The Master

Recently, before a conference I attended, someone said to me, “Oh, I know you hate PowerPoint presentations. So do I. This will be horrible.”

To the contrary, I don’t hate PowerPoint presentations (or Apple Keynote presentations, for that matter). I do feel a bit tortured  when someone misuses PowerPoint to kill an otherwise good and interesting presentation. I’m not alone, of course. So many of us have been subjected to so many bad presentations that some people have sworn off PowerPoint altogether.  But for you presenters out there, my advice is: don’t give up hope.  Just give up the bad practices that make bad PowerPoint presentations.

So here are a few points I think are important.  I certainly won’t cover all there is to know about making presentations.  I’m no expert, but there are some great expert resources out there (see below for a list).

Don’t Read Your Slides

Everyone knows this. Everyone says, “don’t do it.”  Everyone hates when others do it. So why do so many people still do it?   Continue reading »