Wedding Presentations
I was recently told about a wedding speech that was delivered in the form of a PowerPoint slideshow and which, apparently, went down a bomb. But this made me think: PowerPoint? Going down a bomb? In my ongoing study of presentations, it is a surprising finding, and like Alexander Fleming spotting a curious mould on his Petri dish, it demands further scrutiny.
The first thing I wondered was what was on the slides? I put this question to the groom’s sister who had brought the example to my attention. She had also helped to put the presentation together and she sent the PowerPoint file on to me. Of course, the presentation was mainly pictures, and pictures, in fairness, is what PowerPoint does well.
There were 25 photographs in all, spread over 22 slides. In all but a few cases, there was a single picture per slide, which is a design principle not often heeded in business presentations. Frequently slides are more like posters than slides, with several thumbnail pictures competing for space with bullet points, titles, company logos and coloured templates. Not so in this wedding presentation, which was mainly large pictures on clear backgrounds.
So what about the bullet-points? You can’t have PowerPoint slides without bullet points, can you? I decided to count the number of words used throughout the presentation (interestingly there is no word-count tool in PowerPoint, despite the verbiage often present), and there were 77 words in total. If you do the sums, this works out at an average of 3.5 words per slide.
To put this into context, I examined five random presentations that I happened to have on my hard-drive, including one of my own from some years back. The average word-per-slide counts for these presentations came out at 20, 21, 25, 39 and 62. These figures are all a lot higher than 3.5.
Of course, that’s not to say that words have no place in presentations, but where possible, I’ve adopted the principle that the presenters should take care of the verbal, and the slides should take care of the visual, and by ‘visual’ I mean pictures, graphs, diagrams and animations, not words.
Indeed, there is a further point that should be remembered regarding the punctuation of verbals and visuals. You should never show a slide until you need to, and you should remove it when you are done with it. Most people have PowerPoint projecting onto a large screen for the entire duration of their presentations.
There is a PowerPoint-first attitude in mnay presentations, but it is preferable to introduce slides only when necessary, to compliment what you are saying. Apparently this is how it was done in the wedding speech which was a series of stories, with the pictures in most cases acting as the punchlines. Obviously in most business presentations precise (comic) timing of this sort is not important, but it does illustrate the as-and-when-you-need-them principle when using visual aids.
Length is another important factor in a presentation, and again, there were lessons to be drawn from the wedding speech. Accurate figures are available here (the groom’s sister was among many taking bets) and after a sincere 5 minute preamble, the PowerPoint part of the speech lasted for about twenty minutes.
It may be pop-psychology, but it is generally accepted that people’s attention wanders after about fifteen or twenty minutes (lecturers take note). Again, the wedding presentation was, it seems, spot on.
Of course one of the main reasons why the wedding presentation probably went down so well was due to the way it played on a well known format with a novel twist. This is the staple of nearly all TV comedy sketch shows: set up a familiar, everyday scenario (a date, a job interview, a church service), portray it in minute detail, and then subvert it with something absurd at the last moment.
The wedding-speech-as-business-presentation conceit is funny partly because most people expect business presentations to be dull. This highlights an interesting paradox. As a chance to hear useful insights from, and ask questions of, an expert in something in which you require knowledge, presentations should be riveting. However, tell the average punter to expect an afternoon of presentations, and you’ll probably receive a response along the lines of: ‘Do I have to stay for all of them?’
Obviously most presentations aren’t going to be like wedding speeches, but if one lesson is to be taken from this example, then it is to look at presentations that work, observe the features that make them work, and then try to make them work for you. Even something as oft-maligned as PowerPoint can be used to great effect.
The first thing I wondered was what was on the slides? I put this question to the groom’s sister who had brought the example to my attention. She had also helped to put the presentation together and she sent the PowerPoint file on to me. Of course, the presentation was mainly pictures, and pictures, in fairness, is what PowerPoint does well.
There were 25 photographs in all, spread over 22 slides. In all but a few cases, there was a single picture per slide, which is a design principle not often heeded in business presentations. Frequently slides are more like posters than slides, with several thumbnail pictures competing for space with bullet points, titles, company logos and coloured templates. Not so in this wedding presentation, which was mainly large pictures on clear backgrounds.
So what about the bullet-points? You can’t have PowerPoint slides without bullet points, can you? I decided to count the number of words used throughout the presentation (interestingly there is no word-count tool in PowerPoint, despite the verbiage often present), and there were 77 words in total. If you do the sums, this works out at an average of 3.5 words per slide.
To put this into context, I examined five random presentations that I happened to have on my hard-drive, including one of my own from some years back. The average word-per-slide counts for these presentations came out at 20, 21, 25, 39 and 62. These figures are all a lot higher than 3.5.
Of course, that’s not to say that words have no place in presentations, but where possible, I’ve adopted the principle that the presenters should take care of the verbal, and the slides should take care of the visual, and by ‘visual’ I mean pictures, graphs, diagrams and animations, not words.
Indeed, there is a further point that should be remembered regarding the punctuation of verbals and visuals. You should never show a slide until you need to, and you should remove it when you are done with it. Most people have PowerPoint projecting onto a large screen for the entire duration of their presentations.
There is a PowerPoint-first attitude in mnay presentations, but it is preferable to introduce slides only when necessary, to compliment what you are saying. Apparently this is how it was done in the wedding speech which was a series of stories, with the pictures in most cases acting as the punchlines. Obviously in most business presentations precise (comic) timing of this sort is not important, but it does illustrate the as-and-when-you-need-them principle when using visual aids.
Length is another important factor in a presentation, and again, there were lessons to be drawn from the wedding speech. Accurate figures are available here (the groom’s sister was among many taking bets) and after a sincere 5 minute preamble, the PowerPoint part of the speech lasted for about twenty minutes.
It may be pop-psychology, but it is generally accepted that people’s attention wanders after about fifteen or twenty minutes (lecturers take note). Again, the wedding presentation was, it seems, spot on.
Of course one of the main reasons why the wedding presentation probably went down so well was due to the way it played on a well known format with a novel twist. This is the staple of nearly all TV comedy sketch shows: set up a familiar, everyday scenario (a date, a job interview, a church service), portray it in minute detail, and then subvert it with something absurd at the last moment.
The wedding-speech-as-business-presentation conceit is funny partly because most people expect business presentations to be dull. This highlights an interesting paradox. As a chance to hear useful insights from, and ask questions of, an expert in something in which you require knowledge, presentations should be riveting. However, tell the average punter to expect an afternoon of presentations, and you’ll probably receive a response along the lines of: ‘Do I have to stay for all of them?’
Obviously most presentations aren’t going to be like wedding speeches, but if one lesson is to be taken from this example, then it is to look at presentations that work, observe the features that make them work, and then try to make them work for you. Even something as oft-maligned as PowerPoint can be used to great effect.
posted by Barry Brophy at 11:30 AM
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