Power Point: Just Say No

Sometimes the best presentation is… no presentation. Ditch the slides completely. Put the projector in the closet, roll the screen back up, and turn the damn lights back on!

I couldn’t agree more.

Yesterday I gave a short presentation on the DMCA for my business law class this semester. I have shiny new PowerBook and was considering trying out KeyNote, but I decided against it. I was lucky enough to be assigned a topic for my presentation that I cared about, and I wanted, or at least hoped, that for ten minutes I could enlighten a few others about this controversial law. So I put away PowerPoint, delayed playing with KeyNote, and even held off on the handouts. Instead, I just talked.

And I think it worked. There were no fancy graphics, no bullet points to get in between me and my fellow classmates. In the end, I believe I gave a much better presentation without the technological crutches. At least the professor seemed to think so too.

So I definitely agree—use PowerPoint or KeyNote only when necessary. Too often they just get in the way.

Speaking of presentations, I’m headed off to ApacheCon tomorrow. I won’t be giving any presentations, but I’m looking forward to listening to quite a few. This will be the first time I’ve actually been able to arrange to go and I’m excited. Besides, after yesterday’s snow storm here, San Diego is lookin’ mighty fine.