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Tool 6
THE POINT OF POWER POINT
A far-sighted inventor, Bill Gaskins,
created Power Point. He realised that business people all over the world were
spending hours creating visual aids by hand to support their presentations.
Originally, Power Point would only work with Macintosh computers, but amazingly
10,000 copies wereS sold on day one. Soon Bill Gates made an offer and now
Power Point is on 300 million computers worldwide.
WHAT WOULD WE DO WITHOUT IT?
Unquestionably Power Point has transformed the business presentation.
Creating a presentation with Auto Wizard can now be done in minutes. The
finished result is consistently 'slick' and most will agree it takes the terror
out of presenting.
WHAT ABOUT THE TALK?
However, Power Point has thrown up some important considerations.
Researchers have at last discovered the importance of TALK! "Talk
is how an organisation understandings itself - how the people in
the organisation understands itself"*. It is through the presenter's
talk that an audience buys into an argument or idea. But multi-media
presentations take away the talk. Presenters seem quite happy to
let their audience stare at the screen while they stand or sit at
the side, not minding if the audience seemingly ignore them. "We
are now seeing the cloned middle manager - all out-computing each
other" ('In Business' Radio 4). For all businesses, the danger is
that it is the best looking presentation that wins the day, not
the best idea! Stand out from the crowd. Communicate with your audience
and maximise your presentation!
* Research on Talk: Richard Harper, Director of
Digital World Research Centre at the University of Surrey
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