Before I go on holiday, I’d like to just summarise a spate of recent postings on why PowerPoint is a bad tool for speakers to use at conferences, just so that everyone understands just how evil this so-called ‘presentation tool’ can be.
Here they are then – ten definitive reasons not to use PowerPoint as a public speaker:
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Your talk is rubbish and badly-prepared
Apparently, Microsoft failed to build in this simple feature, and PowerPoint is sadly incapable of actually preparing interesting content and putting it together in a logical and engaging way -
You have no content
Again, what you might have thought would be a basic tool in PowerPoint is not present. No matter how long you stare at the opening blank slide, and no matter how hard you search through the myriad menus in the software, PowerPoint will fail to provide you with any useful content. -
Your design skills are akin to those of a snail
By now you will have gathered just how useless and potentially harmful PowerPoint is. You can spend hours putting your content into those evil slides, but Microsoft couldn’t even be bothered to add a ‘make my presentation look great‘ button. How lame is that? -
You think pink backgrounds and yellow text look good
Why should we be expected to learn this arcane design stuff that people spend years at good colleges picking up? Why couldn’t the biggest software company in the world just program this in? what’s the world coming to when you can pay decent hard-earned money for a tool only to find it’s useless at what it claims to do? -
You have the presentation skills of Chingis Khan
And while we’re at it, where’s the ‘turn me into a good speaker’ option when going into slideshow mode at conferences? Where’s that, eh, Mr Clever-Clogs Gates? Call this a piece of software? It’s a travesty of programming, that’s what it is. Nobody laughed at my presentation, people walked out and I hardly got a clap at the end. Where’s your PowerPoint now, eh? -
Your audience are intellectually challenged
Perhaps the most important reason (and possibly the only one that isn’t the direct fault of Microsoft, mark you!) is that audiences are really, really stupid. They can’t look at a screen and listen to you at the same time. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise, because it’s a well-known fact that many clever people have proven with research and stuff. It just can’t be done. FACT! -
It doesn’t work properly
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It’s evil
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Err…..
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That’s it
You have been warned…
I’m not being funny, no – it’s just not funny…. not at all…
No, not funny at all. Zen.
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What do you use when presenting at conferences? I agree with many of your points… Personally, I hate receiving handouts/looking at PowerPoint presentations where people just read it–don’t they know we can read? grrr So, do you have alternatives for speakers?
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Holly,
I use PowerPoint always, because I think it’s a splendid tool for summarising or illustrating talks when used by a speaker who has something to say and can say it in an engaging and interesting manner (not that I’m claiming I necessarily meet all those criteria!) and is a useful visual aid for audiences…
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Hi Gavin,
Do you really wish for more buttons in MS PowerPoint? I thought that there are too many already!
But you are right in saying this and you yourself beautifully demonstrate how presentations should be done with slides full of images and screenshots and solid information on them and then you speak freely and converse with people. Great presentation style.
Personally I think the speakers notes should be in the hand of the speakers and not in form of bullet points on the screen for all to see. This is embarassing.
But on the sideline of the popularity of slides, have you checked out how popular Pecha Kucha nights are around the globe?
Did you yourself enjoy the one you did at IATEFL? For us participants this was very enjoyable indeed and you topped the concept of 20 slides auto-advancing every 20 seconds even with 20 presenters – FABULOUS. I have been forwarding this link to many many people and will add this here again.
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/sessions/63/iatefl-pecha-kucha-evening-lindsay-clandfield
This was so brilliant and this is the way to go I believe in our fast-paced learning world. Presentations simply have to speed up or else we will see upto 16 parallel sessions like at the Online Educa at many more conferences. Personally I dislike parallel sessions as much as standing in the wrong queue at the supermarket.
Our latest development the PRESTO 10×20, which you said might well be too short though, is coming on nicely but is still in ‘beta’. We had two great Prestos to start with, W’ talking about phonetic affordances in SL and Burcu about her great classroom blogs and I thought they are brilliant, but then, these are also great and experienced presenters. Burcu especially rehearsed the Presto really, really well.
What amazed me though is the amount of views within a short period of time. W’s 255 views in 1 month and Burcu’s more than 100 in a matter of one week. Wow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDlWtCtQB8I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5pZVmf9jYE
MS PowerPoint has the function speaker’s notes and automatic slide transition and I am hoping that many more learn to speak freely just like W’ and Burcu. Wouldn’t we all wish our language learner to present freely and fluently instead of reading their own slides to an audience who reads faster? Allow me to share just one funny youtube video by marketing guru Guy Kawasaki and his 10-20-30 rule for presentations. This is hilarious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liQLdRk0Ziw
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Hi there
Whoa, looks like you’ve had to sit through one too many bad presentations. I think it’s a case of the following possible factors in any presentation:
1) Great presenter.
2) Great, effective slide support (could be words, images, sounds, film etc).
3) Terrible presenter.
4) Terrible, ineffective slide support.
If you have 1 and 2 then you’re laughing. Everyone will love you.
If you have 1 and 4 you can probably still get away with it.
If you have 3 and 2 then people will only remember one or two of your slides. They’ll hate the rest.
If you have 3 and 4 then you provoke a blogpost like yours above. Unfortunately there are many people who combine 3 and 4.
So, the key is WORK ON YOUR PRESENTATION SKILLS. Do this independently of Powerpoint or any other presentation tool. It means practice, in front of friends, a mirror, to yourself, your webcam…
Once you are better at that then the rest is easier. It’s a case presenting well (a verb) as opposed to use/don’t use powerpoint (a noun). Now I remember reading a very interesting and excellent blogpost about verbs and nouns in technology somewhere…
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One word – irony…
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I would add here that if you see one of Gavin’s presentations you get a combination most often of 1 and 2 above. If you don’t believe me (you being other readers of this blog) then check out http://www.theconsultants-e.com/resources/dudeney20.asp to see a Pecha Kucha (mini presentation)
Sorry Gavin, hope you don’t mind the plug!
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And always remembered is the pecha kucha of this year when Gavin presented with 19 other SLifers.
http://iatefl.britishcouncil.org/2009/sessions/63/iatefl-pecha-kucha-evening-lindsay-clandfield
I keep passing this link on to many cause I thought it was hilarious.
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Right then, time for a summary:
1) I was being ironic
2) I like PowerPoint in the right hands
3) I don’t like dull speakers
4) I don’t like people who blame the tech over the people
5) I don’t like people who assume audiences are dumb
Gavin
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i like the picture. showed it to my boss after bloody hours of making powerpoint slides!
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