Show them you care

June 7th, 2011

Good looking slides show your audience you care about them. It shows them that they are worth the time and effort it takes to create visuals that successfully support your message. Well designed slides say (non-verbally) that you care enough to plan, develop, and produce PowerPoint slides that make it easier and faster to communicate the information you are sharing.

If you are presenting important information, the information should look important. Would you go to an important business meeting dressed in shorts and a T-shirt rather than your best suit?

Personally, I almost feel offended when I go to a meeting and the person presenting has slides that look like they threw them together the night before. I really get offended when I go to a conference I paid hard-earned money for and the presenter uses slides that look like my dog could have designed them better.

The presenter could be a great speaker, but ugly slides, to me, say the presenter did not think the audience (and I) was important enough to take the time and effort to develop PowerPoint slides that would have enhanced communication and made the sharing of the message faster and more memorable.

For example, I just watched a presentation where the speaker was not using slides and mentioned a few URL’s to check out. It was impossible to write down the URL’s as fast as he spoke about them, but if they were up on the screen, it would have been easy to copy them while he continued to talk.

Don’t kill your meeting communication with slides that say “I really don’t care about you, my audience – I just love to hear my own voice.”  Good slides do take time to plan, design, and produce. Throwing words and data into PowerPoint is easy. Producing PowerPoint visuals with high communication value is rarely easy – and sometimes hard work.  But do the work and show your audience that you care.

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