I wanted to dump some thoughts I had around some stuff I saw and heard about the use of what to many is a very dirty word - PowerPoint.

I'l hopefully revisit it in time.

BBC Radio 4 Show - PowerPointless:

This Radio programme about PowerPoint - its history, application and thoughts from both critics and fans was brilliant, especially the comments by one of the UK's most respected brand/business strategists and thinkers Russell Davies.

The BBC blurb said this... 

'With more than 30 million presentations being given around the world every day, PowerPoint has become the single most ubiquitous tool for presenting ideas. Yet it's the software many of us love to hate - vilified for simplifying the complex and complicating the simple.

30 years on from its commercial launch, Ian Sansom asks, 'What's the real point of PowerPoint?' as he embarks on what surely must be a world first - a PowerPoint presentation for the radio.

How do I move this on to the next slide? There we are. Thanks.

Armed only with an auto-content wizard, some zippy graphics and a hefty set of bullet points, Ian ventures forth to assess the true impact of this revolution in communication. He speaks with the software's pioneers, meets some of its notable detractors and asks how PowerPoint has influenced corporate life and spilled out into some improbable areas of our culture.

As he discovers how science-fiction is helping to inform the next generation of presentation technology, Ian asks if PowerPoint has empowered the individual - or if our boardrooms, lecture halls and even our spiritual affairs are to be forever condemned to the fate that has come to be known as 'Death By PowerPoint.'

What do I do now? Press escape? No, I want to bring it back to the start. F6 I think. Where's the remote thingy..?'

Death by PowerPoint

The other week I was invited to an evening of talks arranged by marketing agency Bray Leino for one of their clients - Benenox - who make a herbal remedy that helps you sleep better and therefore wake up more refreshed and creative (!)'

It was one of the most inspiring evenings I've attended for a while as the connect had been curated and presented by the School of Life, who I was aware of but hadn't experienced before tho was already a big fan of the MC and first speaker JP Flintoff.

While the content itself was fascinating, I was in full train spotter mode and really taken by the way every speaker made an effort to engage the audience in an activity and particularly how they used PowerPoint (it may have/could been delivered using any presentation software package as they can all be as boring or brilliant as each other - as Russell Davies says in the Radio 4 programme above, it's what you do with it that counts).

This was best illustrated by the talk by Sarah Stein Lubrano who had placed all the images (no words) on a black background in PowerPoint so that there was no noticeable border and essentially making the whole wall behind her a very flexible canvas.

No not rocket science but very effective and a million miles form a blue gradient fill background with yellow Times New Roman bullets... zzzzzzz.

Lunch some time?

Since I gave up my career in brandland to advocate for creativity in education with STEAM Co. I have supplemented my next to no income with my 'Dirty PowerPoint' masterclasses that tell you and colleagues everything you need to know about PowerPoint, ie the 20% of what it can do, to do the 80% of what you need to do. 

All over a sandwich in a lunch break if you prefer. Or breakfast.

More info here. Do get in touch