PowerPoint slides are an effective tool to complement your speech. Your slides should visually punctuate one of your points, tell a story, or create a mental link for the participant to grasp a concept. If it doesn’t serve your audience, here’s a simple idea: Blank the screen either by inserting a black slide or hitting the button on your remote. All eyes should be on you (see #4), not on a slide that is no longer pertinent.
Never turn your back on the audience to speak to your slides; it breaks the fragile connection you have with the audience. Your slideshow is not a crutch for you to remember which point you are on either. If you must, look to see what the next slide is, then turn to the audience and talk about the slide. Don’t summarize the slide (boring!); don’t read us the slide (even more boring!). Talk about what the slide means to the audience. You’ll have a conversation going in no time!
