mat with an image of a place setting. She then uses this to teach from. She also puts a few bullet points right on this handout. Simple and effective. No PowerPoint!

Over the last week in our newspaper, there was an article about a local congressman who had agreed to speak before a junior high class. He downloaded a government produced presentation from the web via a memory stick that he then transferred to his laptop. You can imagine his horror when he flashed his first PowerPoint image up on the screen only to see if contained a picture of naked women. Seems his teenage son had been surfing the net and had used the same memory stick. Just think of how much less hot water the congressman would have been in if he had only just talked with the students instead of having the electronic crutch that so many use.

PowerPoint is an excuse that makes for weak presentations, non-focused presentations, boring presentations and sometimes as in the case of the congressman, surprising presentations.

Which side of the PP aisle do you find yourself?

The Messenger Destroyed the Message

Okay, here's the complaint.

POWERPOINT

Again I was the victim, along with about 50 or 60 other people in the crowd.

The message was good.

The delivery ruined a good message.

The presenter, a government employee, used PowerPoint to back up his presentation. Or really, he read from his slides. Luckily, he only had a little over 10 minutes and had narrowed the number of views. If he'd had more time, I might have resorted to sucking my thumb.

Now tell me, even if you are going to be a bad user of PowerPoint, how many words should be in each bullet point?

Try fifty!

And it was legal verbiage. Isn't that nice. Not only did I have to squint to see the mini words on the screen, but when I finally engage my brain, it is convoluted legalese.

This man could have delivered a memorable talk, and could have even backed it up with PowerPoint, using it to backdrop images of his message.

PowerPoint. It makes most of the presenters of the world even worse than bad.

That's all for now folks.