I was at a very interesting session recently which was full of legal stuff. If you are like me knowing that that sort of information is out there and to go and look for it is far more important than trying to memorise it all.  I was so glad that the presenter did not take us through them word for word. It was an early evening session and I was already feeling sleepy…

Most of us will have had the experience of attending a presentation/talk/lecture where the presenter read the slides. I think in those cases we should  just cut out the middle man (or woman).If a presenter has nothing more to say than what they have in the powerpoint then they should just send you the powerpoint to read in your own time.

And sometimes even if they read the headings - and then elaborate - that can be just as dull.

I remember great talks from what the speaker says and how they say it. Most of the best ones have had no slides at all. Sometimes they use only one as backdrop - occasionally a few photographs can enhance the experience.

But I have never ever been uplifted by 15 slides crammed with words on the requisite corporate background style.

And as a footnote at a  recent Space Unlimited presentation to the client in the final handover the young people who had acted as consultants in the project had undertaken research which included a survey of staff. They had the percentages iced onto fairy cakes and when they put a pie chart slide up on the screen ( they had about 2 slides with words on - the rest were pictures and mock ups) the client said…

“Don’t tell me you have a real pie somewhere??!”

… at which the leader produced a large round cake onto which the pie chart information had been iced. The room was an uproar and the client fed back that he was unlikely to forget that particular presentation.