I guess I've always been a decent communicator. Not great, but occasionally good, and most of the time decent. One area that I could improve upon is my powerpoint design skills. Sure, I can present just about anything well with the help of powerpoint, but actually DESIGNING a presentation (slides, content, narrative, etc.) in such a way as to captivate, engage and delight... eh, not so much. Just like many of you, I have mostly settled for creating slides that presented data and organized talking points with bullets.

And yes, I am guilty of using mostly "approved" backgrounds, when I should instead work on creating one effective and kickass slide after the other.

All of this is in the process of changing. I have started creating and filing what will someday become a pretty hefty collection of ready-to-use Powerpoint silver bullets. The goal: cut my powerpoint design times down to almost nothing while producing cool, sticky presentations.

Well... that's the goal anyway.

To see where I am going with this, click on Alexei Kapterev's "Death By Powerpoint" presentation (top of post). For a completely original (and definitely non-corporate) use of powerpoint, click on Blaine Cook's eComm 2008 presentation below.