A message for all of you

[Jon Fairhurst]

Just today I was in a phone meeting where the presenter said, "this is more of a story, so I didn't make a presentation." During the "story" there ended up being a number of lists and numbers. If you can't take notes fast enough or are distracted for a moment - poof - they're gone. With slides, the information is persistent. Then again, slides alone would have felt very empty and somewhat random.

For conveying information, give me both picture and sound please. :)

[Steve House]

I teach Powerpoint, among other applications, in my 'day job' and one of the points I try to impress on my classes is that the presenter IS the presentation and no matter how well it's done, the Powerpoint deck is merely the visual aids that accompany it. Powerpoint makes assembling the slide show almost a no-brainer - the hard part is having something worthwhile to say.

[Darren Levine]

A powerpoint presentation is the combination of both the powerpoint, and the presenter.

now....

The difference between a good presentation and a poor one, is which of those two devices actually conveys the information.

i have a lengthy powerpoint on film/video 101 stuff, and there's next to no information on any slide, it's all lead ins. The powerpoint is my guide and keeps me on track, but nearly all the actual info comes from me, not the slides. Statistics are a good general exception, any sort of numbers, graphs, visuals that are much better seen vs heard. Such as sensor sizes, i'll have all the different sensor size swatches up on screen and go into details about the differences.

[Vincent Oliver]

The ear is mute, the lips deaf.
But the eye senses and speaks.
In it the world is reflected from without, and man from within.

Goethe

[Warren Kawamoto]

Here is a similar concept, taken from a business sign on door

[Greg Miller]

Or, to carry it one step further:

"Lack of planning on your part does not constitute a crisis on our part."

[John Willett]

Originally Posted by Richard Crowley

Agree 100%. Audio-only communication/entertainment (radio) has been with us for nearly 100 years.

OTOH video-only entertainment (silent movies) has not been accepted by audiences for nearly 100 years.

Agreed - the pictures are there only to help the audio sin in better.