Well, many presenters and pitchers (of ideas that is) have a love affair with keynote or powerpoint.  Sometimes, though, this fetish leaves our presentations wanting and adds pointless “clutter” to the audience experience in the presentation.  One master of the presentation is good ol’ Steve Jobs.  His use of keynote is simple, clean, and powerful, often by leaving nothing but a blank slide on th screen.  That’s right, sometimes its just a nice clean background and thats all.  Other times, its one phrase or a number that he then explains.  It is not meant to compensate but to accentuate.  It is not meant to distract but emphasize and focus.  He often uses pictures and no text at all… Check out the iPad intro:

Sean Silverthorne made the following points regarding the application of Steve Jobs style into our own presentations (get his article here):

1. Does each slide convey just one idea?
2. Are images sometimes used instead of words to convey those ideas?
3. Do the slides make use of empty space?
4. Does the deck sometimes disappear, leaving nothing between you and your audience?
5. Have you minimized bullet lists, distracting effects and eye charts?

Think about these, the next time you are creating your big pitch.  You may use powerpoint but don’t abuse powerpoint…