Always Present With Passion

In taking a quiet break from working on the PowerPoint presentation I'll be using in my workshop at the New Communications Forum 2005 ... ... Don't be seduced by PowerPoint (paid subscription-only access). Guthrie says: Death by a thousand slides has become a feature of business events ranging from small presentations to speeches before large audiences. With 300 million users worldwide and counting, Lend Me Your Ears by Then Guthrie adds some on-the-bullet comment (pun definitely intended) on some different thinking business people should employ when planning and using a PowerPoint: Better still, if you must use slides, switch the projector off and the lights on after 10 minutes - tops. [...] Use reversals of meaning, so your audience will ask what they can do for Allied Grommets, not what Allied Grommets can do for them. Deploy three-part lists to inform, intrigue and, um, inspire. Make a splash with imagery, your similes glittering like sunbeams reflected from the wavelets dancing in a Mediterranean harbour. That last sentence paints a nice picture: you can almost see those sunbeams. I then popped over to Zen and the Art of PowerPoint) about imagery and metaphor and talking with passion. This is how it all must be, I believe - present and talk concisely, persuasively and with passion. If not, you will lose your audience and become one of the 'statistical PowerPoint failures' Guthrie mentions in his FT article. But if you're passionate, you have every chance of really engaging with your audience and taking them along with you towards the point you want everyone to reach. They will see where they're going. Cliff's concluding paragraph in his post sums this up perfectly: [...] A classic book of the 1970s, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance told the story of a guy riding a motorcycle. By the end of the story, you realize it never was about the motorcycle after all, but the rider's attitude toward life. Will there come a day when our presentations are not about bullet points, but our attitude toward our audiences, and ourselves? The day that happens, we will all be on a high-octane journey toward positive change. (Cliff has written a book about using PowerPoint effectively called NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.