PowerPoint slides that dazzle by fading in and out don’t engage anyone anymore. Those days are long gone. Here’s how it’s done.
Chicago-based slide-ology guru Nancy Duarte tells us all great speeches have a discernable pattern of “what is” and “what could be” until they wrap up in “a new bliss.” Does that sound like your last presentation for your sociology group project? Well, it should.
TED Talks, whose mission is to spread ideas, is a case in point: they have lots of simple slides that are limited in length, accompanied by speeches that tell a story with a strong opening, an organized middle, and a clear, call-to-action close.
Check it out: three basic, non-negotiable rules of slide presentations are as follows.
1. One slide, one image. Period.
2. Keep to about six words per slide, or reveal points one at a time.
3. If you’re reading from your slide, you’re not presenting: you’re reading. Present.
Creative brevity is the presentation of the future in a world filled with viewers who are more jaded by the hour. With the right program, and practice, you could be the source of their next new bliss.