You know, I’ve seen some terrible PowerPoint presentions in my time. You’ve probably seen lots of poor presentations as well – in fact the vast majority of business people probably have.

So why is it that with so much experience of bad PowerPoint presentations so many people still present as if they are there simply to run through someone elses badly composed PowerPoint slides?

Might it be that having seen so many bad presentations, many just think that these “terrible presentations” are simply a fact of business life and something that presenters are expected to produce and the rest of us endure!

Anyway, I dont have all the answers and it’s now late on Friday night – it’s been a long week … so a more light hearted look at PowerPoint is called for.

“Good Evening PowerPointers”

I said Good Evening PowerPointers!

(a response at last)

Thank You … at least you’re not all fully asleep yet

Dont worry …

You will be by the end because its now PowerPoint time!

Welcome to The PowerPoint Comedy Show

Firstly, my thanks to Max Atkinson for pointing out this YouTube video to me on his blog. (I was looking for some video examples of bad PowerPoint.)

Thanks also to the Presenter / Comedian – Don McMillan (http://twitter.com/donmcmillan) for what is certainly one of the most entertaining presentations using PowerPoint badly that I have seen!

And here’s some of the points that Don was making …

1. Powerpoint slides are your prompts

When composing your powerpoint slides, remember that they are there for your benefit only. Forget about the audience.

The PowerPoint slides are great prompts for what you have to say, so include as much of your presentation text as you want on them. In fact, if you have any difficulty remembering what you want to say, then put every word of your speech on them – just to be on the safe side. That way, you can ensure that you wont forget anything on the day!

2. Have lots and lots of bullet points

Bullet
points
are
there
for
a
purpose

- so use them and use lots of them especially if you want to kill off your audience before they can ask any questions!

3. Use the most outrageous colour schemes

Dont be grey add some real colour especially

those that can hardly be seen.

Its much better that way!

4. The more slides the better

Remember quality is inversly proportional to quantity.

So if you’ve nothing of any quality to say just make sure you use as many slides as possible.

5. Cram in as much information as possible

Confuse them … leave nothing out … and make sure that nobody (even yourself) can really understand the slides.

That way nobody is going to be stupid enough to ask you any questions … are they!

6. Animate everything you can

PowerPoint has lots of crazy animations that you can use to confuse your audience even more – so remember to use them.

And dont use them sparingly!

7. Choose your fonts to reflect your personality

Remember the types of fonts you use say a lot about you.

So express yourself liberally – use as many different fonts as possible!

Suffering from PowerPoint fatigue by now?

You should be!

Then why not spend a few more minutes listening to Doctor Don our PowerPoint therapist?

One final PowerPoint

Remember to tell the audience that you’ve finished

When you come to the end of your presentation and are just about to put up your 100th slide, your audience (if they are still in the room) are probably asleep.

So you need to be kind to them. And from a health and safety perspective its very important that you dont just leave the room with the audience still asleep in the darkness.

So turn up the volume as far as it will go for your final slide transition. And remember to use the machine gun letter by letter display feature for your final bullet point .. to tell everybody that The End Has Arrived. And if that doesn’t wake all of them up nothing will.

Then remember to put on the lights and leave quickly.

Got more examples of PowerPoint Comedy?

or just bad PowerPoint Presentations?

Then let us know in the Reply box below and I’ll try and include the best in some future articles.

How (Not) to Present with PowerPoint