Beyond PowerPoint
Fellow author Mickie started an interesting conversation on her own blog about the need to change the way we’ve always done PowerPoint. As I think about it, I can’t BELIEVE we didn’t write a post about that in our book?! Amy mentioned powerpoint in her post on Learning experiences not Conferences, but only briefly. I can’t think of a more worthy WHADITW topic than the way we use powerpoint in presentations in the association community (I remember sitting through a presentation where the presenter actually numbered the slides. It was even MORE painful knowing that that list of bullets was the 63rd I had seen that session!)
Mickie and others have been putting up good responses to the original post, linking to resources on this topic. Dave Sabol linked to Seth Godin’s writing on the topic, which, of course, contains some great WHADITW language:
The home run is easy to describe: You put up a slide. It triggers an emotional reaction in the audience. They sit up and want to know what you’re going to say that fits in with that image. Then, if you do it right, every time they think of what you said, they’ll see the image (and vice versa).
Sure, this is different from the way everyone else does it. But everyone else is busy defending the status quo (which is easy) and you’re busy championing brave new innovations, which is difficult.
Thanks for the link and more importantly thanks for making me think about this even further.
After reading the post, I am left with the following question: why have we always done it this way? At what point did such a potentially useful and powerful tool become so misused? Why are folks so intent on propagating bad practices at the expense of their audience instead of challenging status quo and doing things right?
Much to think about on this subject and even more to think about regarding how to fix it. One small area that could have a potentially large/positive impact if it can be addressed, even if it’s only done on presenter/presentation at a time.
Call me a troublemaker, but Powerpoint isn’t such a bad thing — when used correctly. The problem is that most people don’t have a clue about when PPT is best used, and how to use it best.
As they say, “telling ain’t training,” and helping our volunteer presenters, panelists, and facilitators to learn better ways to get their point across is our responsibility.
It’s a slow shift, but we’ll get there!