Several weeks ago, while sorting through my overstuffed inbox, I came across an email with this interesting message: "The Cure for the PowerPoint® Blues." I couldn't resist opening what turned out to be clever pitch from a software company called SmartDraw.
And from there it was a short jump to decision to ask ľֱ users to submit nominations for the worst slide ever. Now it is time to share the results, but first a few words from Richard Watson, MD, a professor of surgery and director of the residency program in the department of urology at Rutgers New Jersey ľֱ School in Newark.
"You ask for nominations for The Worst Slide Show Ever. Sorry, but the current generation has missed by long the worst slide show ever. Back in the day, we had 'carousels' of slides. And we depended on a projectionist to show our slides in correct order and in timely fashion (When is the last time that you heard any speaker say, 'Next slide, please'?). I was tempted to write a short essay back then entitled 'Assassinated By Your Projectionist.' That crashing sound that came from the projection booth, as you approached the podium to begin your major presentation, was the sound of your 73 slides all spilling out of the carousel onto the floor in complete disorder.
Unlike your thumb drive today, the carousel did not fit into your pocket. It needed to be stored in your luggage. At one meeting that I had attended, at a far-off conference center, about a third of the speakers had to apologize. While they were personally present to speak as scheduled, they were only wearing casual travel clothes, and they were unable to present their findings. Not only their luggage and proper dress, but also their slide carousels were all still flying somewhere up in the not-so-friendly skies.
And in those days, there was no chance for last-minute updates or corrections. Slides needed to be developed, screened, and arranged well in advance."
And Marlene Wolf, MD, of Lifetime Medical Consulting in Miami, also didn't submit a slide, but had a good excuse: "I have seen way too many unreadable slides to pick the worst! ... To quote Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, 'The biggest single problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place!'"
Fortunately, many users did have nominees.
Marzieh Zamaniyan, MD, who is doing an infertility fellowship at the Mazandaran University of ľֱ Sciences in Sari, Iran where she is also an assistant professor, sent an entire presentation that she called "my worse slide till now." Here are two of the slides from that presentation.
Alex Pirie, coordinator, Immigrant Service Providers Group/Health in Somerville, Massachusetts sent this slide with this explanation: "We have a traditional 'worst slide' inserted in our mostly graphic visual presentations on Community Based Participatory Research. It always gets a laugh."
Christopher P. Cannon, MD, of Harvard ľֱ School in Boston, was a principal investigator for the IMPROVE-IT. He sent two slides that illustrate some of the challenges he and his colleagues faced in conducting that study, and he provided this context:
"I was presenting to the CTT group in 2011 on how difficult it is to complete the IMPROVE IT trial, and keep everyone in the trial on study drug.
And the theme was the '4 torpedoes' that came at the trial.
The first was all the bad press from ENHANCE -- questions raised by CBS asked: 'Will Zetia Hurt you?' ... and then all the others.
Steve [Nissen, MD, of the Cleveland Clinic] is often called on by all major networks to explain things." Bonus here: check out the spelling on first slide.
Damon P. Miller II, MD, of Palo Alto, California had this to say: "In one way, all PowerPoint presentations are miserable." And then he sent along a presentation by Peter Norvig, "who condensed the Gettysburg Address to six slides to show all the richness that can be lost." Miller picked slide number 6 from Norvig's deck as the "most obtuse slide."
Bud Walker, DC, of the Walker Chiropractic Wellness Center in Sacramento, California, discovered the hard way that the devil is in the details. He sent this explanation for the slide: "This is in a talk entitled 'Stress, Hormones & Health.' It was referring to the 'pin-hole' view of health some practitioners take, missing the elephant in the room. Problem is, I didn't look at the BACKGROUND pictures. Reviewing them will reveal the problem ..."
Finally, family physician Charlene Lockner, MD, sent this entry. No explanation given, but really ...
