Articles in category: The Lighter Side

Editor’s Note: Comedian Adam Lawrence recently compiled the Top 10 Reasons a PowerPoint Slide Deck is Just Like a Bra.

To prop up the debate a bit, I invited a colleague with a little more first-hand experience with both technologies to provide support to the counter-argument.

Thanks to her, here are 32 reasons a PowerPoint slide deck is nothing like a bra.

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It turns out that your public speaking phobias and fears are unwarranted.

Web comic xkcd has charted the number of deaths from numerous activities, but no public speaking deaths have been reported.

As I write this, Google searches demonstrate that public speaking is a non-life threatening activity. All of these return zero results:

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Earlier this month, I was the master of ceremonies for a corporate holiday party. Rather than randomly selecting tables to take their turn at the buffet, I asked for twelve volunteers (maximum one per table). Each of them sang one of the Twelve Days (a version customized for the company), and thus earned their table an early visit to the buffet. It worked out even better than I had hoped.

Inspired by the success of that activity, I offer you the Twelve Days of Public Speaking Christmas.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the presentation gave to me:

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A half-dozen haiku for your reading pleasure:

  • You are the message.
    Public speaking need not be
    Death by PowerPoint.

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