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The Modern-Day Presentation: Turn Off Your Slideshow & Pick Up A Marker

PowerPoints are the foundation of modern day presentations. From sales to education, healthcare to corporate giants, the slideshow has taken first place as the presentation of choice – but what if these text-heavy, visually stagnant presentations aren’t as popular as they seem?

While projected, electronic presentations bring a level of sophistication to the table, slide shows actually numb the minds of listeners. Whether it’s a simple text presentation or a graphically impressive PowerPoint, science actually supports a completely different presentation tactic – the white board. Yep, the traditional, erasable marker on a board.

The upcoming generation of the workforce has an attention span of about 8 seconds – that’s not even long enough to read a single slide, and previous generations aren’t much better. With information available within seconds of a google search and thousands of posts rolling across social media feeds instantaneously – a traditional, PowerPoint presentation isn’t going to cut it anymore when it comes to captivating the attention of listeners.

Ironically enough, the answer to this modern-day conundrum lies in the age-old tactic of a handwritten note.

“Stick figures, arrows, boxes, and whimsical icons drawn on a whiteboard, easel pad, notepad, or napkin will transform your marketing messages into true sales conversation enablement.” CMO

When presenters take the time to write out main points, the listeners become engaged as they literally watch the presenter spell out words. Mirror neurons – the nerves in the brain that allow people to understand and comprehend movement – become highly engaged when watching a living person interacting with a writing surface.

Written presentations offer a huge opportunity to engage listeners in your storytelling and offer a 50% higher conversion rate than digital presentations.

Presenters can heighten engagement even more, simply by adding a box around an important phrase, scribbling out a stick figure example, or a chart representing statistics. As listeners watch, the brain becomes even more actively involved with the presentation material – which means the listener will remember significantly more after the presentation is over.