Powerpoint will not hide a poor presentation

I wanted to share this story …

Ten years ago I went to a very important healthcare conference in London about advances in healthcare.

Part of the day was a series of six short presentations from doctors who had been leading cutting edge new initiatives.

I sat in the audience with 200 other delegates and listened to five very slick and professional PowerPoint presentations by dynamic doctors - obviously very skilled in using the new technology …they had slides that almost spoke to the audience … darting bullet points, dazzling visual impact …… the whole nine yards as the saying goes!

The other doctor was a very quiet inoffensive man who initially looked nervous. He walked on to the stage armed with two ‘old fashioned’ hand written slides – it looked like he had probably written them on the train journey to the conference – neatly written but in simple black ink with a marker pen. He proceeded to tell us all the 'story' of his project.It was clear his project this was 'his baby' and he loved it!

The only one of the six presentations I remember – ten years later – is the one from the hand writing doctor!! I even remember very well some of the detail of his excellent talk.

I cannot remember a single thing about any of the other five ‘slick’ presentations or what any of the five doctors looked like. They were all more or less the same - very good in their own right - but very 'same'

Yet I can still picture the doctor with the handwritten slides.

I am a great user of PowerPoint and I think it is a wonderful aid to a good presentation.

BUT!!

PowerPoint is only an aid and not the content of your talk.

You must ‘grip’ your audience with a picture through your words or alternatively from your personal style or appearance.

PowerPoint will not automatically give you a good presentation – you must do your homework and most of all speak from the heart – showing your audience you really mean what you say.

What is my point?

PowerPoint is wonderful ..... but it is 'the cart before the horse'

Nothing ...let me repeat NOTHING ....beats doing your homework and then delivering your talk with belief, passion, humility and feeling!