I’m suggesting that PowerPoint can be an equal partner – certainly not a dominant partner. I agree with you that many people hide behind PowerPoint to deflect audience attention.

Olivia

I preach just the opposite. Too many people play a subordinate role to the PowerPoint slides, which is a mistake. This is often done because people fear public speaking, so they hide behind their PowerPoint slides, even turning their back to the audience and reading the slides along with the audience.

I just wrote a blog post about this. You might find it interesting.

http://www.mikeconsol.com/index.php/blog/comments/2-reasons-why-presenters-always-default-to-powerpoint/

Cheers.

When I teach presentation skills classes, I frequently get asked the question, “Should I use notes in my presentation?” [Said in a tone of voice that assumes the correct answer is no]. For some misguided reason, people seem to think……

I think it’s great if you can do your presentation without notes – and still be organised and stay on track.

However, for most people in everyday presenting situations (ie: not professional speakers, keynotes etc) it’s not a realistic goal. Most people don’t have the time it takes to successfully internalize a presentation. I think it is quite possible to deliver a presentation professionally with notes. Two tips on this:

1. Only look at your notes when you need to, to remind yourself of what you want to say next.
2. When you look at your notes, stop talking. Once you know what you want to say – look up, find someone to talk to, and start talking again.

Olivia