Slides are not the presentation

Pin It

I’ve read a lot of stuff – particularly on twitter – from some presentation trainers pointing out that the slides you may (or may not!) use with your presentation are not the presentation itself – they’re called Audio-Visual Aids for a reason. Aiding your presentation – not the actual guts of it.

Well and good, they’re right. Slides are not the presentation. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard people say they can’t make it to the meeting so “can someone email them the presentation”.

No.

They can’t be emailed a presentation – they could be emailed the slides, certainly, but that’s not the same thing at all.

But there’s something that bothers me in all of this. Presentation trainers are doing the right things by explaining to people that the presentation is bigger than just the slides which is good… but… but….

But I recently started to pick up on people saying things to the effect that slides were just an adjunct, an add-on and that they shouldn’t be thought of all all until you’ve written your presentation’s script.

Well, setting aside the idea that a script is, frankly, almost never a good idea, I’m not even convinced by the idea that the slides should be ignored until after the presentation is written. It’s taking things too far and putting a very powerful tool on the shelf.

By not even considering the slides and how to use them until after everything’s written you are, by definition, relegating them to just expensive, animated bunting in the background. So what do you do, if you do that, when what you need to present is essentially visual – or most easily explained visually?

I’d be interested to see the presentation that didn’t use a map, for example, where there was an issue of where things were on the earth relative to each other.

I’d be fascinated by a presentation that didn’t include slides when pitching an architectural project.

I’d be beside myself with curiosity to attend a presentation which didn’t include pictures of faces when talking about, for example, the effects of bone structure on attractiveness.

Or what about when discussing various forms of dance? Or the effects of sport on health?
See what I mean? Somethings are just so intrinsically visual that it makes no sense not to show them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we should go back to the bad old days of mistaking the slides for the presentation but I am saying that cries of ‘ban powerpoint’ or ‘don’t write slides until everything else is written’ aren’t helpful.

For me, it’s all about the message and the audience. if slides get the message to the audience most effectively, use them.

Include slides as part of the designing and writing process – not the dominant factor and not a tag-on at the end.

photo credit: Phil Strahl via photopin cc

Pin It