The other day, as I cleaned up a colleague’s slides, he said: “Wow Brian, you’re a PowerPoint ninja!” It was a nice compliment. While I’m still nowhere near the ability of a Garr Reynolds or a Nancy Duarte, I’d like to think I’m getting better with every slide deck.
When I need some inspiration on ways to create more visually appealing sets of slides, I often turn to Slideshare and their front page which always features amazing slide decks.
Over the weekend, this slide deck caught my eye. Who in the presentation field doesn’t want to learn more about being a better storyteller? And, eureka, is storytelling really dying?
[slideshare id=39155848&doc=endofstorytelling-complete-inbound2014-illustrated-final-140916115050-phpapp02]
The creator of this deck strung together a fun, entertaining narrative while adding a set of images that help add to his story. And I didn’t even need to attend his presentation in order to grasp the point he was making.
To be fair, my guess is that he modified this deck in order to upload it to Slideshare so that everyone who viewed it would understand what this deck was about. But what if he didn’t? What if the slides he presented were these exact slides? He’d be talking. The audience might be listening to him… but more than likely they’d be distracted by his voice as they tried to read ahead on his slides. People like to read what’s in front of them, and unless they’re four years old, they generally don’t like to wait for someone to read for them.
The presenter himself would not be necessary. He’s totally replaceable by PowerPoint!
I came across this slide deck, too. At first, I didn’t think it would be a very good example to put into this blog post. After all, there were so many holes in the narrative of this slide deck, I wasn’t always sure what point the presenter was trying to make.
[slideshare id=39214179&doc=designingmvpexperiments-90min-140917164031-phpapp02]
Of course, that’s one of the things that actually makes this a good slide deck. The presenter didn’t put all of the information on her slides. Her slides offer a visual aid for her audience while the expertise, stories and narrative she offers provides the true value of her presentation.
Looking for some help in putting together a slide deck that will augment (not replace) you? Try this article.
Looking for some alternatives to PowerPoint? Click here.
