Death by PowerPoint

Fighting death by PowerPoint... How to make a presentation and not to bore your audience to death.

1. Death by PowerPoint 

(and how to fight it)
Alexei Kapterev

2. There are 300 million
PowerPoint users 

in the world*
* estimate

3. They do 30 million
presentations 

each day*
* estimate

4. About a million
presentations are 

going on right now*
* estimate

5. 50% of them are
unbearable*
* conservative estimate

6. LOTS of people
are killing each other

with bad presentations.
NOW.

7. They are all DEAD! Well, almost.

8. Bad
presentations
Bad
communication
Bad
relations
Less
sales
Less
money
Less
training
A vicious circle

9. Let’s make the world 

a better place.

10. Why are they doing it?!

11. !Bullets don’t kill people
"People kill people
#Unintentionally
$Yet regularly
Research shows:

12. Mainly due to lack of...
!Significance
"Structure
#Simplicity
$Rehearsal

13. Significance
!"#$

14. To “pass the information”?
Your boss told you to?
Or to make meaning?
Why do you present?

15. What’s the subject and
why it matters to you?

16. !Significance creates passion
"Passion attracts attention
#Attention leads to action
How presentations work

17. Are you passionate?
Check yourself.

18. This is passion.

19. This is passion.

20. This is passion.

21. This is not.

22. Can’t find 

the meaning?

Don’t present.

23. Structure
!"#$

24. Structure is how you place the
building blocks of your story.

25. !Convincing
"Memorable
#Scalable
Q: What structure to use?
A: Any – as long as it is:

26. !Problem – Pathway – Solution
"Problem – Solution – Reasoning
#Fancy stuff (if it makes sense)
Structure choices

27. Give 3-4 reasons
supporting your point.
They will not remember
more anyway.

28. }
45
minutes
1 argument
2 argument
3 argument
Memorable opening
Memorable closing
1 More details...
2 More details...
3 More details...
1 More details...
2 More details...
3 More details...
1 More details...
2 More details...
3 More details...

29. You can tell this in...
5 minutes
15 minutes
45 minutes
It is scalable.

30. Simplicity
!"#$

31. Everything should be made as
simple as possible but not simpler.“
”

32. Apparently, being simple 

is not that simple.
Will give you some examples.

33. Don’t worry: knowing the
language doesn’t really help.

34. Notice cool background.

35. Hey, we’ve got DATA!

36. This one’s my favorite.

37. Fundamental problem?

38. !Visualize ideas
"Create key points
#Impress
PowerPoint helps to:

39. ! Prompter
" Handouts
# Data dumps
They use it as:

40. People read faster than you speak.
This means you are useless.

41. How much is an extra slide?
$0.00. Zero Dollars.
Break it in several. It’s free.

42. What’s the point?

One simple point?
Remove everything else.

43. Well, some are 

just hopeless.

44. Do you remember the rule:
7 lines per slide or less
7 words per line or less?
Well, it is just plain stupid
If you follow this “rule”
You get a slide like this
Ditch stupid “rules”

45. Do you remember the rule:
7 lines per slide or less
7 words per line or less?
Well, it is just plain stupid
If you follow this “rule”
You get a slide like this
Ditch stupid “rules”
Cramped.
Boring.

46. Simple design rules*
!One point per slide
"Few matching colours
#Very few fonts
$Photos, not clipart
* pun intended

47. Less text.
More imagery.
Wild imagery.

48. But what if I need to 

send or print the slides?

49. Write a document

50. The Largest

Leasing Companies
•Hansa Leasing
•РГ Лизинг
•Авангард-Лизинг
•Raiffeisen Leasing
•ММБ-Лизинг
Make 2 sets of slides

51. Print with notes

52. Inform with little text*
* yes you can

53. Rehearsal
!"#$

54. It will never work completely
for the first time. Trust me.

55. YOU PRESENTATION RECIPIENT
Feedback. Go get some.

56. No audience? Present to the
furniture. But aloud. Try it.

57. Check the room 

and equipment.

58. Presentation checklist

59. All this leads to...

60. Wow*
* great presentations

61. Thanks for watching! If you’ve
enjoyed this presentation, you can…
Buy my 4.5 star book
Send me some money
Ask me a question

62. Alexei Kapterev
www.kapterev.com