Straight to the PowerPoint

Faced with endless slides of mundane dot points and only the occasional sound clip to break up the monotony, one organisation has taken a stand on using PowerPoint presentations at an upcoming major conference.

In a first, Meetings & Events Australia (MEA) has banned old-school PowerPoint presentations during its annual conference, questioning the efficiency of speakers who read out bullet points.

With a role in advising clients how to effectively communicate at events, MEA is encouraging presenters to deliver simpler, more emotive presentations and tell stories rather than read out lists.

“The bullet point model was created in the pre-digital era, where there was a shortage of expert information. Now the web is full of expert presentations you can watch in your own time and location, so meetings need to provide something beyond that," said MEA chief executive Linda Gaunt. "