Presentations aren’t about the slides

12 Jan

Posted by: BryanPerson in: BryanPerson.com

A quick tweet exchange with Tim Walker this morning reminded me why slides from good presenters aren’t very helpful to look at in isolation.

Twitter exchange between Bryan Person and Tim Walker about presentation slides

If Tim does share his PowerPoint slides on his blog or SlideShare, they’ll probably provide us with a nugget or two about his presentation. But they certainly won’t capture the essence of his talk, such as the memorable stories that he shares (and I just know Tim will do that) or the humor that he uses. Really, we need to hear or see Tim to get all the good stuff (and here’s hoping someone will record his talk so that can happen).

Slides as support

The presenters that hold my attention are almost always thoughtful about their use of slides — if they feature them at all.

They know that PowerPoint/Keynote slides should support their presentation, but that they have to deliver the real magic themselves.

As Garr Reynolds puts it so brilliant in his book, Presentation Zen, “[p]rojected slides should be as visual as possible and support [the speaker's] points quickly, efficiently, and powerfully. The verbal content, the verbal proof, evidence, and appeal/emotion come mostly from your spoken word.” [empahasis is mine]

9 Responses

Csaba Szücs
12|Jan|2009 1

I only add to one – at least I hope – useful source to the post:

http://www.changethis.com/35.05.Presentation

And you are right PPT slides just one thing. The presenter sells the story.
Tim Walker
12|Jan|2009 2

Amen, sir. I’m reminded of what Kathy Sierra said in one of her SXSW keynotes (I think in 2007): all of us geeks wouldn’t descend on Austin in the spring if our fancy tech tools perfectly replicated the effect of attending something in person.

There’s a lot about a good presentation that depends on the tone of voice, timing, body language, and sense of humor of the speaker, and I don’t think that all of this can be conveyed online. (Let’s hope I deliver on that promise tomorrow!)
Jim Storer
12|Jan|2009 3

amen – people waste too much time building ppt decks. grab a picture that supports your point and move on.

bullets are for guns… imo/ymmv.

Jim | @jstorerj
Sue Rostvold
13|Jan|2009 4

Great post Brian! Especially since I’m just learning Keynote and putting my first presentation together. I watched this little video from Guy Kawasaki about presentations last night in fact. I’m sure most have seen it before, but I hadn’t.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liQLdRk0Ziw
Sylvain Grand'Maison
14|Jan|2009 5

Some of the greaters speakers I’ve eve seen had no slides and most of the worst had a plethora. I strongly think that if you have slides, what you say should complement the slides and the slides should complement what you say.

When it’s well done, if we only listen to what you say, we don’t understand it all and if we only look at your slides, we don’t understand it all either. If you do it that way, you’ll avoid having faces down their computers and mobile devices working, blogging and twittering while you speak because they will have to listen AND look at what you’re talking about.

There are many more skills that a great speaker need but I’ll save them for a future comment
Matt Dickman
14|Jan|2009 6

Bryan — I find this all the time. People ask me for my slides and I tell them that it’s not much help without me. That’s how it should be in my opinion. If you looked at my slides you would see images, no bullets and around 3 words maximum per slide. I have found that Slideshare’s Slidecast took is very helpful. One of my presentations from last year has around 26000 views because I did an audio overdub and synch’d up with the transitions.

I want you to need me to have it make sense. It’s the passion and drive of a presenter that counts. The deck supports that.
Tim Walker
15|Jan|2009 7

Hey, Matt — thanks for your comment. Now that I have my preso up on Slideshare, I’m going to look into Slidecast, too. I appreciate the tip!
Lavanna Martin
27|Jan|2009 8

If you are a good speaker, you can go up there with a Magic Marker and a newsprint pad.

Thank you,

Lavanna Martin
Ari Herzog
30|Jan|2009 9

I enjoy seeing reinforcement of this idea from other people. After attending numerous social media/marketing events, I know what holds my attention and what doesn’t.

In two weeks, I’m participating in the Ignite Boston event and I’m in the process of compiling 20 slides to use to support my talk. Mostly images and shapes, and few, if any words on them!