The perfect powerpoint

I’ve been reading this book “The Pentagon’s New Map” for awhile now, very very slowly each night before bed. The author, Tom Barnett, was a military analyst for the U.S. Naval War College. He describes the quest among the analysts for “the perfect powerpoint slide” – the one slide that can get funding for a proposal, or at least move it up the executive foodchain. His book is basically oriented around his own perfect slide, which is an image of the world broken up into the “Functioning Core”, and the “Non-integrating Gap”. The “Functioning Core” is the area of the world which is engaging in globalization; the “Non-integrating Gap” is the area of the world which is not. His assertion is that the countries in the Gap will continue to be a problem and we should seek to bring globalization to them however possible. The real clincher in the slide is the depiction of all militiary conflicts over the past fifty years (or something) as little dots – and they all reside in the non-integrating gap.
Annnnyway. So I’ve been writing a lot of powerpoints lately and I keep thinking about this. For me, what I’m really interested in is creating the perfect powerpoint: how can I communicate my message effectively in bite-sized chunks so that someone will read through it, and yet have it retain its power?
Lately, this has evolved. As technology continues its inexorable march, I’m faced with a new challenge. That challenge is: how can I write the most perfect Blackberry-sized message, so that someone who receives it will be engaged and interested enough to then open my Powerpoint? ๐Ÿ™‚
What’s next? Pretty soon I’ll be trying to figure out what one word captures the reader’s attention the most so I can shoot it into their retina at the most opportune moment. Maybe I should take some damn marketing classes or something. ๐Ÿ™‚


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5 responses to “The perfect powerpoint”

  1. DelNorte Avatar

    People like to bring up Tufte — The Cognitive Style of Powerpoint– but I often find myself thinking back to a rather old article called “Microconent: Hwo to Write Headlines, Page Titles, and Subject Lines.
    Might be very applicable to your Blackberry quest: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/980906.html

  2. John Byrd Avatar

    Can’t be done. PowerPoint is s solution to a problem that never existed. Use your voice, your hands. Draw pictures on the friggin’ wall. Anything but.

  3. Chris Melissinos Avatar

    And this is why John Byrd is awesome! ๐Ÿ™‚ I couldn’t agree with you more. I only use slides when I have to and even then, I never wind up talking to them. I know what I want to say and keep it on task. I find that a white board/transparent overhead with a market is 1000 times more effective (which, at Sun, is called the “Bill Joy Font”).

  4. JasonR Avatar
    JasonR

    “That challenge is: how can I write the most perfect Blackberry-sized message, so that someone who receives it will be engaged and interested enough to then open my Powerpoint? :)”
    I think Paris Hilton needs to be somewhere.