Power Point is a Back Up Dancer.

What is the most you have ever paid for a concert ticket?  $100, $200, $1000 or perhaps even more?  Well chances are no matter what you paid, the cost of the tickets was not justified in your mind because the back up dancers were going to be so amazing. No!  We pay the money to see Tina Turner (or Britney Spears, or Lady Gaga, or Taylor Swift, or dare I say Barry Manilow) shake her tail feathers and sing her heart out.  And the back up dancers?  Well they are there to make TINA look good.

YOU are Tina Turner.

For far too long we have allowed Power Point to BE the presentation while the presenter simply stands to the side (often with back turned to the audience) reading the dull, lifeless and cluttered Power Point slides that were prepared as nothing more than giant notecards.

Look familiar?  SO BAD! SO PAINFUL! Blech

It is time to put Power Point in it's place--backing you up in the presentation.  It's job is to make you look good; to visually accentuate your message, not be the message itself.  I often get resistance from the "business as usual"professional who simply cannot think about doing a presentation with their good old safety net the Power Point.

Imagine for a moment that Martin Luther King is alive and well in 2011 and is preparing to deliver for the first time his (what will be history making) speech "I have a dream".  Do you imagine he would use a Power Point for the Presentation? I can just see it now--a slide with ten bullet points in 14 point font with a terrible stock image of kids holding hands.  NO!

MLK would not use a Power Point.  Neither would Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address.  Or Maya Angelou to recite why the caged bird sings.  The greatest speakers know that the power to move an audience lies in their words, conviction, passion and ability to connect to the audience.  

So do you abandon Power Point all together?  Not always (but in some circumstances I say yes!  get rid of the Power Point and YOU be the presentation).  If you are going to use Power Point then use it wisely--quit making slides that are nothing more than giant notecards.  Challenge yourself to create a presentation that has ZERO bullet points in the entire presentation.  AND use this rule as your guide: Slides should VISUALLY reinforce the ideas you are communicating.  If your slides don't do that then start over.

To get some GREAT ideas on how to use Power Point more effectively, click on the presentation below and you will get a new appreciation for the POTENTIAL of a KICK AWESOME slide presentation.  Please share this presentation on facebook, leave a comment on slideshare and follow Bravo CC for future presentations.

Power Point is a Back Up Dancer click here

http://www.slideshare.net/BravoCC/power-point-is-a-back-up-dancer

The lesson is clear--when a Power Point doesn't know it's place you get a Kevin Federline type situation.  Too big for his britches, Kevin thought he was on par with his boss Britney Spears.  And shame on her--she allowed it.  Don't let your Power Point act like it's the star.  It isn't. YOU are the Star!

Here's to your next presentation!