When we prepare to make a presentation, we often start with thinking about the slides we’re going to use. But what is the role of slides in a presentation?
One way of thinking about this is to consider presentations you’ve been to. Choose one and think about what you remember about it. Chances are you remember the person and something they said, not the slides. There may be exceptions to this, but on the whole we remember people over slides.
The role of slides is therefore as a support for the presenter and what we say. This may be a little uncomfortable for some who do not like presenting, but there it is.
So what does this mean? It means the slides are there as a support for what we are going to say, they are still important but only as a support. The audience is interested in us. People are interested in people.
We need to focus on what we’re going to say and how we engage with the audience. It’s too easy to spend lots of time on slides, when what we should spend time on is what we’re going to say, how we are going to relate our point to the audience and what key message we hope the audience will leave with.
What is the role of slides in a presentation?