Public
Speaking & Technology:
How to Avoid Death by PowerPoint
Some
people say if you use a PowerPoint presentation
you're making a huge mistake. Others say it's
a good idea...
Who's
right?
Actually,
hooking up a laptop and LCD projector and putting
a PowerPoint presentation up on the screen can
add to your presentation. A well placed chart
or graph or picture can say more than a thousand
words.
PowerPoint
becomes a problem when it stops enhancing your
presentation, and actually becomes your presentation.
What
does that mean?
Have
you ever been to a seminar and the presenter was
just reading off of the slides on the screen?
Bo-ring! Don't do that. I've seen presenters spend
an entire hour just reading from their slides!
What
a waste of my time!-what do we need the presenter
for?-just hand me the handouts and I can read
them for myself, I don't need someone reading
to me!
It's
better if you use a slide just here or there during
your presentation. Think of it like icing on the
cake - icing is great, but you wouldn't want to
eat a whole bowl of it!
So
use PowerPoint sparingly if at all.
There
are good arguments to not use PowerPoint at all.
For example, equipment will eventually fail. Your
laptop will crash, or the LCD will fail.
If
you do use technology, you have got to have a
backup of your presentation - have a one-page
outline of the main points you want to make so
that when technology fails, you can recover smoothly.
Other
people say you should use an overhead projector
if you use anything at all because you can just
switch it on and switch it right off.
Whether
you use technology or not, the main thing you
must keep in mind is to make YOU the focus of
your seminar, and not what's on the screen.
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