We’ve all seen it, but they keep doing it (things PowerPoint presenters shouldn’t say but do)…
- Where do you put the memory stick in?
- I can see it on the laptop, how do I get the projector on?
- First, a few slides about me and my company
- Erm, how do I get the next slide?
- Ah, it seems to be an earlier version of PowerPoint, the animation obviously didn’t work
- You won’t be able to read the detail on this one
- I just love the whooshing sound you get when the bullets fly in. I’ll do it again
- Oops, I’ve gone on to the next one by mistake. How do you get it to go back? Never mind, let’s move on
- I’ll rush through the next fifteen as I’m running out of time
- If there was just too much to take in at once they’re all in the handout
Inspired by Tim Harford’s Financial Times column In defence of PowerPoint. Other presentation packages are available.
HelpGov's helpful blog 
7 August 2011 at 07:25
Ahhh the blushes. Guilty of more than one of those. As are we all I guess.
9 August 2011 at 15:24
It’s worth saying that points 1,2 and 5 are the host’s fault, not the speaker’s. Setting up the show should be done by someone familar with the system in the venue.
12 August 2011 at 10:14
But as a responsible speaker taking ownership of your presentation, you would probably check these things with the host before the day and arrange technical support if necessary. Particularly point 5 – you can easily take it upon yourself to check something like this rather than turning up blindly or leaving things to chance.
12 August 2011 at 13:24
Whatever happened to all those overhead projectors and transparent foils? Much lower level of technology and you could write on them in real time. Agile presentations in newspeak.
23 August 2011 at 20:17
The number of times I’ve heard number 6…
8 September 2011 at 10:43
Seconded!
5 September 2011 at 09:20
I suggest that our actual presentations is the focus of where we should improve, and then our use of one of the supporting tools, Powerpoint, can then improve. Perfect powerpoint does not mean a successful presentation, but I would suggest that a really good presentation with mediocre powerpoint is much more acceptable. So, usual stuff, what’s the objective of the presentation, have we understood where the listeners are coming from, have we thought through the best ways of hooking their attention and then getting them to where you wanted to? Is the whole presentation really “listener-centric” (to coin a phrase) or are we simply re-cycling last month’s? All the hygiene factors then fall into place behind that: timing, IT kit/software preparation, readability of slides (rarely needed for many), opening gambit, suit or casual, handling Q&A, etc.
7 September 2011 at 08:00
Why use PowerPoint? I have reduced considerably the use of PowerPoint is our project management courses. I wrote a blog about this – http://www.ronrosenhead.co.uk/930/how-much-does-powerpoint-add-to-project-management-courses/ and put something on linked in with over 80 responses.
There is no doubt that those in your audience appreciate presentations without this software!
11 June 2012 at 09:06
So true! 🙂