PowerPoint Is Innocent

Whenever I hear and see the words ‘a PowerPoint presenstation’ I can visualise a room full of participants (captives)  aging incredibly quickly and their bodies slumping to the floor.

But that’s not fair to PowerPoint because PowerPoint is innocent. Its just that it’s been misused over the years by many presenters who use it as a crutch rather than as an aid to enhance a presentation.

In our work we use PowerPoint only where it’s appropriate – and our preference is as little as possible. When a lot of information needs to be shared, we do use PowerPoint but always work in some sort of activity to break the monotony.

Including an activity can be a challenge if we are presenting in a theatrette where the audience can only stand and not move around. But that’s where a presenter needs to be creative and find a way of engaging an audience.

One exercise that works very well for us is ‘paired conversations’. We ask participants to turn to the person next to them and discuss an aspect of the theme we’re covering.

We’ve also learned a few PowerPoint tips along the way, such as keeping the words to a minimum and letting pictures tell the story.

So these days participants tell us they enjoyed the PowerPoint presentation.

And they’re definitely not aging by the minute or slumping to the floor!