Wednesday, April 05, 2006

PowerPointer: Not for Small Groups

I gave a short presentation this morning to a group of around 45 employment and recruiting professionals in Phoenix. A nice bunch. The topic was the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs new definition of an Internet Applicant and you just know that when the subject is that fascinating, a good time will be had by all.

Anyway, I purposely kept the presentation low-key and didn't use PowerPoint.

Results? Positive.

Lesson Learned? A simple one based on this presentation and some other experiments:

Be wary of using PowerPoint for small group presentations. It creates an unnecessary air of formality and distance that can kill the mood you hope to evoke. I just used a white board to illsutrate some key points. Afterwards, some people came up to express pleasure that PowerPoint was not used. Of course, it could be a much different story with a larger audience, but when you've got a smaller group, don't let the technology interfere with the mood or the message.

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