I recently read a post on Dave Paradi’s blog about a conference that is banning the use of PowerPoint by their presenters.  While in my opinion this is sad (the decision, not Dave’s post!), I’m actually not surprised.

I’m no stranger to voicing my opinion about conference presentations.  A year ago I wrote an open letter begging conference hosts to stop killing the presentation visuals by forcing them into conference-branded templates.  Unfortunately, I don’t think it reached every conference host.

The reasoning behind the ban was only tangentially related to PowerPoint.  The conference hosts highlighted a few issues they wanted to put a stop to, and for the most part I think they’re quite valid:

  1. Most conference presentations are thinly veiled product pitches or company overviews that offer no real value to the attendees
  2. Most conference presentations are are simply re-purposed slides slightly tweaked (if at all) for the conference
  3. Most conference presentations use little or no graphics
  4. Many presenters fail to prepare (prepare to fail) for the presentation and end up reading directly off the bullet-point ridden slides

To combat this, the conference hosts have decided to ban PowerPoint all together, requesting that hosts use aids such as flipcharts and whiteboards.  If their presenters can’t design an effective PowerPoint presentation, how are they going to use flipcharts and whiteboards effectively?  They’ll simply end up putting their bullet points in writing!

All of these points are valid and plague presentations everywhere, not just conferences.  I agree that something has to be done. But folks, PowerPoint is NOT the problem.  PowerPoint is just a tool.  The conference hosts cited problems that exist due to poor presenters, not poor presentation software.  Banning PowerPoint won’t force presenters to prepare more effectively for their presentation.  True, it may remove their ability to utilize PowerPoint as a crutch, but I bet they’ll show up with index cards.  Trust me, they’ll find a way to deliver a poor presentation.  The problem is with the presenters themselves.

When used effectively, PowerPoint/Keynote (along with many other emerging presentation technologies like Prezi and Kineticast) can be wildly effective.  Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s much any conference host can do to force their presenters to present effectively.  Certainly not by banning PowerPoint.  It’s a problem deeply rooted in years of poor presentation design.  We’ve seen so many poorly designed presentations that it’s become expected. I have no scientific numbers, but I’d bet you’d be surprised by how many people have never seen an effectively designed PowerPoint or Keynote presentation (although the coverage of Steve Jobs’ keynotes is changing that).

The only solution is widespread education and adoption of effective presentation design skills.  We need more presentation designers and educators to speak out and speak up.  We need more presenters like Steve Jobs, and more presentation gurus like Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte who are traveling all over the world to change the presentation landscape.

What are your thoughts?  Can banning PowerPoint really make presentations and presenters more effective?

Posted by John Thomas, Presentation Advisors