Written by Dick CarlsonThere’s no need to have a “top secret” classification any more. Just put your information in ten-point type in a PPT slide, then show it online in a webcast with a tiny little screen. I’m watching an interesting online event from Unisfair this morning, about Mobile Security. The presenters are from bMighty.
They’re making a pretty standard lecture/speech, so I’m bored and decided to blog while listening to them drone on. (I bet lots of other “attendees” are doing the same. What new metric do we need to replace “eyeballs” in this setting? I vote for “earballs“, but I’m willing to take suggestions.)
Anyway — I digress — their PPT presentation is pretty awful:
I’m not sure what it is that the speaker is trying to tell me over there on the right, but on my huge 24″ monitor it’s completely illegible. It would really brighten up his presentation if this was broken down into a series of 5-10 quick slides. He could just do a call-out of each key point, like this:
Of course, it would be better to re-design the presentation completely, using some basic rules for any online web presentation:
- Include frequent polls to measure attendee interest and provide interactivity
- Don’t keep a single image on the screen for more than 30 seconds (So a 10-minute presentation needs at least 20 slides)
- Ask for input — through chat or audio — frequently
- Include stories, case studies, videos — anything to break up the droning sound
- Never do a webcast longer than 15 minutes — if you have more information than that, break it up into chunks so attendees can quickly find the information they need
PowerPoint isn’t bad. It’s just used that way.
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