What if you gave a presentation and – gasp – didn’t have a laptop in the room?

You may think it heresy that an IT professional would advocate going technology-naked (I’ll explain that one later but I’m sure I now have your complete attention), but now may be the time for us to follow MTV’s example and go unplugged.

The seed was planted for me in a New Yorker cartoon depicting Satan in job-interview mode. He’s looking across his desk at a candidate and says: "We need someone well-versed in the art of torture. Do you know Powerpoint®?" Ouch. That one stung.

At the time, however, I had been doing a lot of reading about the noxious levels of the overwrought, poorly-used blunt instrument we call the "slide deck" in corporate life. Regardless of the kind of content or the depth of the problem or the size of the prize, it must fit into six slides, three bullet points each, no less than 20 pt font. Or the dictate of venture capitalist icon Guy Kawasaki and his 10/20/30 rule -- no more than 10 slides that take 20 minutes to discuss and no less than 30 pt font.

When did high tech get high handed?

Recently a colleague involved me in planning a meeting for 28 business leaders in Information Technology. The objective he expressed for this meeting was to review 16 strategy drafts and get great collaboration and feedback on each of them. All of this would take place in one eight-hour day. Just the thought of eight hours of presentation slides made me break out in a cold sweat.

Let’s face it, hours upon hours of presentations is like having anesthesia administered. The goal, however, is not to dull the pain, but eliminate it. It was time for the revolution to begin. I made a daring recommendation: why not declare the meeting "presentation and technology-free." The VP looked at me quizzically, "Presentation free? How would that work?"

A logical question to ask at this moment is" "Do I have a bias against Powerpoint®?" No. I simply feel that it is frequently not the right tool for the job. Edward R Tufte, the famous theorist of information presentation states that Powerpoint® is "infused with an attitude of commercialism that turns everything into a sales pitch," and that "there are many true statements about complex topics that are too long to fit on a Powerpoint® slide. And for some complex topics, there’s no true statement that will fit. We shouldn’t abbreviate the truth, but rather get a new method of presentation."

I’m feeling you, Eddie.

And so we began. The actual deliverable for the strategy assignment had already been established as a presentation slide format. All of the completed strategies would be consolidated into a single "deck." So, how in the world could we do this assignment without using tech-laden presentations? By getting creative.

Each person or group would have to present their material so that their listeners gained understanding and they got the feedback we were seeking. About three days prior to the meeting, people began to panic. Some didn’t understand that the instructions said "presentation and technology free." You could smell the fear in the halls. Shock. Disbelief. And then the tremors….oh, no ….. I don’t have my crutch.

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