Giada Lalli
TranSYS ESR10
KU Leuven
Abstract:
We don’t like PowerPoint presentations.
We don’t like preparing them, giving them and ultimately, having to listen to them. Ever wondered why? For just over 30 years, PowerPoint has become an inevitable and necessary tool in our meetings, online and in-person, because it was created to improve our performance by adding a more immediate and intense language of communication: the visual language. What resulted, however, was the inappropriate use of a tool that, instead of entertaining us, ended up boring us and distracting us from the main objective, memorizing concepts. Using a resource, however powerful, without holding the appropriate knowledge tends to deprive it of its usefulness – and effectiveness. Hence, presentations on fascinating topics do not attract us as much as expected: having a hot point is not enough to make the topic hot.
So, what’s needed to get straight to the good stuff?
Key references:
“Talk like TED”, training from FWLMSCA 2021, Alexandra Smith, Debatrix
“PowerPoint Advanced Presentation Techniques” by Faithe Wempen, John Wiley & Sons © 2004
“Engage & Impress with PowerPoint: Tips for Digital Marketing Presentations” by John Gagnon, Dec 12 2013