I've spent the past few days at the ESRI Petroleum Users Group Meeting in Houston.  I've had the opportunity to sit through plenty of presentations in 3 days.  I would have to say that not a single one was captivating, exciting, motivating...interesting.  Please don't rush to their defense and say "Well, petroleum GIS is pretty boring, what did you expect?".  Before you utter those words, I ask you this question: What do you think about copyright law?  Pretty boring subject matter, right?  Wrong...watch a presentation at the TED talks by Larry Lessig and you'll agree, even dull topics can be presented in a lively, exciting, motivating, and interesting manner.  Check it out here at the Ted Talks website.  But, let's not be so hard on the petroleum GIS world...let's be honest, 99.9% of all PowerPoints suck and we all know it...and for you Apple people out there...your Keynote stuff ain't much better.

So, please, let's put an end to the meaningless waste of the human creative spirit and start putting some thought and design into our presentations.  If you're looking at your latest presentation and it's full of slides with bullet points, charts, animations, and those cute little stick figure guys please...delete it now!  You can do it, really.  Take a deep breath, select the file, and press delete...don't you feel better now?  (I know I do). 

Now that you've deleted it, enroll yourself in the 5 Step PowerPoint Recovery Program:

(1) Run, don't walk, to your nearest bookstore and buy Garr Reynolds' book Presentation Zen.  Then open the book, read it, absorb it...and put it into practice.  You'll be surprised at how much this little book will help to make your presentations absolutely killer.

(2) Read Seth Godin's "Really Bad PowerPoint".  Your PowerPoint was bad and Seth tells you why.  Now, aren't you glad you deleted it before?

(3) Visit the Ted Talks website.  Watch people who are truly inspirational deliver some of THE best presentations you'll ever see.  Aside from being inspired, take a hard look at why these people communicate so well, both verbally and visually.  Learn from them, you can be just as exceptional at communicating.

(4) Vow to never use a PowerPoint (or Keynote) template ever again.  You're a creative person (you just don't know it yet).  You can build creative, innovative presentations that leave your audience wanting more.

(5) Get a subscription to a good stock photo site (or use some of the great free ones out there) and stop using worn out, cutesy, and hackneyed clip art.  The little stick figure guys are cheesy, but you already knew that!

That's it!!!  You can do it and I beg you to please do it for all of our sakes.  Wouldn't it be great if you went to a conference, workshop, or seminar and saw a ton of awesome and inspiring presentations?