To answer the original question raised:

(a) switch the beamer off
(b) switch the audience on
(c) help keep them switched on

seems pretty obvious yet how many trainers ever attempt it let alone plan it?

It's good to be bad so I'm glad to be Vlad!

What an interesting thread!

I must say that I see Powerpoint as here to stay for the immediate future in organisations and I believe that storytelling/presentation can, and will, improve over time as long as us training types keep the pressure up.

A couple of resources/approaches that have worked for me are:

- Offer the presenter to do an evaluation of his/her "presentation" while you are attending. I use evaluation forms that you can see at this download section. As you can see, only a small part of the feedback covers powerpoint and the rest covers the quality and effectiveness of the presenter, audience interaction, and the message. With additional spoken feedback, this can help to emphasise that the slides ARE NOT the presentation:

[URL=http://www.trainingprogateway.com/Topics.htm#Presentation Skills]http://www.trainingprogateway.com/Topics.htm#Presentation Skills[/URL]:

- Also, I use these sample Powerpoint slides to help others realise the potential power of Powerpoint in storytelling - and helping to wean them off default lists. As you can see, they are a bit of fun (covering Jack and the Beanstalk retold) - but with a serious storytelling/graphics message. I have used these with hard-nosed techno-nuts and management types and am usually pleasantly surprised the degree to which they take on a lot of the tips.

The slides can be found in the following download area (btw they are powerpoint slides, 6 of them, meant to run in sequence from 1-6, each being not more than about 250KB):


http://www.trainingprogateway.com/Topics.htm#Presentation Skills

Best Regards,
Mike Collins

Hi Mike - thanks for sharing those links. I believe it's been said (in so many words) that a presentation is only as good as the person presenting it. If something is worth talking about and the person talking about it is good at it, the presentation should be able to fly even if the projector is broken. Although the content of PPT presentations could use improvement (from what I've seen), I think the first line of business is for the presenters to learn how to present, and not to fall back on slides.

I love using PowerPoint. However, it's important to remember that it serves as an aid to your presentation. It should never replace it. That said, you shouldn't read from your slides. A point is a topic that you want your audience to focus on while you do the talking. I always animate each bullet point separately. That way, it keeps the audience with me. There's nothing worse than displaying the entire slide and having the audience read ahead. They'll miss something important.

Keep the colors simple. Never use red on blue or blue on red. Make sure your first level bullets are 32 point to be easily seen from the back of the room. Keep things lively with graphics that relate to the slide you're talking about. Add custom animation that fits your audience. If it's a really corporate group, keep the animation basic. If it's a creative group, you can do more.

I'm revamping a session that is intended to teach new hires about our firm's business and the teams that make-up the organization. The current program is 2 half-day sesions and consists of a series of ppt presentations delivered by all our senior management. Any ideas on how I can make it more interactive and less leccture?

Thanks!