Powerpoint is a tool, how can it the cause of the problem?
Toni, I think you have missed the real value of tools.
For example, some 15 years ago I was asked to train two sets of 25 folks in a range of complex technology in one day in La Gaude, France. The audience was multi-cultural in they were from all over Europe.
In the bar, the night before, my competitors (other chip companies) were somewhat boasting about the number of slides they had, both were in the 100's. They asked me how many I had, my reply 1 (one, in case you think its a mistype).
Now, that one slide that I used twice in the day, once in each session, took me hours to create. Far more hours than simply putting Features, Benefits, Advantage lists and pages of products. To capture what I wanted them to know, how I would get them to understand it so they can repeat it to their customers took hours.
The one slide showed just pictures, only a few pictures, but it outlined a scenario of inter-related equipment that had various demands on the product. For example the hand held device need low power, the networked device need a network interface, and so on.
The week before I had met a team of 10, the facilitators, and I asked them to familiarise themselves with a range of documents and white papers.
On the day, I divided the 25 in 5x5 with one of the 5 being a facilitator and then set each group the task of putting a presentation together to share their implementation and the reasons why they made certain choices. They all had a pile of reference documentation on each desk to provide the product set to choose from.
At the end of each session we had 5x 20 minutes question and answer sessions with the whole room on what the teams had made.
So, 6-slides per session, 11-slides for the whole day and 10 of those built by the audience.
yes, we could have used white boards, but this way everyone had a hard copy of the activity and had actually thought through the whole session.
Its not the tool, is the tools user that needs to think how to build discussions with the audience that have them engaged. In the above example the huge range of languages and cultural differences needs something like PowerPoint to address the Honey & Mumford learning styles in the room. So, don't knock the tool, educate the user.
Dave
