December 2, 2018

Four reasons to stop using PowerPoint



Many of my speaker colleagues reject the use of slides. They say slides are boring, prevent engagement, and distract the audience away from the speaker's message. And yep, they do. Especially when they look like this:


or this:


are loaded with cliches like this: 


or packed with bullets like this:


or when the presenter looks like this:


or when your images look like this:



So here are four reasons to stop using slides:

1. If you're still living in the 90s, using crap clip art and cartoons, please don't inflict your slides on audiences.

2. If you insist on listing everything you know about your topic in the form of bullet points or complex charts and graphs, please don't inflict your slides on audiences.

3. If you face the screen the whole time, reading from your slides so that you don't have to learn your content or interact, please don't inflict your slides on audiences.

4. If you're unwilling to learn and use best practices for visuals, like cutting down on text and complex graphs, using more images, and letting slides be the background and enhancement to your presentation, please don't inflict your slides on audiences.

For the rest of you who are challenging the old ways of "death by PowerPoint," carry on

Personally, I love PowerPoint. I have lots of fun creating slides that will illustrate my points and entertain my audiences. Slides can be part of an engaging, fun and creative presentation. PowerPoint doesn't force anyone to use bullets or to be boring.

And one final slide for you:


P.S. If you'd like a quick lesson in PowerPoint best practices, check out my virtual training here!


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