I make a lot of presentations and find powerpoint is a great tool.
Most important, it is flexible.
I rarely give the same presentation twice and even if presenting on the same topic the circumstances or the audience profile changes just enough to warrant changes to the presentation.
A good point given by other contributors: Don't put your dialogue on the slides and conduct kindergarten reading classes; use the "notes pages" to record your dialogue. Don't forget that even with a good presentation only about 10% will be retained. The notes are important.
If you give a handout, put your dialogue on the notes pages.
Notes pages are also useful for others to use your presentation material to give the presentation.
If I publish on the net then I convert the notes pages to a pdf file. I get really irritated by people who publish a collection of bullet points and leave you to figure out what they had to say.
A good presentation should be capable of being given by any one else - if they are prepared and not thrown in at the deep end as illustrated above.
I did have one bad experience of this. I had prepared several presentations for a sales conference and, to break up the monotony of one presenter and to test the effectiveness of the presentations as a tool for others to use, various of the sales managers were delegated to give presentations. (They were the first audience for the presentation; again good comments above: rehearse before a test audience)
Despite the time available for the presenters to familiarise themseleves with the material and even adapt it to their own style, one presenter managed to make an ass of himself.
Day two, first session and the presenter had obviously spent too long in the bar the night before and had never bothered to rehearse the presentation.
He was visibly surprised by each slide as it appeared and quite obviously at a loss as to what to say. Having no recollection of what slides followed he was obviously making up the presentation "on the fly".
I was recently at a conference and attended a training course afterwards. This was conducted by several presenters but one of them, a very knowledgable and experienced man, and very familiar with the material, he too had the morning after problem.
Too much knowledge and too much booze lead to a form of "stream of conciousness" presentation that quickly and frequently veered way off topic. Most of the audience were wondering if he would actually fall over during the morning.
He was gently and kindly substituted at the moring coffee break by the course organisers.
A great rule of presenting is to avoid distractions. The audience need to be concentrating on what you say. The slides are only an illustration.
Always advise that a complete handout will be given at the end. Don't give it out at the beginning or the audience will read it while you present and get ahead of you. Tell them there is no need to take notes. That way they give you their full attention.
These features make powerpoint a great political tool. A product manager, realising that the knives were out for him, played these features to great advantage. He was responsible for two product streams, one long established and one new and contentious.
Talking around each of his bullet points he listed a succession of different trial applications which were in trouble. As his presentation progressed, his critics in the audience got more overt and began trying to score points with the MD.
"Oh he said," at an appropriate moment, when one of his most vocal critics came out and said "well if we are having this much trouble, why don't we drop this product?" he replied "Oh, sorry, didn't i say? this isn't the new product, this is the old one. I just wanted to show that even after 40 years we are still finding new applications and we still have problems to resolve when we address them. I wanted to use this to put into context the problems we are seeing with the new technology where we don't have 40 years of experience to call on."
Game set and match.
With any presentation, never put yourself in the position of being defeated by the technology.
Make sure the pristine top sheet of the flip chart doesn't hide all the last presenters diagrams.
Always make sure the dryboard markers are dryboard and not wet, that they are there and full of ink, make sure all the equiment works and do this before the audience arrives. Set up your PC with the projector before the audience arrives. Nothing loses attention or credability so fast as ten minutes of watching the presenter being beaten by the equipment.
If you are taking your presentation on the road, you often at the mercy of unfamiliar equipment. One thing I have learned is to always have my presentation on a CD in case my laptop and the projector are not compatible or not easily set up (nothing makes you look a bigger idiot than when the technology defeates you) so I usually ask for the organisers to provide a fully set up PC and projector. Also, i use the "pack'n'go" feature i.e. the tool that includes Powerpoint presenter so you don't get defeated by a PC that has the wrong version of power point.
Like all tools, great if used well.
See if you get some training in presenting. You may think you are the bees knees as a presenter but nothing disabuses you quicker than looking at a video of yourself presenting.
JMW
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