I just came out of a day long conference, where I sat through over 10 presentations. 90 percent presentations were boring. Mind you, I am not saying that these presentations did not have great content to offer, but the way they were presented were very dull and boring. I am sure most of the other audience felt the same as well.
In the past 15 years or so, I have sat through most presentations and more or less the statistics turn out to be the same. 9 out of 10 presentations made are extremely boring and that too accompanied by run-of-the-mill bullets points. Yes, bullet points are boring, and more often than not they actually harm the presentation.
Here is an example of that: Lets say you are an entrepreneur and are trying to present your startup to a random group of people. See how you present it with bullet points. In second scenario, try to present your startup without the bullet-point presentation deck. In most cases, the latter would be more engaging. Yes, you may miss out on some points, but the listener would remember it more.
The reason being; when you present without bullet points, you generally give examples or come up with a parallel scenarios so that audience understands.
That in no way means that PowerPoint presentations are dead. Infact, they are great tool to enhance your presentations and make a lasting impact. Bullet-points though work the opposite!
So, how do you make a great presentation?
The first cardinal rule of making a great presentation deck is to remember that – A presentation is a story not a sequence of slides!
I came across this really excellent presentation on slideshare that I think everyone should bookmark and refer to whenever they are creating and making a presentation. It offers over 50 tips on how to make great presentations
A good presentation is one that should make audience relate to you and the characters in your presentation. Understand who the audience is, and remove the parts from yourpresentation story that will bore them. However, great your content might be, if it is not interesting and relevant to the audience, they will get bored.
Also, one thing you should always always remember – The PowerPoint slides are only a visual support for your oral presentation!
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