Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes - The Goodman ...

pg. 56
PowerPoint Is Your Friend
Seriously. – cont’d
Conveying Structure
The Partnership for Climate Action (PCA) is a collaboration of international companies
and an environmental organization working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
When PCA’s representatives recruit new businesses, they use a PowerPoint presentation
that covers a lot of territory – six substantial agenda items, as you can see in this slide
(figure 11). The material is complex and it is easy for viewers to get lost in all the science
and statistics of global warming. In designing this presentation, consequently, my
overarching goal was clarity.
Partnership for
Climate Action
FIGURE 11
Agenda
• Indicators of a Global Shift
• Science of Climate Change
• Response Around the Globe
• PCA’s Role
• Progress, Not Just Promises
• Benefits of Joining PCA
To help audience members keep track of their place in the presentation, I created what
resembles a horizontally oriented “navigation bar” on the left side of each slide.
I condensed the agenda items to single words and stacked these inside the bar. As the
PCA spokesperson covers each item, its corresponding key word appears in bright
white (e.g., “SCIENCE” in figure 12) while the remaining items remain darkened.
INDICATORS
SCIENCE
RESPONSE
PCA’S ROLE
PROGRESS
TO JOIN
FIGURE 12
The Greenhouse Effect
WITH
60˚F (16˚C)
WITHOUT
0˚F (-18˚C)
Global warming, in this sense, is “too much of a good thing.”