Try Your Speech Without PowerPoint
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.
