Yesterday I saw a presentation with no words. The presenter showed photos which changed every twenty seconds, automatically.
She explained what we were looking at and the audience moved from the picture to her to understand what we were looking at. It was so smooth to hear from her and then hear her comments. The flipping was seamless.
This style is the way to avoid ‘Death by Powerpoint’ and is called Pecha Cucha. In its pure form, it is twenty photos without words which change every twenty seconds. The presenter follows the pictures and provides the words. It can be used for almost any style of presentation from highly informative to motivational. You need to make sure there are no words on the picture.
It also works better if the presenter is not closely scripted. ‘In this picture, you can clearly see….’. It will work best if you use photos that you took yourself as you can personalise the spoken message.‘You can see me in this photo…’.
Try it and move away from ‘Death by Powerpoint’. If the pictures change every twenty seconds, the pace of the presentation will be constant instead of getting stuck with questions along the way. If you need a Q & A segment, make it at the end and ask people to hold the questions for six minutes and forty seconds. Not long to wait. It works beautifully. Try it. There is no magic to the twenty / twenty format. Invent your own.
Regards
Paddy
