By Heather C. Conover
Conover + Company Communications
If a picture is worth a thousand words, why shouldn't you use lots of them in presentations? Have you ever sat through a presentation with all the lights turned low and watched slide after slide of barely legible charts and graphs? Or, followed along with the presenter as he or she reads lists of bulleted words from the slides? Were you riveted to that speaker or did your eyes glaze over and your mind drift to other business or personal matters?
The most memorable speakers any of us has heard probably did not use any slides or used them very sparingly. Instead, the choice of words, the logical flow of the talk, important concepts, and the enthusiasm of the speaker drew us in and held our attention from start to finish.
Unfortunately, with PowerPoint slides at virtually everyone's fingertips, visuals clutter many of our presentations. PowerPoint slides littered with facts and figures, graphs, clip art, and lists of words or phrases do not make a good presentation. Rather they tend to obscure the core message.
However, audiences like good pictures that help elucidate or reinforce a message. Think of some of the vivid pictures you "see" when you read a good book. These tend to stay with you long after you've finished the book. In fact, we have all had the experience of being disappointed when we've seen who's been cast as our favorite character when the book becomes a movie. Think of clip art as bad casting. Unless you have access to some original - or at least not overused - graphic images, spend the time carefully crafting your presentation and selecting powerful words, phrases, and stories to paint a memorable picture for your audience.
When deciding whether or not to use slides in a presentation, remember that they are meant to be visual aids. Aids are meant to help and support, not lead or overtake your presentation. They are useful in training situations where the audience often needs to take notes, if they help make or clarify a point, or if they assist in making your overall message more memorable.
If your visual aids consist primarily of charts, graphs, and words, think about the proper medium for your message. It may be that your presentation is better suited to a paper than a talk.
Fall 2002 -Volume 12, Number 4