Is someone killing your presentations? In many industries presentations are “slide decks” created for one person by someone else, often in another department. Often this department is marketing. These are sometimes called “customer facing presentations”. There are 3 big problems when you follow this method of presentation creation: #1 – Slides are not a presentation There is an all too common misunderstanding of exactly what a presentation is. By definition (and by how it works), a presentation is a live event. It’s like a play, it’s an experience for the audience. The visuals are there to amplify and clarify key messages, and to add structure to a presentation. They are… Read More
Continue ReadingAre percentages making an impact in your presentations? (probably not)
Late last year I was at the largest conference in the medical imaging industry. While walking through the exhibit halls I noticed that many of the vendor booths were covered in messages using percentages. Problem is that most of them couldn’t have made an impact. This is because of how we use (or don’t use) percentages in our everyday communication. Of course, there are a lot of reports and scientific papers that use percentages. In many fields they are used by experts to explain concepts and results. Using a percentage in this context can be a useful communication tool. However, in business settings we often use percentages in areas where… Read More
Continue ReadingThe medium is the message: your slides vs. your message.
The medium is the message. I have been to more than a few presentations where the presenter’s slides were undermining their message. Like a presentation about a simple solution to a customer’s problem. And then using slides that are so full of text, images, charts and graphs that they scream complexity at the audience. Like a presentation about the advantages of thoughtful design where the slides aren’t thoughtfully designed. Presenting an exciting and new innovation? Then your slides have to look exciting and new (not just those words on the slides). Talking about efficiency? The slides need to look efficient. In fact, the whole presentation needs to be efficient. Your… Read More
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