This is a question I get asked a lot. And for me it actually has a more deep-rooted answer. Because the number of slides should not really matter or at least it should not be a primary concern. To make the case: There are 10-minute presentations that have anything from zero to 50 slides (or even more). It depends on what’s on them and what you want to convey.
What your main concern should be is what the main message of your presentation will be. As I have written in several of my previous posts, I usually start with the question: “What is the main point / one core message that I want to convey to the audience?” Once I know, I will start brainstorming for ideas, and later I will create a story and only then - when I know what and how I want to say it, will I create the slides.
And depending on the audience, my slides will differ, from many pictures or to some interesting charts and facts, or in most cases a mixture of both. The slides are there to visually enhance what I want to say. I’ve created 20 minute presentations that have about 80 slides, but I also have presentations with about 20 slides. It depends on how complex your presentation or your topic is. Sometimes in order to show a very complex chart, I will show one piece of the chart at a time and then build it up until the whole chart is visible.
As I’ve noticed myself: When I start developing a presentation with the question “What’s the main point that I want to say?” I have much more effective results than when my primary question is “How many slides should my presentation have?”.
What’s your idea / opinion on this? I’m interested to know!
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Excellent post and spot on.
In fact, I was having to do battle on this very subject with some marketing folk yesterday. They wanted to limit me to 12 slides for a 60min presentation? I am pleased to say I won the battle and will be delivering a deck of appx. 100 slides for a 40min presentation then followed by Q&A.
There are far too many 20th Century views on presenting still out there and it is up to all of us reading this excellent blog to change the business world
I often find that people use PowerPoint presentations when they would be better not using them at all. A great question to ask oneself is: “do I need PowerPoint for this presentation?”
Dear Pete, thank you for your input - yes, I agree. That question is even the first thing in the eBook that I wrote. Whether or not a presentation is needed. And if a workshop or a meeting would not be more productive for the task at hand.
Regards, Oliver
Dear Nicholas, yes, I agree, we need to rethink how we see presentations and leave self-made constraints. Actually, yesterday I did my first “Lessig-style” presentation, about 100 slides in 10 minutes :-).
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