The future of presentations is not about slides, it never was. The future of presenting is not about more tech, more ai, more polish, it is about clarity of message, audience engagement and ultimately, effective communication. It was never about slides.
Whether it is a research presentation, keynote speech or 3rd quarter business plan we do not need better templates, we don’t need more bulletpoints and we don’t need superscripts and references at the bottom of slides. We might not even need slides! What we as an audience need, is a message. We want to understand. We want to have something to remember and ideally we want something to act on. It was never about slides.
p³ is not a just another way of making slides, it’s a mindset. It’s not about reading out information, it is about education. It is an approach to presentations as a scientifically proven concept for improving communication. That’s why it is important. It was never about slides.
If you follow the current path and take The Blue Pill where templates are more important that the content itself you will get to the same place everyone else has, The Presentation Paradox. That place where everything you dislike in presentations is what you then deliver yourself. Yes, of course there are many reasons why you do what you do, but you know it doesn’t work. All the justification about not changing was never about slides.
We need to change, everything. We need to change the message from data to learning. We need to change slides from document to illustration. we need to change delivery from recitation to engagement, If you are serious about communication, everything changes. Presentations stop being tolerated and become exciting. Audiences start responding. Presentations become a medium for better understanding, for learning, for leadership. They way they were intended and, deep down, the way you wish they were.
You will not change every conference, but you will change the one you speak at. You will not shift every culture but you will shift your own. You will not be universally accepted but people will notice and see the possibilities. That is how change happens; slowly, intentionally and quietly. You will stop copying bad practice and start being the example. You will stop just reading stuff out and start connecting. You will stop hoping that it landed and start asking how can we make this even better?
This is the future. And you can build it, one presentation at a time. When it comes to communication, it was never about slides.