Came across an idea that’s not new to me but is worth sharing.
Karl Kapp suggested in a blog entry that to force presenters to tell stories instead of reading dry facts, stats, and bullet points from slides, use slides with no words — just images.
I did that with students in my entrepreneurship seminars. I assigned them to tell an entrepreneurial story as part of their final “exam.” The story could be about their own entrepreneurial exploits, the entrepreneurial ventures of a friend or family member, or a well-known entrepreneur. But if they used slides, the slides could contain no text.
This technique definitely results in a different presenting experience for both presenter and audience — and may just yield some storytelling.
[Image credit: Garr Reynolds, from http://www.presentationzen.com/presentationzen/2006/08/from_design_to_.html. Reynolds used images from iStockphoto and did some extra editing on them, and he adapted the content from Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind.]