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New theory on presentations: No PowerPoint!

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I was not particularly happy with my PDC presentation.  We were asked to rehearse them, review the slide decks and practice, practice, practice.  So I did.  And over time, the presentation got worse and worse, so that a few days before I was to give it, I was ready to chuck the whole thing.  I gave it, felt awkward and self-conscious, read from my slides too much and got very low scores in my presenter feedback.

When I got back from LA, I was asked to talk to some internal teams at Microsoft.  I decided to wing these presentations...and they went great.  My talk on performance ended within the hour, but almost the entire audience stayed for 30 minutes afterwards asking questions.  

So when I was asked to repeat my PDC talk at TechReady (an internal event for our field staff), I said I would, on condition I did not have to use PowerPoint and could do something more interactive.  I expected to be refused, but to my surprise Karsten was excited about the idea.  The day before my talk I spent an hour writing notes, then condensed them to a single sheet of paper.  I took my laptop, but showed Expression and things created with Expression.  I introduced myself with the remark "I think you've all seen PowerPoint, so I'm not going to use it" and got a round of applause (always a good way to start...).  I asked people to NOT hold their questions until the end, and basically followed the audience where they wanted to go. 

My talk was one of the highest rated at TechReady. 

???

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2006
    I made a promise to myself never to show an audience a boring blue PowerPoint. So far I've kept that promise and I keep getting invited to do more speeches. :-)
  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2006
    If you really know your material, then a powerpoint is probably just a distraction.. That said, next time, why not try displaying random soothing landscape photographs and see how that changes your rating? ;-)
  • Anonymous
    February 26, 2006
    The comment has been removed
  • Anonymous
    March 12, 2006
    Stepping away from powerpoint is a really good idea. I think demos and real world question & answer sessions are by far better than force feeding people stuff.