The End of PowerPoint by Jeff Bezos

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ presentation during the launch of Kindle Fire HD actually was more than merely a curtain raiser from the new product. ‘The End of PowerPoint’ by Jeff Bezos has been a subject of discussion amongst the presentation experts for the new methodologies it revealed in the presentation world. Here is an overview of the techniques he applied along with a critical review:

Read related articles Avoiding the Monotonous Monologue during a PowerPoint Presentation

More Images Lesser Text

The technique is termed as ‘Picture Superiority’. There were hardly fifty words in the whole slideshow and the images were on the left while the text was placed on the right. The placement of these also indicates some scientific implications.

He utilized the slides intelligently to provide the details of the features and services of the product; this is surely an intelligent approach.

But one point that needs to be highlighted here is that, this was an absolutely corporate presentation for a set of people from almost similar backgrounds and mind set according to their age-groups. This type of demonstration cannot be used equally effectively for academic specially presentations for kids.

Using Other forms of Media

Bezos integrated a video in his presentation to make it more amusing. This is indeed a good concept to adopt. Videos and images are not just entertainers but they are engaging and good suspense builders too. The audience keeps waiting for the new surprise.

Moreover these are ideas that depict a more techno-friendly and contemporary approach of the presenter. The Amazon CEO s counted amongst some of the eminent Keynote Speakers, hence he uses his oratory skills best with these types of techniques and presentation styles.

Connecting Graphics with Text

This point is better understood with an example. When Jeff Bezos introduced the Kindle Paperwhite, an e-reader he claimed that the product had eight weeks of battery life. The depiction of the point was worth leaving an impression in the minds of the audience. The presentation took place on the 6th of September, so he showed the calendar images of the month of September and October highlighting the date and told the audience that the battery would last till the end of October; a fact worth remembering.

Although discarding PowerPoint Presentation can never be on the cards, the sole implication of the writer was to encourage presenters to adopt new styles. However, a lot of stress has been laid on more usage of multimedia than text. Read the article to find out more http://www.forbes.com/sites/carminegallo/2012/09/07/jeff-bezos-and-the-end-of-powerpoint-as-we-know-it/.