Every once in a while, I’m sent to Slideshare (usually via Twitter) to view a new presentation posted by a thought leader on subjects ranging from content strategy to B2B web marketing to social media and metrics.  Once I’m there, I generally spend some time viewing other presentations, either on the same topic, or by the same person, or whatever else catches my fancy.

I can go through most of these presentations and get something out of them; after all, in spite of the buzz created by the NYT article on the evils of PowerPoint in the military a few weeks back, PowerPoint remains the lingua franca of the business world, and most of us are pretty conversant.

What’s becoming evident is that many good presenters are taking to heart some of the most oft-given complaints about presentations.  They’re removing the relentless lists of bullets; the text-heavy argumentation; the animated build-up slides and spaghetti charts.

These no-no’s have been replaced by presentations full of zippy, bold and funny images and graphics that illustrate a point rather than explicitly make it.  When done well, this works wonders, and has a terrific effect on audiences.  PowerPoint really does become a tool that supports a speaker, enhances a message, and gets the point across in a truly complementary way.

Trouble is, some of these presentations can fall really short on SlideShare.  Ever wade through 20 slides of cool images wondering, what the hell is this person talking about? Or trying to guess:  Hmmm…maybe she means ….this?

(Lire la suite…)