PPT rule 1 per 10 minutes?

Submitted by Laura Di Tomasso
in
General Questions and Comments

Recently Mark noted a a common rule for presentations which I have known and tried to practice.  The rule is: only one slide for every ten minutes of presentation.

When I shared this comment, I recieved an interested comment.  Referring to TED, a common presentaion is limited to 20 minutes.  One presentation; http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation.html

Averages less than 30 seconds per slide.  Only a few of the 15 slides exceeded 1 minute.  Is it not time to ammend the rules on presentation?

Submitted by Glenn Ross on Thursday December 6th, 2012 11:16 am

I'm sure we've all suffered through "Death By Powerpoint" many times. If your first step, in planning a presentation, is to open Powerpoint or Keynote, then Mark offers you one effective technique.
There are others, and the one you should select should be primarily based upon the needs of your audience. Down the list somewhere is your presenting style and any requirements your corporate culture requires (branding slides, etc.) But know that many corporate branding requirements actually distract from the presentation (e.g. you don't need your logo on every slide, especially when delivering to an internal audience).
I recommend the following books
Presentation Zen by Gar Reynolds
The Exceptional Presenter by Tim Koenig,
Any of several books by Nancy Duarte. Nancy and Gar both have blogs as well.
I recommend reading Tim's book first. The others are more about the design of the presentations. Tim talks more about how to build the message.
For 4 and a half minutes of humor, check out this video on bad power points. http://www.davidairey.com/how-not-to-use-powerpoint/
 

Submitted by Laura Di Tomasso on Thursday December 6th, 2012 11:48 am

Thanks, I enjoyed the video and agree that you need to know your audience.  I will take a look at the suggested book.
I wish more people understood there are rules regardless of style to the use of PowerPoint.
Laura

Submitted by Alex Williams on Thursday December 6th, 2012 9:34 pm

...and then there are those companies who completely forbid the use of PowerPoint......there should be more of them

Submitted by Glenn Ross on Friday December 7th, 2012 9:23 am

I feel the need to mention the need for an "upvote" or "Like" button after reading the post by Alex_W, above.
Perhaps presentation software should be like military weapons. You're not allowed to use them until you've been extensively trained and passed a qualification test. That ought to reduces the number of "deaths" by Power Point.
Let me leave you with two presentation tips that have helped me improve the ROI my audiences received

  1. The single greatest thing you can do to improve your presentation, whether it's an oral speech without visuals, or one with, is to rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. If possible, video or audio record your rehearsals. Yes, you're busy, but the time is well worth it. Rehearsing makes you more effective. And the next time you apply for a promotion, that interviewer may be in your audience.
     
  2. For those times when your audience is in the same room with you and will be viewing your Power Point or Keynote presentation on a large screen or wall,  as you create each slide on your computer, stand up and move back about 6-8 feet. if you cannot read the text or the details from that distance, your audience probably won't be able to, either.  And if they can make sense of it, they'll whip out their smart phones and tune you out.