I feel that to some extent, PowerPoint is getting a little overused. I have had similar and different experiences when using PowerPoint or when someone else has presented using PowerPoint. The similarities I have seen come along with the PowerPoint looking messy and pointless, not to mention a little boring. Others that have had the same problems are hard to watch or pay attention too. In that manner, it makes the PowerPoint hard to learn or understand which makes the presentation as a whole a failure or waste of time. The differences are when someone has done something special and gone out of their way to make the PowerPoint interesting. Anybody can do bullets and definitions of words, but going above and beyond that can make the world of difference. I have seen some PowerPoint's with pictures, videos, jokes and the list goes on of ways to liven up a presentation.

An audience based PowerPoint could actually help out while preparing. Instead of using random facts, quotes, definitions and so on, you will be able to target what you need to put in the PowerPoint. It will be much easier to put information in a presentation that is guided toward a certain audience opposed to a general audience. You can put in the information they want to see, need to know, want to know or anything like that and it will be a more powerful PowerPoint then complete randomness.

It also helps having a presenter that enjoys the subject that they are talking about.

Erik Gulbrandson