Putting The "Power" In PowerPoint

I have been trying to figure out how to make this point since first seeing Professor Lessig in action, but have been unsuccessful to date. My point is a simple one -- if you want to understand the "power" in PowerPoint, watch a Lawrence Lessig presentation. They are a fantastic combination of content, art and brand (if you've seen one of Professor Lessig's PowerPoint presentations, you'll forever associate the white typewriter font on black blackground with Lessig -- in fact, the association is so strong that Professor Zittrain was able to get a big laugh at iLaw by simply converting one of his slides into the Lessig style).

The thought has not been lost on others. In fact, James Grimmelmann of LawMeme spent time at the iLaw conference last week and made a similar observation (via Copyfight):

Larry Lessig as PowerPoint Virtuoso

Larry is one of the most extraordinary PowerPoint virtuousos I've seen. It's not just the white-on-black typewriter font. He uses phrases as anchors into his talk: the slides are signposts that let you glance up and pull out key words and ideas from his talk. He's also brilliant at taking slides he's previously shown and modifying them to put new twists on those ideas. At the DRM conference, he changed background colors to show the expansion of copyright; today, he's played with the color and placement of text. When he flips through the slides showing copyright terms in various years, it's almost an animation. And when he's talking about old films decaying and disappearing, he uses a blank black slide.

Entrepreneurs starting the VC circuit would do well to watch a Lessig presentation before creating the PowerPoint with which they will tour Sand Hill Road. What Lessig does particularly well is to use his PowerPoint to emphasize a point, without spelling out the entire argument on the slide itself. If you are giving a presentation, there is no need to provide all the information on the slide. The slide should be used as a jumping off point. It should be used for emphasis and as a roadmap. So, if you're reading your slides, they have too much information on them. Perhaps Lessig's single word slides go too far in the other direction, but I'd sure rather see that than a slide overloaded with statistics, quotes, etc. If you need to create a PowerPoint in any context, I highly urge you to track down one of Lessig's. There's lots to be learned there.

Comments

[Matt Haughey]

Last summer, I worked on a conversion of Lessig's slides for the web. Leonard Lin did all the work, but the final product was worth it, and about as close to a live Lessig presentation as you can get:

http://randomfoo.net/oscon/2002/lessig/

[Andy Ruff]

Now if only one could present PowerPoints to the Supreme Court...

[Andy Ruff]

Now if only the Supreme Court allowed PowerPoints...

[Michael Grant]

Up front I will say that I also lean towards Hornick's advice to be economical when crafting a business pitch aimed at VCs. The reality however is that one of the most frequent requests from a VC after hearing a pitch (other than 'we'll discuss it and get back to you') is please 'send me the pitch so I can share it with my partners.' Let's face it, the Hornick approach is great for an in person presentation, but terrible for a pitch that must make its points when the entrepreneur is not in the room.

[Tony Ramos]

Painfully few realize there should be two distinctly different sets of slides for two possibile events: 1) you are presenting live to audience and your slides are supporting materials; and, 2) your slides are doing the talking; you have no interaction with your audience.

One simple solution (just short of composing two presentations) is to include your script in the speaker's note portion of the slide. Then, when it comes to distributing a reading copy, print the "speaker's notes view" to paper or, better yet, to a PDF. Either way, you give them more context for better comprehension.

Hearing spoken text and looking at graphics is best way to promote user recall, according to the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (http://www.humanfactors.com/downloads/july98.asp ). An in-person presentation is best, but printed text plus graphics is not necessarily a doomed alternative.

Tony Ramos

Specialist in Powerpoint Presentation Design

http://tonyramos.com