Many people have died in meetings; well maybe that’s an exaggeration, but not much of one! But the amount of serious assaults committed in meetings with blunt objects, namely PowerPoint presentations is unbelievable, and it continues to happen day after day. There are not too many people in the world that haven’t been exposed to this. Any Manager that needs to address the masses will immediately resort to PowerPoint.
There is good news, Alexei Kapterev of realtimestrategy.ru [^], a Russian trainer and presentation expert, has posted a PowerPoint presentation “Death by PowerPoint (and how to fight it)” [^]. It contains simple, easily implemented hints and things to avoid.
The presentation emphasises the need for “Significance, Structure, Simplicity, and Rehearsal”. These points are expanded on and explained, and along the way illustrated. Anyone who uses presentation software should be made to go through this slide pack before they are allowed back into a meeting room!