The first thing that has to be remembered when using Powerpoint is that the audience had assembled to hear a speech, and not to watch a slide show. The only thing you may achieve by having more of Powerpoint and less of speech, in a dimly lit room, may be some nappers in the audience! You should use Powerpoint just as a support tool to reinforce the key points of your presentation, and not to take the front stage in your presentation! It is to be used just to help you to speak during the presentation, and not to speak on your behalf during the presentation. While making your Powerpoint slides, don’t let it become an uncontrollable monster by sticking to the six-by-six guidelines. Here you have to remember to limit the slide to six bullets to a slide and six words per bullet. This is the best way of avoiding the ‘presentation karaoke’ which is most likely to arise with Powerpoint. In the presentation karaoke, either the presenter reads directly from the slide or the audience reads along with the presenter. Of course, if needed, one may go by fie-by-seven or seven-by-seven presentations too, but just remember to keep the fat of the Powerpoint presentation well-trimmed!

Just having a Powerpoint presentation will not make your speech. You have to make it a point to research your audience as your core message of the speech may be accepted in different ways by different people. Most of the times, speakers get lazy and think that the message that they are propagating is so important that anyone may want to hear it. This is not true as the audience tends to relate much better to the information and to think highly about you if you create something specifically for them and not go on showing Powerpoint slides. To give the best of speeches, without any fumbles, it is not Powerpoint that will help you, but practice. Practice is the only way for one to look polished while speaking. You have to remember that it is you that will be on the stage with the microphone and that it will be you who will decide if you look great or terrible on stage, and not the Powerpoint presentation. You will be indeed sadly mistaken and egotistical if you ever think that the Powerpoint slides will ever make you a powerful speaker. There are of course different methods to master the technique of giving speeches. One of them, by far the best method, is called bits. Here you have to practice a short piece of the material over and over again, not by word for word, but just by talking your way through it. You have to do it this way to avoid any blank outs that may occur when a distraction occurs while you are on stage, or if your Powerpoint presentation somehow or the other fumbles during the presentation!

Another point you have to remember to give the best of speeches is to take care of hecklers who may be present in the audience. You can take care of these hecklers not with the showing of the Powerpoint presentation but by getting some people to identify potential troublemakers before the speech day. You have to then phone them to interview them, only with the intention of giving them the attention they crave for. After that, you have to remember to mention their names in the speech, and not in the Powerpoint presentation, to eliminate any chance of them giving you a hard time as you will be praising one of their opinions. However, don’t mention their names exclusively as the rest of the audience who may know them to be trouble makers may think that you too are just as bad as they are! Using emotional language into speech can very well trigger the audience. Choose words wisely wherein you may relate to some incidences that the audience may have experienced some time or other, in their lives. In this way, they are bound to be more eager to listen to what you have to relate to them on that matter. This is not at all possible through the Powerpoint presentation.

So it has to be seen, and understood, that having a Powerpoint presentation will not by any means make one an established speaker. To become a speaker, a flair for speaking, general knowledge and a good etiquette are the main points that have to be present in the speaker, rather than a Powerpoint presentation!