Why do you think that most presenters always (and I do mean ‘always’) have their PowerPoint slideshow ‘on’. What would happen if it wasn’t ‘on’? Do you think that it might make you, as the presenter, stand out a little more than the other presenters? I think it would, if you do it right…
Give me a break and give them one too:
Seriously… give them a break. Turn the slideshow off so that your audience has nothing to look at other than you, the presenter. The best slide you will ever include in your PowerPoint slideshow will be a totally black slide: no logos, no borders, nothing – just black. Strategically place the black slides in-between the slides you do want the audience to see. This will create the illusion that the slideshow has been turned ‘off’. This has a powerful effect on the audience and forces them to make eye contact with you. The more eye contact you can get the more empathy and engagement you will have and that means you will ‘connect’ a whole lot better with your audience.
Tips: To create a black slide all you need do is right mouse click on a blank side and under ‘Format Background…’ set the background colour to black. Also, tick the box that says “Hide Background Graphics”, this will remove the logo and template settings from that slide only. Once you have one black slide simply copy and paste to create as many as you need.