Did you know that fear of public speaking ranks above fear of death. Seriously the top three fears are public speaking, death, and spiders. Who knew? Maybe one reason we all fear speaking in front of people is that we don’t want to look foolish. Sadly, the use of PowerPoint as a presentation tool often results in just that. Speakers look bad, audiences are bored, and public speaking remains something scary – wooohaahaaahaa. Fear not! It does not have to be this way.
This morning I got to deliver one of the more enjoyable presentations I have done in quite some time. The audience – 50 or so members of The Circuit, an organization based in Cincinnati, Ohio that brings together Information Technology professionals from around the region. The topic – Death by PowerPoint.
I opened the presentation with an original song entitled Death by PowerPoint. I must say I was a little nervous about starting the event by performing a song I wrote two days ago – and never played in front of anyone but my wife and kids. Happily the song went well, and I didn’t mess it up too badly. Everyone seemed to find the humor in it, and it proved to be a great segue into the presentation. Right after I was done singing it, I jokingly said that the 4 minute song contained just about every point I wanted to make – which is not far from the truth. Ahhh music. How I miss you. Maybe I was missing the boat all those years of playing until 2:30am in bars? Perhaps my future is 7:30am in conference rooms? A post for another day.
Anyway, for your entertainment, here are the song lyrics and a video of my rendition.
Death by PowerPoint
All around the world today and all across the nation
Each & every business and major corporations
Something we’re guilty of is causing such frustration
Endlessly enduring awful PowerPoint presentations
PowerPoint doesn’t have to stink
Great presentations can be easier than you think
Don’t drive the people out there right over the brink
Don’t let bad PowerPoint cause your ship to sink
Bullets they were made for guns, and guns were made for fighting
Bullets in your PowerPoint slides are just not so inviting
Standing up there reading text is simply not delighting
We assumed that you were literate; please give us some enlightening
Cartoons are made for fun with complex animations
Crazy spinning graphics can ruin your presentations
All that extra nonsense just causes irritation
Replace that silliness with expert observations
PowerPoint doesn’t have to suck
Great presentations ain’t got nothing to do with luck
Don’t leave people saying what the heck?
Don’t make us suffer through, yet another awful death by PowerPoint train wreck
Templates, logos, crazy fonts, and teeny tiny text
Clip art, broken hyperlinks, goofy sound effects,
Give something they will love not something they’ll reject
Think about your audience and treat them with respect
PowerPoint doesn’t have to stink
Great presentations can be easier than you think
Don’t drive the people out there right over the brink
Don’t let bad PowerPoint cause your ship to sink
PowerPoint doesn’t have to suck
Great presentations ain’t got nothing to do with luck
Don’t leave people saying what the heck?
No matter what you do, Please tell me it’s not true, Don’t make us suffer through, yet another awful death by powerpoint train wreck
The presentation focused on the fact that PowerPoint (or Keynote) is a great tool, that is often misused and misunderstood. As Seth Godin so eloquently put it “PowerPoint could be the most powerful tool on your computer… but it’s not.” I drew on ideas from Seth, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds, and others whom I have learned from over the years, and tried to show some simple ways to make PowerPoint presentations better. Let me be clear that in the 10 – 12 years that I have been using PowerPoint, I have probably made every mistake I cover in the presentation 100 times. I am far from perfect, but working to get better every time. Here is the slide deck from the event, complete with speaker notes if you want them. Please feel free to borrow, pillage, and steal them as you see fit. I hope you find them useful, and maybe just a little entertaining too.
