Would you use a projector to display your slides during a crucial conversation with a friend in a restaurant? Both they and the diners at the other tables would consider you to be insane. Your friend wouldn’t be able to focus on you or listen to you fully since their thoughts would be split between you and the pictures you were displaying. Hence, it is important to give a presentation without technology.
Consequently, the question of why utilise technology in presentations at all is raised. The majority of significant talks that you will ever have to take place without technology.
You won’t find a single usage of slides or other props on any ranking of the greatest speeches ever given. Of course, slides and presentation tools weren’t available back then, so a straight comparison would be unfair. However, it is simple to wonder if these talks would have been superior if they had been narrated over slides.
No, in many instances. The key to considering your own presentations is to ask yourself when a visual image is actually necessary to convey an idea. And when would it be preferable to just let your vocals tell the tale? To answer these questions, you’d need to pay close attention to the speaker.
Purpose of using technology in presentations
A lot of lecturers utilise slides to allay audience fears. Slides used for this purpose frequently cost the audience money. Speakers frequently read from or face their own slides while giving presentations, which is a sign they made the slides first rather than building the presentation first and using the slides to support it. The audience, not you, should be the focus of your slides.
It is unlikely that you will forget anything crucial if you make an effort to have concise arguments and if you rehearse. If you did forget something, only you will be able to recall it. Because there aren’t any slides, only you, the speaker, are aware of what you had meant to say. No one except you will be aware if you miss a whole subject or present it entirely differently than you intended. Slides can lock you in, and if you are a true authority on the subject you are discussing, flexibility may be advantageous.
Presentations with or without technology?
| Pros of using technology | Cons of using technology |
| You have the ability to visualise some concepts. | Concerns about technicality won’t be an issue. |
| The generation of the content could go more quickly, however, sometimes you may not get the expected results. | Instead of a screen to distract their attention, your audiences will only have you to pay attention to. |
| If you forget anything you planned to discuss, you have a crutch to fall back on. | Since you won’t have the luxury of triggering from slide material, you will become more assured in your content. |
Read this article for more useful insights: Wondering why PowerPoint presentations are called decks? (Now you know)
Ways to give a presentation without technology
1. Employ Your Audience
Including your audience directly in your presentation is the best approach to engage them and get their attention. Ask genuine questions instead of rhetorical ones, and then wait for genuine responses. Re-ask if they don’t. Alternately, think of new ways to engage your audience.
In related news, be aware of your audience. Although you likely already know that you should adjust your presentations a little bit depending on the audience, we urge you to take it a step further. Exist any anecdotes or instances that you could modify according to the audience? What level or style of comedy will be acceptable to your audience?
Stories
Inquire about their experiences in relation to the subject at hand. You can poll the entire audience or just a few volunteers.
Challenges
Divide the audience into smaller groups and invite each group to address a challenge, a question, or a problem that you have posed. After that, ask them to update the entire group.
Games
Play a topic-related game with the audience. Gift rewards. Audiences enjoy the rivalry. Just be careful not to make the tests or prizes overly challenging or prohibitively expensive. Car giveaways are exclusive to Oprah.
Creativity
Encourage the audience to create new plans, products, or ideas. Provide kids with as much paper, sticky notes, ipads, or other playthings as you have on hand.
2. Never be afraid of humour
Many customers come to us because they want to make their presentations memorable and funny but are worried that they won’t be able to. They say, “Oh, I’m not humorous.” I couldn’t pull that off since I’m not an actress.
To begin with, you can! Most people are unaware that adding humour does not necessitate practising your stand-up routine, which even we find daunting. There are several methods to inject comedy while entirely relieving yourself of the burden.
3. Projections should only be used when necessary
There are simply too many presentations that use slides in exactly the same manner as everyone else. Can you project somewhere different from the previous presenter’s screen? Would it be possible to add some humorous timing to your slide show? Often, you can tell your narrative just as well without using a slide at all—just your voice and presence. John Barton, a Shakespearean expert and theatrical director, performs over 100 Knights of the Round Table readings in front of a live audience while describing each knight’s personality through his tone of voice and behaviour. At least once during your presentation, set a challenge for yourself to communicate without the use of technology.
4. Spend time thinking about ideas
It is not always right to expect to suddenly become inspired. Never depend on it.
While some of us are more fortunate than others, most “luck” is a result of skill and effort. The same is true of creativity. It takes time to develop ideas, especially ones that work. It might be necessary to set aside an additional hour or three to design the creative twist for your presentation. Don’t be sorry for it! The truth is that exceptional presenters are already doing it; you simply aren’t aware of it, and therefore nobody will ever know.
Take some time to come up with as many unique ideas as you can. Act right away. List everything. Discuss and revise your ideas. Consider “what ifs”.
5. Make use of props
In a world of cubicles, most employees experience sensory deprivation from 9 to 5. The sound of computers and air conditioning. The murmurs of coworkers talking among themselves. The cube farm’s beige walls. A fluorescent light source. Amazingly, anyone can stay awake. So give the audience something tangible. Show them a prototype rather than a slide with a description of that new product. Then pass it on. Embrace the audience’s physicality.
6. Employ a flip chart
Create any necessary visuals in front of the audience. Technology is not necessary. Just your arm and a magic marker. Whereas a slide does not, the act of producing engages the audience.
Final words
Every day, there are thousands of presentations made all around the world. The majority of them utilise technological tools such as PowerPoint poorly as speaker notes, packing each screen with more text and numbers than anyone can possibly read.
For their unfortunate spectators, the outcomes are predictable dull—no, excruciating. That is extreme human suffering.
The good news is that there are alternatives to such technological tools which you may use to improve the world. There are alternatives to boring slides that can effectively convey your views and make your presentations more engaging without exerting much more effort.
