The key is in the development of the slide. Slides should be kept simple and easily visual with limited information so that a speaker can effortlessly refer to a point on the slide with everyone knowing what part to look at. Slides with a lot of writing on them are discouraged. You do not want your audience to be lost in the slide while you are speaking. The speaker should always be the center of focus.
“Jerome M. Hauer, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s director of homeland security”?..........
That says a lot right there.
That works for most subjects, but certain technical subjects require a large amount of info to make sense. Spreading out that info for 2-3 slides makes the presentation incoherent.
Also, laser pointers are wonderful for highlighting/tracing schematics for the electronically impaired.
Over use of a laser pointer, like most things, defeats their purpose, IMO.
I definitely agree that the speaker is the prime attraction, not the slides. The slides should remind the audience (when later reviewed) of what the speaker said. I know some that use the slides as the primary source - and I HATE delivering their presentations.
Totally agree. I've been saying the same thing for years! The WORST presentation starts with "this slide shows us several interesting things"