We all need a place to start when embarking upon a creative endeavor - and make no mistake about it, a good presentation is a work of creativity.  However, there are some concrete steps we can all take to make sure that the underlying core of our projects are solid.  I hope mine can speak for themselves…
10 – Stick to your Central Message
A presentation is not a survey course.  You cannot cover everything.  Make sure you know what you’re going to talk about and ruthlessly remove all subject matter which deviates from that subject.
9 – Have an Objective
As a professional, …

If you’ve read The Gold Mine over the months, you know that we believe that it is possible to use Powerpoint well.  Earlier this month, I used Powerpoint to enhance a talk I gave to a group of colleagues in my professional network.  Valuable lessons were learned—by me.  And now, I share them with you.
Get Ready
I mapped out the overall message, and the component sections, of my talk. Then, I got it ready on Powerpoint. That part was so much fun! Too much fun! What a monstrous time suck!

I’d start searching through istockphotos.com. Let’s find photos of typewriters. Oh, goodie, …

Much of what I advocate in the way of presentation development involves simplification. Simple messages and simple slides make it easy for the audience to enjoy your talk and understand your point.

One could argue that the mere presence of slides adds undue complexity to a talk because the audience is faced with making a choice between focusing on the presenter or the slide. There is truth enough in this argument to make you pause and think - should I even include slides with my next talk?

Between a talk with no slides and one with a heavy slide emphasis, there is …

I’m sure you’ve heard it - a business acquaintance refers to a talk or presentation he or she is soon to give as “a PowerPoint”. Perhaps you’ve done the same. Although I am not so rude as to express it outwardly, when I hear someone refer to his or her talk as “a PowerPoint”, I experience a fight-or-flight response as my blood pressure spikes and I get the urge to run for the door.

PowerPoint:  Microsoft Office product that provides users with an interface to design multimedia slides to be displayed on a projection system or personal computer.

I like to …

I’d like to thank Debbie Fried (@DebbieFried) for pointing me towards this video of Don McMillan’s “How Not to do PowerPowerpoint” stand-up routine. It was fun to watch and reminded me of the conversations I had with our own Scott Stiefvater as he was preparing for MB/I’s “Avoid Causing Death by PowerPoint” class.

If That’s Bad, What’s Good?

Well, whenever someone asks me what I think a PowerPoint presentation should look like, I can’t help …

Old habits die hard. Such as cramming bulleted lists onto Powerpoint slides.

Remember overhear projectors? OK, I’m dating myself here, but I do recall when overhead projectors were the last word in cutting edge presentation technology. Woo-hoo!

It was my job to type up my boss’s presentation data (for which I used a spanking new IBM Correcting Selectric) and then photocopy the sheets onto clear acetates. I than had to laboriously Scotch tape the acetates onto cardstock frames. (Some people might earn danger-pay, but, alas, secretaries never earn boredom-pay.)

When Powerpoint replaced overhead projectors, it …

You’ve been there… eyelids growing heavy, mind wandering, sitting through another boring business presentation. And what happens when it’s your turn to speak? Chances are you are committing some of the same presentations sins as everyone else. One of the greatest of these sins is the misuse of presentation software like PowerPoint.

Slides laden with bulleted text are not ingredients for a powerful presentation. But many of us don’t know any better. The templates provided by the software seem to beg for bullets and text and slide titles and logos and clipart. What were meant as tools to make …