Background
Göbekli Tepene is one of the first buildings ever constructed by humans. An ancient place of worship located in southeastern Turkey, it is thought to be at least 10,000 years old, but scientists believe that could be unearthed structures in its vicinity that are thousands of years its senior. Like most examples of its era, Göbekli Tepene is chiefly constructed of bricks (which would have been formed and laid by hand) and analysis of the layers suggests that construction likely took years, if not millennia, to complete.
Today, most of us live and work in buildings that took weeks or months to build, and are comprised of a variety of materials that would be unthinkable even to more recent ancestors. It goes without saying that the same tools from 9000 BCE, to the extent that any existed, would be useless in today’s world — we have evolved beyond their utility; but the principles that drove us to build shelter in the first place have persevered through the ages.
The New Tools
It’s with that cynical lens that we presentation experts must occasionally view the newest presentation software on the block. At their genesis, it’s unclear whether Swipe or Microsoft Sway will fall into disuse or fade away, à la SlideRocket. While Swipe’s usability sounds like a new point of emphasis for the company, according to The Next Web,
“The company says it has built the redesigned platform from the ground up, adding in features like drag-and-drop for creating presentations and streamlining the overall creation process. Users can import PDFs, photos, YouTube or Vimeo clips and polls with the new editing tools.”
…and Sway seems to have benefitted greatly from Microsoft’s extended trial program, which we covered late last year, it’s too soon to tell if either will ever usurp or even challenge the dominance of PowerPoint in the presentation platform space.
Unfortunately for audiences everywhere, software and platforms can only take us so far; the person creating the presentation is ultimately the determining factor of its success. As Mark Kaelin points out at Tech Republic,
“…I’m not convinced that Sway is going to play an integral part of this enterprise collaboration ideal. The problem is a key word used throughout Microsoft’s announcement—creativity. Effective storytelling with a tool like Sway requires some creative skill, and that’s a limited commodity in most enterprises.
After attending thousands of meetings and witnessing hundreds of feeble PowerPoint presentations, I’ve come to the conclusion that most of us are not that creative.”
He goes on,
“…PowerPoint presentations are bad, because PowerPoint presentations are always bad. That’s just the way it is.
Sway tries to break this vicious cycle by providing tools for adding images and videos to the storytelling process, but that doesn’t mean workers will be able, or allowed, to tell the story much differently than they have before using PowerPoint.”
Tools and techniques may evolve through the ages, but our needs never really change. As humans, we need food, water, and shelter. For presenters, it’s not quite so simple. Today, there are a number of platforms and services aiming to meet those needs, and they will meet with varying levels of success. But the tradesman, the expert, the professional…they will never go out of style.
The Professional Touch
1. Unlike amateurs or do-it-yourselfers, professional designers have all the time in the world to perfect their presentations. Being handy with PowerPoint or Photoshop is great, and having a way with words won’t hurt either, but most presenters spend 40++ hours a week doing something other than presenting; trying to find time for good design, no matter how fun it can be, is a challenge.
2. Like a good blade, storytelling ability is something that is honed diligently and purposefully over time. The experience gained from creating hundreds or thousands of narratives for a variety of needs and industries is difficult to overstate, and it seems unlikely that a few lines of code will be able to approximate that any time soon.
3. We could discuss the principles of good design until we’re blue in the face, and we often do, but even the best design can look dull and flat when contextualized within a mediocre performance. Many presenters don’t realize that there multiple kinds of presentations, or that everyone has their own presenting style, which often results in a generic, ineffective delivery. There’s ultimately no substitute for the comprehensive training you can get from a presentation professional.
Whether it’s in your home or in the office, DIY projects have their time and place; but they’re not for everyone. Sometimes, it may make sense to let a professional step in — for your next presentation, you may not be able to afford an amateur effort.
