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This morning, Seth Godin, one of my heroes in marketing thought-leadership, blasted out a e-newsletter with a simple and powerful idea: contain yourself to only putting ONE WORD or one image per PowerPoint slide.

Imagine the impact that would have on your audience? They might just pay more attention to you, the presenter, rather than focusing their attention on all those words you crowded onto your busy PowerPoint slides – all 200 of them!

It’s a revolutionary idea and one whose time has come.

When giving presentations, Less is the new more!

Below is a copy of the email that Seth Godin sent out today on this important matter.

The 200 slide solution

From Seth Godin, author of The Purple Cow

The next time you find yourself on the hook for a 40 minute presentation (with slides!) consider, at least for a moment, a radical idea:

A slide every 12 seconds. 200 slides in all.

You’re used to putting three or four bullet points on a slide. That’s at least four distinct ideas, but more often, each of those ideas has three or four sub ideas to it. In other words, you’re cramming 32 ideas on a slide, and you’re sitting on that slide as you drone on and on. Perhaps you spice it up with some reveals or animated bullets, but it’s still 32 ideas going stale before our eyes.

What if you blew it up? Just one word on a slide. Or, perhaps just one image (no cheesy stock please). Maybe you write, “Cheaper” on one slide and, “More durable” on the next…

Slides create action. When did you decide that the appropriate amount of action was six or twelve times every half hour?

How would your pace change if you had 200 slides? How much better would the integration of slides and talk be?

I don’t honestly expect you to do your presentation with 200 slides. I’m hoping this exercise will help you realize that you might not need any slides. Or that 50 or 100 slides will pick up your energy and make your argument more coherent.

But please, don’t do that presentation you did last time.

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To follow Seth Godin, do what I do and subscribe to Seth’s blog (it’s very very good!)

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Recommended Books:  another great resource on getting your PowerPoint under control – buy the book Presentation Zen by Garr Reynolds. It’s like the “safe sex guide for PowerPoint”. Again – very very good.

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Training Workshops. Lastly, if you are motivated to improve your presentation skills and confidence and want to learn how to reduce your dependency on PowerPoint and other technical crutches, CALL ME at (860) 408-0033.  I teach a high engagement presentation training program called The Motivated Presenter™.

You will learn the tips and tricks of going “PowerPoint-FREE!” and how to strengthen your communication and persuasion when giving presentations.

The presentation training program is available as a corporate on-site group workshop in an accelerated 1-day or intensive 2-day format. It is also available to individuals using a 1:1 executive coaching format.

Here’s what one client just sent me last week following his participation in the Level 1: Essential Fundamentals of High Engagement Presentations:

“I just wanted to thank you for the 2 days that you spent with us.  I can honestly say that I gained much more from your seminar than you can even imagine.  Not only did I gain some invaluable insight on how to gather my thoughts and create a powerful and strongly communicated message, but I also was able to rethink how I look to present material based on the audience that I am presenting to.  I came out of those two days with some vigor, ready to take on a whole slew of new challenges.”-Scott Decoteau, Lead Art Director / New Media, LEGO Systems Inc

Yesterday, the Drudgereport proclaimed that PowerPoint was public enemy #1. Check out the PowerPoint slide below that they used to explain the military game plan to establish stability in Afghanistan. It could quite possibly be the worst PowerPoint slide ever created!

“When we understand that slide,we’ll have won the war,” said General Stanley McChrystal, the US and NATO force commander

This slide was generated by a consulting company (PA Consulting Group)  But they are not totally to blame for this horrific piece of visual communication. The client – some military official- approved this piece to show in the presentation.

The article goes on to suggest that:

“PowerPoint has become public enemy number one for many US officers who find themselves battling slide presentations rather than insurgents. Some have gone as far as to declare all-out war on the software after the military command was over-run with mind-numbing 30-slide presentations. General James N. Mattis, the Joint Forces Commander, isn’t taking any prisoners in his approach. PowerPoint makes us stupid”

Brigadier General H.R. McMaster went one step further and banned the presentation package when he led an offensive in Tal Afar, Iraq, in 2005.

‘[PowerPoint is] dangerous because it can create the illusion of understanding and the illusion of control,’ Brigadier General H.R. McMaster told the New York Times. ‘Some problems in the world are not bullet-izable.’

For the safety  and comfort of your next audience, please be careful how you use PowerPoint. It can kill rapport, create confusion and bore your audience to death. For new ideas and alternatives to PowerPoint, please check out the web page Stop Global Boring: reduce your PowerPoint emissions now! If immediate triage is required, download the audio training program Stand & Deliver to your computer.

United Way delivers a winning presentation and announces its Fall 2009 Campaign result

I had the privilege of working with the United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut this past summer, training their “loaned executives” and agency speakers on how to give high engagement presentations that move audiences to action. These motivated individuals would go on to make countless presentations to the many organizations, companies, labor unions, government groups, hospitals, etc., that were participating in the United Way 2009 “Live United” fall campaign here in Connecticut.

Today was their campaign celebration luncheon, where they announced how much they had raised through the generous support of thousands of people working at companies across the region. The celebration took place at the Pratt & Whitney Hanger – a very inspiring spot of history, innovation and high ceilings. For all intensive purposes, this was a “thank you” event, where the United Way wanted to recognize the many people who had made it all possible.

These types of awards and recognition banquets can be hard on the audience – tons of clapping for people you don’t know, sitting in uncomfortable chairs for long stretches at a time, eating high fat foods. You know what I’m talking about.

The United Way team WOW’d their audience with an unexpected skit that definitely proved to be “high engagement.”

Rather than announcing their fall campaign total $$$ results with a drum roll or some other common reveal method, they put on their own version of the DEAL-NO DEAL game show.

Rather than the short-skirted babes on the TV show, The United Way took the  high road and involved their twelve loaned executives, each holding a silver brief cases (very official looking!).  They had two contestants, the unseen “bank manager” and a very charismatic master of ceremonies. The sound effects were fantastic: the telephone rang, the music was exciting, the props were engaging and their PowerPoint graphics were clean and supportive.

The audience was fully engaged and having a great deal of fun with the blue/white plastic “clapper hands” and raucous shot outs. In the end, we all learned that the United Way fall campaign resulted in a pledge amount of $ 25,784,118. This is an amazing result given the economic conditions facing our community and nation. It’s a testament to the enduring spirit of people to help others and the fact that no matter how difficult things are for us , everybody has something to give.

Congratulations to the United Way, its staff, volunteers, community leaders and fans who believe in the value of making our community and world a better place for all!