What Annoys Audiences About PowerPoint Presentations?

By Dave Paradi, MBA

When you prepare to deliver your next PowerPoint presentation, your audience should be first on your list of considerations. Unfortunately, too many presenters annoy their audiences. An online survey of 688 people who regularly see PowerPoint presentations revealed the following top annoyances (item and what percentage of the respondents cited that item as one of their top three annoyances):


- The speaker read the slides to us... 62.0%

- Text so small I couldn't read it... 46.9%

- Slides hard to see because of color choice... 42.6%

- Full sentences instead of bullet points... 39.1%

- Moving/flying text or graphics... 24.8%

- Overly complex diagrams or charts... 22.2%

Read the rest of this interesting article by clicking here.

Dave Paradi’s Think Outside the Slide™ approach helps presenters get results by showing them how to quickly create effective PowerPoint presentations. He is the co-author of “Guide to PowerPoint”, part of the Prentice Hall Series in Advanced Business Communication. He offers a free PowerPoint e-course, newsletter and articles on his web site at www.ThinkOutsideTheSlide.com.

©2005 Dave Paradi

A Memory for Sushi?

Like sushi? Need to save some files for your next road trip?

Never again will you have to choose between having sushi or having a USB memory drive--thanks to the USB sushi drive. These USB drives are hand-made-in-Tokyo sushi replicas. The convincing USB sushi drive comes in several flavors.

Overnight shipping with dry ice pack available. Comes in 32mb or 128mb size. Check it all out (and more!) at Dynamism.com.

Location, Location, Location!

Corporations Face Scarce Space: Soaring Hotel Rates, Occupancy Drive Buyers To Secondary Cities

This from Business Travel News: Corporate meeting buyers, faced with the prospect of spending excessive amounts of time finding hotel space in major cities at a time when occupancy continues to soar and paying record-high rates, are moving more events to secondary and tertiary locations. Though rates in those cities are skyrocketing as well, they offer buyers at least some relief during the height or a powerful hotel seller's market.

American Airlines Wants You to Lie Back and Relax

American Airlines this spring will begin modifying is 767-300 planes to add lie-flat seats with personal audio and video systems in it's "next generation" business class, according to Peter J. Howe of the Boston Globe. The seats have adjustable headrests and footrests, a "memory" setting for returning to the perfect sleep position if you've had to put the seat up for a meal, plus two-part tray tables that deploy from the seat back and center console to create a large work surface. Meanwhile, United Airlines is committing a whopping $165 million on fancier seats in international first class and business class wide-body cabins over the next three years.

Flight Delayed?

LET EVERYONE KNOW YOU'RE LATE
According to Peter J. Howe of the Boston Globe, Orbitz.com recently upgraded its flight-delay alert system for customers buying tickets through them. Now if your flight gets delayed en route, while you have no access to the phone or email, OrbitzTLC Alert can automatically send an email or text message to up to six friends, family members, or colleagues warning them you're running late.

I wonder if I can sent a text message to the pilot to step on the gas a bit?

Traveling Alone... Again?

Why dine alone when away from home?

If you've ever had the utterly depressing experience of being 2,000 miles from home at a business convention or tradeshow, with now one to have dinner or lunch with, check out http://www.meetaway.com. Site members who are attending events can search the site by event, city and date. You can even post your schedule for the next year.

Cheaper Airline Tickets?

Not so fast... that next advertisement for low-cost airfares might be too good to be true.

The federal Department of Transportation may soon begin allowing airlines to advertise airfares without including government taxes and fees - not even in the fine print!

So keep an eye on those prices, and make sure you're including all taxes and other fees when planning your next big sales event - you don't want to have to explain a few thousand dollars in additional fees added to your budget!