Publicly Speaking

I just delivered a session on designing visual slides for presentations.

Part of my job is to undo some of the participants' previous learning. People learn some funny things. I've heard it all:

- never start a sentence with a preposition
- use lots of animation to gain attention
- pretend your audience is naked

So, at the end of my session, one participant - a very senior manager - told us what she'd learned in regard to slide presentations:

CC Project #8 is often a low point in a Toastmaster's journey. Why? Powerpoint!

Why a Toastmaster feels compelled to use Powerpoint when the project objectives simply call for 'visual aids', I'll never know!!

The way most people use PP is almost the opposite of visual. Words and text are not visual objects. Verbal and visual information is processed in different parts of our brain.

I like Powerpoint. I do.

I don't like the way most people use it but I like to use it.

Last week, I discovered a "new" feature and now I like it even more.