The CEO of a Fortune 100 company was scheduled to deliver a presentation to six hundred of his employees at an off-site meeting. Of course, these are touchy times for businesses, so staffers carefully created extensive PowerPoint slides to go with his speech.

They — and everyone else — were surprised when the CEO walked up to the lectern and announced that he wasn’t going to use his prepared speech. He had decided instead to just talk to the troops — straightforwardly and without the visual crutch.

He’d always been a good speaker, but most in the audience believed this was the best presentation they’d ever seen him give.

Why?

I wasn’t there, but I can guess. Because he spoke from his heart without reading words that someone else had written for him. Because the audience knew the speech wasn’t crafted with carefully worded sentences. Because he didn’t let PowerPoint get in the way of his messages.

I have seen many decent speakers turn into boring drones as they presented dozens of dull slides to their audience. Usually, instead of supporting the presentation, PowerPoint gets in the way of it. The visual “aid” becomes a detriment.

So, if you can’t take the time to design really good PowerPoint slides, why not try to present without them all together? You may be surprised how good you really are.

There’s just something about Sarah Palin that makes me want her to succeed. Not because I’m a staunch Republican or agree with all her positions on the issues. I guess it’s because she seems so normal and unaffected, because she seems to be so comfortable with who she is and what she believes.

And she started out soooo well —  with a fantastic speech at the convention. The interview with Charlie Gibson was okay. Just a couple of missteps. But then she sat down with Katy Couric and looked like what Chris Beam from Slate Magazine called “a high-schooler trying to B.S. her way through a book report.”

What happened? For someone who practiced three days for her nomination acceptance speech, and who obviously had been heavily prepped for Gibson, how could she have so underestimated, or so underprepared for Couric?

Palin has a steep learning curve. She has to be an immediate expert on dozens of topics both nationally and internationally. She can’t do it before the election. Obviously, that’s why the McCain campaign is keeping her away from any potentially unfriendly reporters who tend to ask pesky questions about McCain’s campaign manager’s conflict of interest or her views on the financial melt down.

But Palin can’t be sheltered forever. The best advice I can give her — prepare, prepare, prepare. And come up with some specifics for all those platitudes about McCain is a “maverick,” Mc Cain is a “reformer.” Without concrete examples, it’s just so much hot air.

No wonder most press releases end up in the trash. A random search on Tuesday September 8, 2008.

Quote that says nothing in 64 words:

“We are constantly evaluating our channel lineup to ensure we provide our customers with high-quality programming that best meets their diverse interests,” said Tony Speller, senior vice president for Comcast’s Houston Region. “The enhancements we’ve made to the Canales Selecto package add even more value and choice to this popular level of service and we’re excited to offer this expanded package to our customers.”

Hot air:

“We are excited about the breadth and depth of information we are able to provide on the re-launched website, particularly with the interactive media center,” said Jon Hall, Chief Marketing Officer of Travelport. “We believe that Travelport’s media center offers unique and unrivaled materials which provide views into the travel sector as well as emerging trends in the economy.”

Blah Blah Blah:

“Our customers are constantly facing the challenge of managing information from various data sources, technologies and systems,” said Marge Breya, general manager and executive vice president, Business Intelligence Platform, Business Objects, an SAP company. “They are looking to gain access to unified, reliable and trusted information via an intuitive user experience. With today’s announcement, we are helping organizations to bridge the information divide between the ‘technically capable’ and the ‘professionally informed’ so that everyone can have the decision-quality information they need to do their jobs.”

Two snooze inducers in the same press release:

“The joint interoperability tests with ViVOtech send an important signal to everyone involved in NFC applications: If they use our ProxSIM cards, they can rely on the latest and future-proof technology of NFC-enabled SIM cards and compatible standards for future NFC systems. This, coupled with the experience that we have garnered from numerous NFCprojects all over the world, enable us together to forge ahead with the wide-scale introduction of NFC,” states Dr. Klaus Vedder, head of the Telecommunications division at G&D.

“Successfully completing an interoperability test with a key leader in SIM chip technology such as Giesecke & Devrient’s shows our vision of delivering the most open and interoperable solution to the NFC market,” said Michael Mullagh, CEO of ViVOtech. “With widely tested multi-application NFC software deployed in 25 NFC payment field pilots, and more than 450,000 NFC readers shipped to over 30 countries, ViVOtech is uniquely well positioned to enable mobile network operators, financial service providers, and merchants to quickly roll out of their NFC mobile payment solutions.”

I’m still sleeping:

“This integration of functionality into a customizable suite of add-on capabilities reflects our continuing commitment to stay ahead of the technology curve by anticipating customer needs,” said David Drake, CEO/CTO of Revelation Software Concepts. “The structured suite of add-ons delivers our industry-leading change control technology in a way that allows customers to add functionality without delay when it is needed, and not before.”

Boring:

“The joint interoperability tests with ViVOtech send an important signal to everyone involved in NFC applications: If they use our ProxSIM cards, they can rely on the latest and future-proof technology of NFC-enabled SIM cards and compatible standards for future NFC systems. This, coupled with the experience that we have garnered from numerous NFC projects all over the world, enable us together to forge ahead with the wide-scale introduction of NFC,” states Dr. Klaus Vedder, head of the Telecommunications division at G&D.

“Successfully completing an interoperability test with a key leader in SIM chip technology such as Giesecke & Devrient’s shows our vision of delivering the most open and interoperable solution to the NFC market,” said Michael Mullagh, CEO of ViVOtech. “With widely tested multi-application NFC software deployed in 25 NFC payment field pilots, and more than 450,000 NFC readers shipped to over 30 countries, ViVOtech is uniquely well positioned to enable mobile network operators, financial service providers, and merchants to quickly roll out of their NFC mobile payment solutions.”

Steve Jobs and/or Apple do it right in two press releases on the same day:

1).“iPod touch is the funnest iPod we’ve ever created,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Users can listen to millions of songs, watch thousands of Hollywood movies and now, thanks to the App Store, download and play hundreds of great games on their iPod touch.”

2). “The iPod nano is the world’s most popular music player and we’ve made it even better for this holiday season,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We think users are going to love the amazing new design, the automatic Genius playlist creation, as well as automatically going into Cover Flow with just a turn of the wrist.”

Both John McCain and Sarah Palin hit a home run in their convention speeches last week, each in a different way. McCain arguably had the easiest challenge, at least concerning the delivery of his speech.

Because of past underwhelming examples we’ve seen when he reads a formal speech from a TelePrompter, expectations for Thursday’s acceptance speech were low. But, in my opinion, he was able to exceed those expectations by showing us a real, down-to-earth person.

He does that better in his more informal Town Hall speeches, but this time he brought that same sincerity to the main platform. I was surprised at how comfortable he seemed and how easily he smiled, as opposed the the fake, forced smiles in other speeches. There was very little of the stammering and fumbling I’ve seen in other presentations. Obviously he prepared and practiced, a good lesson for all of us.

But Sarah Palin — WOW! What a speech! She did so many things right, it’s hard to illuminate them all. She was extremely natural, at ease, and seemed like she was really having fun. She spoke conversationally and passionately, but didn’t yell as so many of the convention speakers did. (To their defense, many of them didn’t have the rapt attention that Palin did and had to try to speak louder than the audience members visiting with their neighbors.)

She used the power of the pause, for emphasis and drama. And she read well, without making it seem like she was reading at all. That is a skill that doesn’t come naturally or easily.

The speech was well written, thanks to the writers in the background, but Palin can take the all the credit for the fine delivery. Supposedly, she rehearsed for three days and even practiced the night before at 10:20 to see if she had the right energy level for that time of night.

It paid off!