Death by PowerPoint
A while back, the Fluff Talker list had a bit of a debate over the merits of PowerPoint vs. Apple’s Keynote. Since I’ve move to the Mac, I’ve done all my presenting in Keynote and frankly I haven’t looked back; at first it was a bit of an adjustment but all in all, I liked it quite a bit. I’ve seen a lot of great decks in Keynote including the drop dead gorgeous work seen in an Inconvenient Truth. When I complimented Bill Scott about his presentation at AE, he humbly gave Keynote the credit (seriously, Bill is something else - if you have a chance to see him live, do not hesitate.)
Anyway, I’ve spent a lot of time in Keynote and I’ve been trying to mimic the “Lessig method” of presenting (free culture is a great example, but you owe it to yourself to watch Dick Hardt’s OSCON 2005 Keynote). I’ve seen *way* too many bullet point infested decks (it should be illegal to indent more than once) and I’ve been doing my part to stem the tide. At the day job, I’ve been pounding out a deep dive on TDD and since work is all about Windows, I find myself again in PowerPoint. I have to admit, I really wish I wasn’t. Trying to bend PPT to my will is proving difficult though I think much of the blame belongs to our corporate template - one that practically forces bullet point upon bullet point. Much as I want to blame crappy slideware on the presenters, maybe we need to “reeducate” those wonderful people that piece together lackluster themes. Or at least those swell souls that dictate all presentations shall be in said stifling framework.
February 9th, 2007 at 8:13 am
Even worse than the all-bullet PPTs are the just-read-through-the-bullets talking heads that present them. I think a lot about Tufte when it comes to presentations… making sure your slides have “high fidelity” information, and focusing on interpreting it for the audience rather than just reading it.
February 9th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
You may have already seen this, but Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 PPT rule is good to point hopeless people toward.
Why don’t you bring your mac notebook into work for your keynote presentations?
http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2005/12/the_102030_rule.html
February 11th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
Scott - good comment! I’m amazed at how many other wise well educated people that can’t help reading slides…I mean, how insulting - I can read thanks
Of course reading is one of the reasons I’m revolting against the bullet point model; I’d rather people were listening to me not reading my slides.
Tufte is great, I *really* want to see him present live someday. I’ve heard great things about his classes - just have to hope he comes to town someday. Thanks for the comment - it reminds me that I owe you some dates don’t I? Sorry about that!
February 11th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Andy,
I’ve read Guy’s article and it’s top notch - as is his blog. I really regret I didn’t know about his recent trip to the TC area until it was too late to see him…sigh. I don’t use the Mac because I typically need to use Live Meeting and connect to the network - neither of which is really conducive to using my hardware. When I do dry runs for NF or other events, I bring in the real deal.