Powerpointless
There seems to be a growing trend of associations providing Powerpoint templates for conference speakers. Really, what is the purpose here? Isn’t it kind of boring for each session to have the exact same slide graphics and color scheme? And why do they always seem to be orange? Plus, those header, footer, and sidebar images really compete with the content. Is your association logo more important than my content? (Don’t answer that.)
I understand the benefit of having the same look/message displayed at the beginning and end of each presentation – and I even understand the value of having the last slide serve as a promotion for association services/events. However, I do not see the benefit of mandated template slides for the core presentation.
Another problem is that requiring the use of template slides also implies speakers should use slides! And that’s a dangerous implication given the widespread abysmal use of Powerpoint slides. Of course slides have the potential to enhance a presentation, but when is the last time you were moved by a slide deck?
If you really want to make an impact to your conference sessions, nix the slide template and instead provide guidance and tools to your speakers to help them deliver more effective presentations, with or without visuals. A few ideas:
- Be flexible in room set-up and AV requests; requiring classroom set-up and a podium mike is begging for a traditional lecture.
- Provide speakers with as much information about the audience and their needs as possible; don’t assume they’ll do the research on their own.
- Ask speakers to identify and provide to you their key points (you’d be surprised how many speakers can and will present without ever identifying key points!).
- Provide a guidance document that outlines principles of effective presentations (you can find several model documents online).
- Provide speaker training sessions virtually and at your events - these could be by invitation only or for all potential speakers.
- Hire a presentation coach to work with your speakers one-on-one.
- Establish an arrangement with a presentation coach to offer discounted coaching sessions to your speakers in exchange for your promoting his or her services to that target.
I say kill all powerpoint. Or have slides that show fun pictures only - no text…. : )
I agree.
I’d also like to see a moratorium on speakers reading the PPTs to the audience. Believe it or not - I can actually read. And, I bet the rest of the audience can too!
At the association I arrange programs for, we do both — we provide a template and recommend images over text.
I hear you about insisting on association branding on PPTs, Mickie — but there’s a reason why we do that, and it’s pretty simple: we just want the attendees to associate the presentation with an event we hosted so when they refer back to handouts later, they’ll recall where they originally saw the speaker.
We provide templates only when we have several speakers in a short period of time; templates help them to stay on topic and within a restricted time slot.
But overall, we remind our speakers that PowerPoint is a visual medium, and that it should be populated with images rather than text. Seems simple and obvious, but clearly many speakers haven’t thought of their presentation support in this way.
It’s not the PPT, after all. It’s the speaker and what the speaker has to say that’s important.
[…] Why you shouldn’t just provide PowerPoint templates to presenters […]
You have a good point about the templates. I think having leader slides and trailer slides in the conference template are enough to brand the handouts - although I don’t believe in handouts (very bad environmental policy).
When a conference is providing archives of their sessions online the consistent templates can make it all seem more buttoned-up. That being said, I also agree that images should rule the day - not text - and a full-screen image will obscure the template anyway. One of the problems I have been seeing is a consistent confusion between a presentation and a leave-behind. Many times presenters cram a lot of text into their slides so that they make sense to someone who didn’t hear their presentation - a critical mistake and an obviously poor use of PPT.
I’d like to see them present to images and illustrations, and make available a transcript or supporting paper for later review. I am also a big supporter of online audio or video archives of any live session - that way the speaker can do the talking - not the slides.