{"id":239,"date":"2009-01-06T09:29:22","date_gmt":"2009-01-06T08:29:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.elementally.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/?p=239"},"modified":"2009-01-06T09:29:22","modified_gmt":"2009-01-06T08:29:22","slug":"a-wish-list-for-presentations-in-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.awareplus.co.uk\/presentation-skills-blog\/a-wish-list-for-presentations-in-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"A wish-list for presentations in 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to happen, I know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not going to happen (and if it did, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be out of a job) but one of the things I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d love to see this New Year is for business presentations to be less shockingly bad.<\/p>\n

Okay, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not up their with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Enough food in the right places so that no one is hungry\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153World Peace\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a wish, right? Actually I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m drafting this in response to an Email from Olivia Mitchell (of Effective Speaking<\/a>) who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s putting together a few of us in one place on one topic. It might make sense to poke around a couple of the other posts alongside this one, including the blog post<\/a> which kind of kicked the whole thing of in some ways, by Laura Bergells.<\/p>\n

So here goes: seriously(?), what would I like to see change in presentations for 2009?<\/p>\n

Well firstly I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see the ability of PowerPoint, Keynote, Impress (or whatever) to actually write in anything under 36 Pt removed – or at least wired to the power supply of the computer like this… for every point under 36 the user tried to use, they got 5 Volts of shock. Writing in 24 Pt gives 55Volts, which should be enough to draw anyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s attention to the fact they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re doing something stupid, right? Writing in 14 Pt should pretty well fry someone’s fingers.<\/p>\n

Secondly I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see microphones built into data projectors and screens linked to some software which compares volumes and can tell if the presenter is facing the screen or the audience. Whenever there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more volume directed to wards the screen, the data projector simple projects a black screen until the presenter turns to face their audience again….<\/p>\n

You want serious suggestions?<\/p>\n

What, you think I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m kidding? If I had a pound (or even a dollar) for every time someone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done something stupid like the two ideas above I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be a rich man!<\/p>\n

And yet I know they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to happen.<\/p>\n

So what might I reasonably<\/strong> expect for presenters who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve mastered the basics of facing the audience and make their slides read-able? Well, for one thing, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to see people find a sensible balance between emotion and information in their slides. Presentations aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t good at presenting detailed data but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean that a presenter shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have that information at his or her finger-tips if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s needed.<\/p>\n

All too often I see presentations which are either:<\/p>\n