Should you leave your slides behind after the talk?

One of the main themes of this website is that slides should not stand on their own, or else why are you giving an oral presentation? A slide presentation is a synergy between the audio and the visual. A visually effective slide may not have all the information and explanation needed for an audience to understand it without the spoken explanation. Usually such explanations would make the slide too busy to comprehend in a presentation format.

Often I get the statement, "but I have all this detail on the slide because I want it to stand on its own, because I'm going to leave the slides behind after the talk." Of course the consequence is that the audience won't understand the complicated slide during the presentation.

The answer is the "Notes" command found on PowerPoint or other commands in other presentation software packages. The "Notes" command allows reproduction of the slide at half size and provides space for text which you can use to (partly) compensate for the lack of spoken explanation. So if you plan on leaving your slides behind, annotate them with the "Notes" command and leave them with text explanations that compensate for your not being their to explain what is a simpler but visually more effective slide.

Get real about what you can achieve in a slide presentation

What will the typical audience member remember about your presentation 24 hours after hearing it? Most audience members don't take notes, and even for those who do, the slides are usually going by too fast for detailed note taking. So the answer is NOT MUCH.

As a presenter you can take pride if the audience can remember a few key points AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, if your presentation motivates them to learn more. If it inspires them to read your journal article, send you a follow-up question by email, or corner you after your talk, then you have succeeded. This is not to say that individual data slides are unimportant. It may be that a particular piece of data motivates an audience member to learn more. It is the individual data slides that reinforce the few key points that the audience might retain.

A slide presentation is a poor way to reliably transmit data and findings. It is a very effective way to make a scientific argument, motivate people to scrutinize your data at a later point, challenge you, and consider the implications of your work for subjects of interest to them. So build you presentation around a small number of thematic points you want the audience to retain (see earlier "Tips" on writing an essay before doing slides). Don't make your presentation a "data dump." Resist the childlike urge to tell the audience everything you know and have done. LESS CAN BE MORE!