Office Presentations: Taming the Dragon

I wonder if history shall ever mention how Microsoft and its progenies (Office, XL, Outlook, and Project etc) took the modern office premises by storm. Not only have they made life much more convenient, they would have saved on real estate costs as well (what with those filing cabinets, shelves and almirahs around!).I shall be dealing with power-point presentations today, which has become quite a ubiquitos strategy sharing docket. There have been books written all over about “how to make winning powerpoints” and “effective powerpoints”. The count is quite staggering.My experience with powerpoints (and I keep doing them by the day) is what I would be sharing out here.Storytelling counts. Strategy effectively communicated is skillful storytelling. 2 experiential theories on the art of powerpoint story telling1.777 theory : Your story should be 7 slides ( first and last page excluded), 7 lines in each slide and 7 words per line. 343 words. Period! Your story cannot be crisper than that.21 slides in a presentation is a waste. The whole idea is being "whole". Not Micro! If you thought that, it is easier to make 7 slides instead of 21. Think again! It is quite contrary to tell a short story and say it all, than saying a protracted one.I accept that there are presentations, which have charts, pictures, numbers that need to be shown. I would still maintain that even with such illustrations, the total length should not exceed 7. If there are more, than you can hyperlink them or add them as supportings for your presentation.Inference: 777 --> Kill Clutter --> Be succinct --> Make your point2. Say it first: the interest level in the presentation is maximum at the beginning. Telling the story in the first slide is the best tactic. Having given the nutshell, you can delve through it later over the next 6 slides or if required the illustrations etc to take your story forward.It helps... the CEO of the company gives you only 15 minutes. Instead of a longish one, if you tell your story in the first slide, you have done 50% of your work. The rest as they would be History!Simple and yet difficult to do, these 2 steps can make a compelling storytelling in the boardrooms thru the presentation.