powerpoint not required

two years ago this month i joined dekalb area toastmasters.  for the past year i have served as our club's president.  today i was able to recreate my "icebreaker" speech the way i would have two years ago if a projector were available.  the title of the speech was "powerpoint not required".  i started out by introducing myself, pointing out that besides being in toastmasters i also work for microsoft and that one way to quickly differentiate yourself at microsoft is to either not use powerpoint (demo a solution or have a discussion, whiteboard or use a tablet with onenote, display an agenda or outline) or use it when appropriate.  a lot of us (i'm including myself in this) have a tendency to come in with too many slides with too much information and sometimes provide too much for someone to comprehend or digest in a short period of time.  toastmasters has been an excellent opportunity to practice short and effective speeches on both work and personal topics.  it's also been a great way to network with many in the community i live and grew up in (dekalb, il).

i continued my speech with one of my favorite powerpoint examples - peter norvig's gettysburg powerpoint presentation.  i had discovered this back in 2001 as a technical trainer (always looking for ways to inject humor or some additional element into technical courses - i came across it while looking for powerpoint pranks <norvig.com/Gettysburg/making.html>) and it's still one of my favorite examples today that powerpoint isn't always the best way to communicate.  i gave some examples of what makes a great speech or presentation (it's not all about the slides, but they can play into the content and delivery steps), provided a background on toastmasters.  i ended with an example of where a physical prop might be better than a slide (or slides to explain how to peel a banana correctly - like a monkey) and some humorous slides.

i posted the slides i used (with only slight modifications) using office online and docs.com (with facebook integration) - if we're "friends" on facebook, check it out.  you can also access it here with or without a facebook account - <docs.com/1LKA>

tonight marks my third year in toastmasters and my first meeting as vice president of education.  one of my themes for this year will undoubtably be "office online from anywhere".

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2003
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  July 13, 2010
  I'm puzzled as why you don't use proper capitalization in your sentences in your blog post... Bit odd for a vice president of education.