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PowerPoint Presenters – The Good, The Bad & The Class Clowns

When it comes to PowerPoint presentations, I’m no expert, but I have sat in the audience too many times and been bored to death, entertained to the point of silliness, or been wowed at what I learned and experienced.

PowerPoint – The Bad

Droning on and on for a 45 minute monotone while they bombard your eyes and brain with endless bullet points that repeat their words word for word, the bad powerpoint presenters need to be taken out back and subjected to Chinese water torture – that’s pretty much what they are doing to the audience.

PowerPoint – The Class Clowns

Some people never grow up and others have absolutely no sense of style, form and function. Filling their powerpoint presentations with a constant cacophony of fades, spins, and star burst transitions; zooming, twirling, dive-bombing text; and enough silly animated gifs to entertain any three-year old trapped in the room, these clowns sacrifice the message for psychadelic effects.

PowerPoint – The Good

And then there are those who get. Who know how to marry images and messages in a powerful combination that breaks through the white noise of our brains. These master story tellers draw us into little by little into a fascinating story that leaves an indelible impression on our consciousness and a powerful message that can be reduced to one simple line.

My guess is that most of the real masters of powerpoint presentations have read Cliff Atkinson’s book Beyond Bullet Points and Gary Reynolds’ “PresentationZen”.

What a delight in learning these two books are. I highly recommend them.