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How does the community feel about well-presented talks using very few or none slides? I kind of feel that even in tech, you would come across as unprepared or

How does the community feel about well-presented talks using very few or none slides? I kind of feel that even in tech, you would come across as unprepared or "lazy" for not having slides/PowerPoint

dragonsky67 9y ago
I was invited to a speech night for the class of my 8 year old daughter. Members of the class were to do a "multi modal" presentation on subjects ranging from global warming to their favourite band. It was sad to see that most of the kids had PowerPoint decks full of words that they just stood and read. Of the class of about 25 kids only a very few did something different. A couple didn't use the screen at all, choosing to do a "show and tell" style of presentation showing relevant objects. The "My favourite Band" girl, talked about her band whilst playing a recording, and a couple gave their talk unassisted (well maybe palm cards) whilst referring to well selected pictures on the screen. I can still remember the talk about the impact of tropical storms (not my daughters) because of the well selected dramatic images that were used to emphasise the points made in the talk. PowerPoint presentations are not necessary bad, but use the tool for what it's best at, that is displaying information that cannot be displayed either in a written report or verbally. Use it to support what you are saying, not be what you are saying. If you do this the people in the room actually have to listen to you, not sit there reading the screen, and let's face it, in most cases you want them concentrating on you, otherwise what are you their for?
analog31 9y ago
I think that to pull it off, you need to convey the impression that you're too important and busy to create PP slides, and that you're showing stuff that's just so urgent and great that you didn't want to make them wait for a PP. Also, practice will improve your ability to give those presentations, so it's worth practicing on low profile meetings before doing it in front of the CEO.
- robaato 9y ago
  I remember a presentation by Martin Fowler which was without slides - talking extempore about his latest thinking on software development - and very engaging it was too!
endgame 9y ago
The challenge is that your talk has to be _really_ good to get viewed, because most people will want to skim the slide deck before deciding whether or not to watch it. I quite like Ed Kmett's talks that often consist of him typing into his editor at an incredible rate while talking about everything. It works because he's an uncommonly swift typist and can write it all off the top of his head.
jasonlotito 9y ago
> "well-presented talks" You are answering the question for us. If it's well-presented, of course we will think it's well-presented. The thing is, a well-presented talk is usually always well-prepared. Very few people can present well without preparation. The thing is, PowerPoint gets a bad rap because their are a lot of ill-prepared speakers out there. And the reason there is a lot of ill-prepared speakers is because preparing a good presentation is hard and time consuming. Just practicing the talk takes as long as the talk. And then reviewing the talk takes an equal amount of time. So, for you to practice one 30 minute talk, you have multiple 1-hour sessions at a minimum (assuming you can stick that 30 minute limit the first time, which rarely happens). How many people do you know spend that much time just practicing and reviewing their talks? The other thing is, tech talks are usually talking about something specific involving code or architecture, and while a talk doesn't always need slides, in the tech world, it usually does. This is because without slides, you need to rely on the concept that you are trying to get across, and you can't focus on specifics. Sure, you can provide a reference slide at the end, but it's hard. And it's hard on the audience as well. And chances are, you aren't good enough to pull it off. So slides are there to help the audience as well. Not everyone learns the same way (Side note: this is why people who complain about video-based tutorials being worse than pure text piss me off, people learn better in different ways, and the reason text was used for so long was because creating video was much more costly), so using pictures and images can really help hammer the point home. But it's hard. And a lot of speakers don't speak frequently enough to get good at it, because like anything, it takes practice. In the end, if someone thinks not using slides will make them a better speaker, they probably aren't good enough to not use slides.

How does the community feel about well-presented talks using very few or none slides? I kind of feel that even in tech, you would come across as unprepared or "lazy" for not having slides/PowerPoint

dragonsky67 9y ago

I was invited to a speech night for the class of my 8 year old daughter. Members of the class were to do a "multi modal" presentation on subjects ranging from global warming to their favourite band. It was sad to see that most of the kids had PowerPoint decks full of words that they just stood and read. Of the class of about 25 kids only a very few did something different. A couple didn't use the screen at all, choosing to do a "show and tell" style of presentation showing relevant objects. The "My favourite Band" girl, talked about her band whilst playing a recording, and a couple gave their talk unassisted (well maybe palm cards) whilst referring to well selected pictures on the screen. I can still remember the talk about the impact of tropical storms (not my daughters) because of the well selected dramatic images that were used to emphasise the points made in the talk. PowerPoint presentations are not necessary bad, but use the tool for what it's best at, that is displaying information that cannot be displayed either in a written report or verbally. Use it to support what you are saying, not be what you are saying. If you do this the people in the room actually have to listen to you, not sit there reading the screen, and let's face it, in most cases you want them concentrating on you, otherwise what are you their for?

analog31 9y ago

I think that to pull it off, you need to convey the impression that you're too important and busy to create PP slides, and that you're showing stuff that's just so urgent and great that you didn't want to make them wait for a PP. Also, practice will improve your ability to give those presentations, so it's worth practicing on low profile meetings before doing it in front of the CEO.

robaato 9y ago
I remember a presentation by Martin Fowler which was without slides - talking extempore about his latest thinking on software development - and very engaging it was too!

endgame 9y ago

The challenge is that your talk has to be _really_ good to get viewed, because most people will want to skim the slide deck before deciding whether or not to watch it. I quite like Ed Kmett's talks that often consist of him typing into his editor at an incredible rate while talking about everything. It works because he's an uncommonly swift typist and can write it all off the top of his head.

jasonlotito 9y ago

> "well-presented talks" You are answering the question for us. If it's well-presented, of course we will think it's well-presented. The thing is, a well-presented talk is usually always well-prepared. Very few people can present well without preparation. The thing is, PowerPoint gets a bad rap because their are a lot of ill-prepared speakers out there. And the reason there is a lot of ill-prepared speakers is because preparing a good presentation is hard and time consuming. Just practicing the talk takes as long as the talk. And then reviewing the talk takes an equal amount of time. So, for you to practice one 30 minute talk, you have multiple 1-hour sessions at a minimum (assuming you can stick that 30 minute limit the first time, which rarely happens). How many people do you know spend that much time just practicing and reviewing their talks? The other thing is, tech talks are usually talking about something specific involving code or architecture, and while a talk doesn't always need slides, in the tech world, it usually does. This is because without slides, you need to rely on the concept that you are trying to get across, and you can't focus on specifics. Sure, you can provide a reference slide at the end, but it's hard. And it's hard on the audience as well. And chances are, you aren't good enough to pull it off. So slides are there to help the audience as well. Not everyone learns the same way (Side note: this is why people who complain about video-based tutorials being worse than pure text piss me off, people learn better in different ways, and the reason text was used for so long was because creating video was much more costly), so using pictures and images can really help hammer the point home. But it's hard. And a lot of speakers don't speak frequently enough to get good at it, because like anything, it takes practice. In the end, if someone thinks not using slides will make them a better speaker, they probably aren't good enough to not use slides.