Meeting Communication

Do you hate PowerPoint? I have to admit that some times I do. Yes, there are times when I have hated PowerPoint. I have lost countless hours of sleep because of PowerPoint. I have missed a zillion family dinners because of PowerPoint. I have missed being home in time to say good night to my kids too many times to count because of PowerPoint. I’ve worked on my days off, and numerous weekends when I should have been out at the beach or fishing on the river because of PowerPoint.

To top it off, I was nuts enough to start a company, eSlide, that specializes in designing and producing POWERPOINT shows. My partners and colleagues at eSlide may be some of the most PowerPoint tortured souls in the meeting and event industry – if you consider we live and breath PowerPoint day in and day out, and often all night. At this point after 20 plus years in the business of designing and developing presentations, I don’t really get to do much hands-on design or production except on my own presentations. I would not be able to pass the test to get on the eSlide design and production team.  They are the masters of taking PowerPoint chaos and efficiently turning it into engaging, exciting, impactful visuals that assist speakers to close million, sometimes billion dollar deals. I know, that they all hate PowerPoint too, sometimes.

But, more than hate PowerPoint, the eSlide team hates BAD PowerPoint. I believe they get real satisfaction from taking something ugly and turning it into something beautiful. They know their work will save hundreds, if not thousands of audience members from being tortured by BAD PowerPoint. More important they know their design talents and PowerPoint expertise will assist a speaker in communicating critical messages effectively, leading to results that will drive productive meetings and contribute to successful companies.

Yes, we do hate PowerPoint, occasionally. Most of the time we love it for what it can do and for what we can do with it. We love PowerPoint for being the presentation graphics tool that has been the focus of our business for the past eight years and has been a key component to our success.

Do you hate PowerPoint? I’d be interested to know why?

The most important  presentation design tip is to design in some time into your schedule to develop a well designed presentation.

PLAN your schedule so you have time to develop well designed slides and a good flow to your story. GOOD design takes time.

Throwing together some text bullet points, some charts and graphs the night before you present, usually does not result in a well designed presentation.

A well designed PowerPoint does not just mean “pretty slides”, but visual aids that communicate your information effectively and make your key points memorable and actionable.