At one time, there were the latest “gee whiz” innovation. Now they are an over used, highly ineffective communication tool. Especially at public meetings.
Unfortunately powerpoint presentations are regularly flashed up on screens at meetings of the Shreveport city council, the Caddo commission and their committees. Rarely can elected officials, staff and the general public read much less follow the progression of graphics, texts, graphs, etc. Even more rarely are “hard copies” of the presentation made available for simultaneous viewing.
Both the council and the commission should amend their rules of procedure to require copies of powerpoints to be distributed before the presentations. Copies for the media and the general public should also be made available at that time.
Additionally, copies of handouts presented by public officials to these bodies at meetings should be made available to the press and the public at the same time. If nothing more, powerpoints and handouts could be scanned and posted on websites before the meetings.
Its really not that hard to keep the public informed, if only the effort is made.
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John,
I've had a lot of experience with powerpoints and given hundreds of presentations over the years. I agree with a lot of what you are saying and have a few tips and tricks to help keep presentations simple and useful.
1. Except where necessary (e.g., maps, comparison graphs, etc.), ditch the graphics. Each slide should have a topic and no more than three or four bullets. The intent is to provide a simple focus or talking point that you can speak to. The people should simply glance at the slide to establish context and spend the rest of their time looking at and listening to the speaker.
2. With this method you can print copies of the presentation to hand out to those people who will have their backs or sides to the presentation. During the presentation those people (the council for example) can look at the audience and the speaker instead of craning their necks. Following the presentation, Q&A topics and open discussions are easily referenced using the presentation. And having a printed copy in front of the leaders, a council member for example, allows them to take notes in the margins and to pay attention to their constituents during the presentation.
3. You don't need to hand out slide decks. Following the meeting, a copy of the slide show can be exported to a PDF file and the file uploaded to a website where it can be viewed by anyone interested. This also keeps follow-on conversations honest and focused, since there is a permanent record of the presentation.
I used to do whiz bang graphics and music and all the rest, but it's not productive. The simpler the better.
Mike