Judging slides

People who have missed a presentation often ask for a copy of my slides. I gladly send the slides over, but my slides have little meaning outside of my presentation. This is because my slides are visual aids to my presentation and not a document of my presentation. Above is a sample slide from a presentation I gave this week.

Your PowerPoint slides must also support your presentation. Your slides must not be your presentation. You should make the impact on your audience through the photos on your slides, your examples and stories.

Put the details that support your presentation in a report and make it available to your audience before or after the presentation. Do not put your detailed statistics on your slides.

You are the presentation. This means that you tell personal stories, give examples and answer audience questions in your presentation style and with your unique knowledge. Your presentation should be different from my presentation, even if we use the same set of slides.

Take a look at the slides you typically create. Are they 90% (or 100%) text? If so, then chances are that I can read your slides to your audience, just as well as you can, and either of us could bore the audience to tears. Act as Judge, Jury and Executioner. Judge your slides, convict yourself if appropriate, and cut the text out of your slides to support YOUR Unique Presentation.