Anyone who’s ever read even the most basic of tips-for-public-speaking will have read this simple tip… if you’re using PowerPoint (or anything similar such as Keynote) don’t face the screen; face your audience instead.
It’s mind-numbingly obvious and I’m not gainsaying it – far from it! However, I did see an occasion recently when it might have been a good idea for the speaker to glance over his shoulder at the screen. Let’s call him Boris.
Like most speakers in this country, Boris isn’t a “professional speaker†but is a “normal person†who has to do some public speaking – which means it’s unlikely he’s going to be equipped with all the possible gadgets that there are out there. Importantly, like every non-professional speaker I’ve seen, Boris didn’t have (or at least didn’t use) a laser pointer.
Boris did have reasonable slides though, despite the common problems of too many words on them and over-using bullet-points. Critically however, for one of his slides, he felt the need to highlight a particular spot. Without a laser pointer, Boris needed to point.
Obviously, brave Boris isn’t standing directly in front of the slide (otherwise no one would be able to see it) so, unfortunately, when he points, he does so with a ‘sideways slant’. The shadow of his finger, of course, has a different slant. The result is that Boris is pointing to what he thinks is important – but he’s pointing to it from his perspective while the audience can barely make out his finger… but they can see, very clearly, the shadow of his finger on the slide.
Unfortunately, of course, his shadow is a couple of feet away (on the slide) from where Boris thought he was pointing to. Sadly, this lead to confusion on the part of the audience, as you can imagine because from their point of view, Boris was talking about one bullet point but pointing at another.
Sometimes a quick glance over your shoulder isn’t such a bad idea after all…….
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