One of the best ways that I learn how to do something is by observing what not to do. Years ago, I attended a programmers' conference in Arizona where I went to several one hour classes. The conference was good, but what bothered me were the presenters in most of the classes. Most of them had no clue how to use a Powerpoint presentation. That experience resulted into this article I wrote as soon as I returned:
The Bad Side of a Slide Presentation
The main point I make in the article is that Powerpoint presentations are not supposed to be your actual presentation. The purpose of them are to enhance your ability to present by providing visual aids and/or an outline. So if you have poor oral communication skills (which is natural for a presenter who's a programmer) or you are unprepared for your class, reading your entire presentation from the screen is not an acceptable substitution.
In the last two days of that conference, I ended up walking out of any class of a presenter that was unprepared or was reading their presentation off the screen. There were only 4 out of dozens of presenters that I thought were good enough for me to stick around for and actually learn something from. Needless to say, it was a great lesson for the rest of my life on how to present anything to anyone ... and of course, how not to.
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