Don`t Lose the Forest in the Trees

1. List and discuss at least four or so hindrances of electronic presentations?
2. Explain why they are considered hindrances?
            Scott McNealey, former president of the Sun Microsystems, had pointed out that electronic presentations can divert the attention of the audience to the slide presentation of the speaker rather than focusing to the content of the things the speaker is lecturing. It is always expected that audience should focus on the speaker and what to what is the content of the speaker’s lecture. But since electronic presentation is full of colors and sometimes being decorated with animations, the focus of the audience is diverted to the presentation and not to the speaker’s lecture. This is specially occurring when the audience is comprised of children and young adults.  

            Another hindrance of the electronic presentation is that the central focus of the audience will be concentrated to the presentation rather than the more important thing. The presentation is just an accessory to the content of the speaker’s lecture. It is true that a good presentation (visual aids) is a factor for the entire presentation to be successful, but there is a more important thing to consider. The speaker must be able to draw the attention of his listeners or his audience to what is the thought of his lecture/discussion. Like what is stated earlier, attention of the audience can be drawn out easily to the true objective of the lecture which is for the audience to be informed and not for the audience to be entertained with the presentation and not even learning something from the lecture.
            It is further explained by McNealy that the reason behind him banning the use of Power Point presentation to his employees is that employees spend more time in making the slide presentation. For him, this is a waste of time for the employees of the company, therefore affecting the productivity of the company. Because of the reason that the presentation should be made in a manner that it would be beautifully presented during meetings, the employees often tend to spend a lot of time in making such presentations. The long hours spent on making presentations can affect the productivity of the employees because some of the more important tasks that they needed to accomplish are being left out. Since some of the works assigned to the employees are sometimes left out, their work will be crowded on the following days. The tendency for these employees to accomplish the work in a manner that it is not done efficiently and properly can happen. They will have to rush in doing the unaccomplished task to be able to meet the deadlines and to be able to prevent their supervisors of getting angry because of the unaccomplished tasks/works. Some of the tasks being accomplished in a rush manner may have several errors and there is a tendency for the employee to repeat the task. In this situation, the productivity of the employee as well as the whole company will be affected.
            Electronic presentation is viewed by many companies as a too formal way of presentation during internal communications. The reason why this is viewed as too formal is the use of many devices and several technologies, though in fact, during internal communication within the company or within a team, the important thing is the flow of the presentation and not how the presentation is presented. What I mean is since the people you are talking to in an internal communication are the people, whom you deal with everyday, it is much better to use simple presentation such as the presenting the topics in a more intimate way. Presentations in an internal communication should be done in a manner that the one presenting uses the conversation type of communication, that is, the one used by peers or by a group of friends when talking about an important matter.
3) Specify two or so measures than can be taken t reduce or eliminate such hindrances?
Some measures could be done in order for the hindrance of the electronic presentation to be reduced. In terms of the audience not being focused on the lecture of the speaker and being focused just on the electronic presentation alone, the speaker should be able to devise ways of how to prevent this situation to occur. It is but normal for the audience to admire the presentation but the speaker should not allow this thing to happen during the entire course of the presentation. The presentation should be made in a simple way meaning that the presentation should use simple graphics. Simple graphics should be able to contain all the necessary points of the discussion or the lecture (Graphic Products, Inc, 2007). In the case of the extended time of the employees in doing presentations, the company should designate a team in doing all the presentations of all the employees in the company. By doing this, the company will save time and creation of presentation will be centralized. The team should be equipped with right and proper knowledge in doing the right electronic presentation.
4) Indicate at least three advantages of web-delivered/electronic presentations?
Some of the advantages of using an electronic presentation include the advantages of using PowerPoint presentations. PowerPoint presentations are compatible with many of the software available in the market and this is the reason why they can be easily imported from different sources. Different styles and formats that could be used to create the PowerPoint presentations are easily found at the different software available. Another advantage of the PowerPoint presentation is that many of us are already aware of how to use the PowerPoint presentation (Miller, 2007). At least everybody in the corporate world had knowledge in using and creating a presentation made by means of a PowerPoint. The features in making a PowerPoint presentation are also easy to follow. Electronic presentation also provides numerous advantages in on line classes and on line services because it can be easily uploaded in just a click. There is no chance of missing this advantage because businesses engage in online means of transactions with other companies are always using presentations every now and then.
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Works Cited:
Graphic Products, Inc. (2007). The Challenge: Powerpoint vs. Overheads vs. Poster Prints.
Retrieved September 4, 2007 from http://www.posterprinters.net/the_challenge.htm
Miller, D. (2007). Best Practice Tips for Electronic Trial Presentation. Retrieved September 4,
2007 from http://indianaparalegals.org/Director%20sections/Technology/TrialPresentationTips.pdf