TED Talks have changed audience expectations for what a presentation should be. Or perhaps they’re merely a reflection of where audience tastes are going.
Either way, there’s no doubt the trend is toward speeches and presentations that are shorter, driven by story and visually compelling. As a result, the bar for speakers has never been higher.
Death by PowerPoint is the Worst
I know that a little piece of me dies every time I enter a meeting room and see a screen with big blocks of black text on a plain white background. It’s dull, it’s ugly, and it actually impedes audience understanding instead of enhancing it.
My ongoing mission to make the world’s conference rooms and ballrooms safe again for audiences by putting an end once and for all to Death by PowerPoint. Toward that end, I’ve developed a new program that I’ll be debuting this spring.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Defeating Death by PowerPoint
It’s called A Simple Guide to Creating TED-Style Slides and it offers a step-by-step guide to creating more visually interesting slide decks that will keep presentation audiences awake and engaged. Lessons include:
- The scientific basis for choosing images over words
- Common justifications for resorting to Death by PowerPoint and how to overcome them
- A step-by-step guide for creating visuals that are truly visual
- Sources for finding compelling images
- Simple design techniques that don’t require extensive graphic design skills
Best of All, Anyone Can Do It
That last point is key: you don’t have to be a professional designer to create beautiful, evocative slides. Anyone can do it by following the steps I outline.
I’ll be unveiling this new program to hundreds of top communicators at the PRSA Counselors Academy Conference in May and the IABC World Conference in June.
And if you can’t make it to San Juan or New Orleans, read more about it on my Programs page or contact me for more details.
