Why ignoring your slides is as bad as reading them verbatim
To walk the fine line between tedium and bewilderment, keep your audience engaged by partnering with your on-screen text and visuals. Here are five guidelines.
The number of presenters tediously reading every slide and bullet point to the audience seems to be declining.
That’s news worth celebrating, but hold off on popping the champagne just yet. The pendulum unfortunately is swinging toward the other extreme: Presenters are ignoring their slides altogether.
Here’s an example from a recent presentation:
On the screen, a slide with a statement in 60 point Arial Bold all but screamed at the audience. I expected the salesperson to mention it; he did not. The next slide featured five bullet points. The salesperson brushed them all aside with a quick “you’ve expressed a number of goals in this area” before jumping to the next slide, a short quote.
As I read the quote, he started talking about something else. I’m not sure what (I was busy reading). My attention ping-ponged between presenter and slides like this for 30 more minutes. In the end, I’m not sure what point(s) I was supposed to walk away with.
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