Presentation Skills That Will Take You to the Top (Collection), 2/e

76. One Presentation, Multiple Audiences: 12 Presenters, 12 Stories, 1 Set of Slides

The foundation of the Power Presentations methodology is that the presenter is the focus of the presentation, not the slides. But this concept often runs into objections that usually begin with, “But you just don’t understand,” and then continue on with, “We need to have the slides to send ahead!” Or “We need to provide leave-behinds!” Or “My audience wants the details!” Or “The slides help me remember what to say!” Or “My board member made me do it!” Or, the most common, “The slides have to stand alone!”

As a coach, I have tried to counter these objections by driving a wedge between the display functions (during the presentation) of slides and their document ...